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This is where I learned how difficult being a sprinter could be — as I had yet to be beaten. But then like that — big Mike McMillian from Eureka High slammed my big-ego into the ground.

Worse yet — he did it by setting a new regional record. I learned this day that losing in a one-on-one contest can be a good thing — as it caused me to refocus my God-given talent as a sprinter.

It would take me another two-years to run as quickly as Mike did that day — he smoked me with a 10.3 second 100-yard dash. His continued rivalry made me a better person.

I finally broke under 10 seconds in 1978 — and I’ve never been better in my life.

The national media is littered with jumbled up stories regarding the death Osama bin Laden. Much of the confusion has been caused by the Obama administration and the ever changing narrative they’ve been dishing out over the week.

Original report: Bin Laden died in a firefight.
Changed: Bin Laden did not engage in a firefight.
Change 2.0: Bin Laden had an AK-47 “nearby.”

Original report: Bin Laden was shot once in head.
Changed: Bin Laden shot once in head, one in chest.
Change 2.0: Bin Laden shot twice in head, once in chest.

Original report: Bin Laden used his wife as a human shield, was shot in chest and killed.
Changed: Bin Laden’s wife did not die, wasn’t used as a human shield and was only shot in the leg.
Change 2.0: Someone else’s wife was shot and killed, someplace else in the house.

Original report: Four helicopters used in raid.
Change: Four helicopters used during raid.
Change 2.0: Secret stealth helicopters used in raid.

Original report: Bin Laden’s compound had no television, computers or electricity.
Changed: Compound had TV’s, DVDs, multiple computers and satellite dish.

Original report: President Obama acted with “calm” and “steeled-nerves,” making the decision on his own.
Changed: Obama was listening to Advisor Valerie Jarred, who told him not to “proceed with the raid.
Change 2.0: Obama waited for 16 hours or more before deciding and CIA Chief Leon Panetta made the final call.

Original report: Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and close advisers watched raid unfold in real-time and a photo showing this was posted on the White House website.
Changed: They weren’t watching real-time video because there was 20 minute time frame that they “didn’t know just exactly what was going on,” as stated by Panetta.
Change 2.0: Photograph may have been staged according to the UK Guardian.

Original report: Obama’s order was to kill, not capture, bin Laden.
Changed: Obama’s order was to kill or capture bin Laden.

It’s certain that more changes will be forthcoming. It is also possible that we will never really know the truth as to what occurred in those hours between the time the Navy SEAL’s launched and when they returned to their staging point.

As for hope – there is none.

A coalition of Nevada businesses is launching a $50,000 ad campaign for a change in tax laws to force Amazon and other e-commerce firms to collect state sales taxes when they sell goods to Nevadans. The Retail Association of Nevada and the Nevada Resort Association says that’s costing Nevada about $16 million a year.

Talk about economy killing!

A Virginia and Truckee Railroad train has a starring role in the movie, “Water for Elephants.” The 90-ton steam engine No. 18 was shipped to Los Angeles to be used in the film about a circus train. No. 18 has been in 15 movies including “Young Tom Edison,” “The Last Stagecoach West,” and “Frontier Badmen.”

It might be worth the price of a ticket jus’ to see the train on screen…

From about 7th grade on through high school I was stuck with a nickname that I didn’t like very much, “Kung Fu.” It came about after the television show of the same name and the fact that I had been taking martial art classes at the air base.

After a year and a half of training, the Air Force sergeant who was teaching me, was reassigned. Because of that I decided to sign up for Judo classes with College of the Redwoods, which held training sessions at the high school.

Our instructor was Rick Madonia. He was not only a Judo instructor, but also an instructor in Karate, Aikido and several weapon forms — not a guy you’d want to pick on in some dark alley.

In the right side of the photograph, clipped from the Del Norte Triplicate, is me. I look like I’m holding hands with the guy I’m supposed to be sparring with, rather than battling him.

Oh — and did I mention — I never really liked being called “Kung Fu?” It doesn’t bother me now, as I find it rather amusing.

U.S. authorities, relying on Pakistani intelligence, say the raid on the compound where Osama bin Laden was living wasn’t the first time the property was targeted in a search for a top al-Qaida figure. A senior Pakistani intelligence official says the Pakistanis staged a 2003 raid there in search of a man regarded as al-Qaida’s third-ranking leader.

The house was just being built at the time. The target of the search wasn’t found, but U.S. officials have said he once lived there.

Bin Laden is believed to have lived there for up to six years, raising questions as to how he could have moved in without the knowledge of Pakistan’s government. Residents said they sensed something was odd about the walled three-story house.

Most neighbors didn’t even know foreigners were living there. But they say two men would routinely emerge to run errands or occasionally attend a neighborhood gathering and they speculated the residents of the home were smugglers or drug dealers.

In a 180-degree turn, the White House says bin Laden was not armed when a Navy SEAL raiding party confronted him during an assault on his compound in Pakistan. White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that bin Laden did not have a weapon even though administration officials have said that bin Laden resisted during the raid.

“In the room with bin Laden, a woman bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter (sic) and was shot in the leg but not killed, bin Laden was then shot and killed, he was not armed,” Carney said.

Carney said resistance does not require a firearm as he added the woman was never used as a human shield. These details differ widely from the initial accounts of the raid released by administration officials, including counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan during an on-camera White House briefing Monday.

As for the “kill or capture” question, Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, told NBC anchor Brian Williams that “the authorities we have on bin Laden are to kill him. And that was made clear.”

“But it was also, as part of their rules of engagement,” Panetta continued, “if he suddenly put up his hands and offered to be captured, then they would have the opportunity, obviously, to capture him. But that opportunity never developed.”

Beyond that, there are reports that say President Obama was less than decisive, despite all his aides presenting Obama as a commander in chief with a studied calm and steely resolve.

Tom Leonard of the Mail Online reports, “Details have emerged it actually took 16 hours for him to decide that the world’s most wanted terrorist should be taken out.”

“Far from making his mind up quickly,” Leonard writes, “Obama kept his top military officials waiting overnight before finally telling them: ‘It’s a go.’”

Leonard’s report adds, “Presented with the latest intelligence last Friday, Obama could only muster silence before telling his top military staff: ‘I’m not going to tell you what my decision is now – I’m going to go back and think about it some more. I’m going to make a decision soon.’”

While Carney avoided these details, he did continue, saying a photograph of a dead Osama bin Laden is “gruesome” and that “it could be inflammatory” if released. Carney added the White House is mulling over whether to make the photo public, but he said officials are concerned about the “sensitivity” of doing so.

Carney also said there is a discussion internally about the most appropriate way to handle it, but adds, “there is not some roiling debate here about this.” Asked if President Barack Obama is involved in the photo discussion, Carney said the president is involved in every aspect of this issue.

As U.S. officials consider whether to release graphic photos and other evidence that Osama bin Laden is dead, the Afghan Taliban are voicing some doubts. A spokesman for the Taliban says the talk of bin Laden’s death is “premature,” and that the U.S. hasn’t presented any “convincing evidence” of it.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved a resolution commending U.S. military and intelligence teams on the death of bin Laden. The terror leader had been the most wanted man in the world for nearly ten years following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, that left nearly three-thousand people dead in the U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada praised operatives who planned and carried out the successful mission saying, “As they set out to kill or capture our most valuable target, they captivated us with their skill and expertise, their patriotism and their professionalism.”

Also resurfacing since the death of bin Laden is the subject of waterboarding, a practice that the current administration halted. White House officials at first stated that some of the intelligence they gained came after a terror suspect was treated to the “harsh interrogation practice.”

“Osama bin Laden would not have been captured and killed if it were not for the initial information we got from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he was waterboarded,” Long Island Rep. Peter King told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.

As that was happening, the staff director for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee was objecting to the U.S. military’s use of the code name “Geronimo” for bin Laden. Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until he surrendered in 1886.

The staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Loretta Tuell, says it is inappropriate to link whom she calls “one of the greatest Native American heroes” with one of the most hated enemies of the United States. Tuell is a member of the Nez Perce tribe and grew on the tribe’s reservation in Idaho.

And now, the U.N.’s top human rights official says the global body wants details on the death of Osama bin Laden. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the raid on the al-Qaida leader’s hideaway “was a complex operation, and it would be helpful if we knew the precise facts surrounding his killing.”

Pillay has frequently stressed the importance of respecting international law during counter-terror operations. But in a statement Tuesday she acknowledged that “taking him alive was always likely to be difficult,” adding had bin Laden been captured alive he would likely have been charged with the most serious offenses including crimes against humanity.

Finally, there are new questions coming to light since the raid and it involves the helicopters used by the Navy SEAL’s. And it goes beyond the question of whether there were two, four or more aircraft in support of the SEAL team according to David Cenciotti, a former Lieutenant in the Italian Air Force and current journalist.

He writes of a series of photographs published of the down U.S. helicopter, “the depicted horizontal stabilizer and tail rotor of the wreckage don’t seem to be any form of H-60. Both the shape and position are not common to either Black Hawks or Apaches helicopters.”

So there are more questions than answers at this time — as well as more revisions to the administration’s depiction of events in what is otherwise a historic and significant American victory in this nation’s continuing Global War on Terror.

Jus’ days after the death of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama paid a visit to the place where al-Qaeda inflicted its greatest damage. The president placed a wreath at the outdoor memorial where the World Trade Center once stood, then met privately with about 60 relatives of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

On the way to ground zero, the he visited with firefighters and police officers who responded to the terror attacks. He stopped at a firehouse that lost 15 firefighters on 9/11, calling it “a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day.”

Without mentioning bin Laden by name, Obama told the firefighters that he hoped the military’s success brought them “some comfort.” He thanked them for their daily work and told them their president has “got your back.”

Obama also stopped by the First Precinct police station in lower Manhattan. It was Obama’s first visit since coming to office.

And new details indicate bin Laden may have been ready to flee at a moment’s notice when he was killed.  Top intelligence officials have been briefing lawmakers on the assault that killed the world’s most wanted man.

According to Politico, sources who attended the briefing say bin Laden had 500 Euros and two phone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed.  Five-hundred Euros is equal to about 750 dollars.

CIA Director Leon Panetta reportedly told lawmakers that bin Laden may have believed his network was good enough to give him advance warning if the U.S. made a move against him.

Then there is this: did Panetta order the raid? This comes as officials are beginning to ask questions about a Mail Online report that claims the president initially hesitated to act and still further reports that he was advised by Aide Valerie Jarrett not to “go after bin Laden.”

But it’s an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kimberly Dozier and Robert Burns of the Associated Press, who ask the question on everyone’s mind: “Has anyone noticed that CIA Director Leon Panetta has said a lot more about the Navy commandos’ killing of Osama bin Laden than has the Pentagon chief, who, after all, is second in the military chain of command behind President Barack Obama?”

Meanwhile the debate continues after the Obama administration initially said bin Laden was armed or even firing a weapon when he was killed, but later said he was unarmed. Still, officials are defending the legality of the shooting.

Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the operation was “lawful” and “justified as an act of national self-defense” against a “lawful military target.”

Holder spoke in response to some critics of the raid on bin Laden’s hideout.  The attorney general revealed that bin Laden had no intention of giving himself up to the U.S. military and said he was a lawful target as an enemy commander in the field.

Then there’s the White House’s Spokesman, Jay Carney, who continued to say the SEAL team that raided the compound where bin Laden was living had the authority to kill him unless he offered to surrender. In that case, he says, the team was required to accept the surrender.

Officials have said bin Laden resisted, though they have not offered any further details.

Carney also defended the president regarding the release of photos of bin Laden’s body, saying they could pose a national security risk to the United States. He says Obama has seen the photographs taken after the al-Qaeda leader was shot and killed.

As for President Obama, he says he believes the DNA and facial analysis proves the man U.S. forces shot was bin Laden, and the photos are not needed as further proof.  Obama made his comments in a CBS News interview.

Also a top Republican, who has seen the death photo of bin Laden, is agreeing with the decision not to release it. Congressman Mike Rogers says releasing the picture publicly could endanger U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the picture could inflame anti-U.S. sentiments around the world and hamper intelligence cooperation with the United States. He says conspiracy theorists won’t be persuaded no matter what the U.S. does.

However, Nevada’s Republican Congressman Dean Heller tells Reno’s Newstalk 780 KOH,  he doesn’t understand why the Obama administration opposes releasing photos of  bin Laden’s dead body. Heller says he’s confident the violence depicted on nightly television programs is more graphic than anything in the bin Laden photos.

Heller is due to be sworn in as a U.S. Senator next Monday, replacing embattled Senator John Ensign, who resigned last month.

In a side-bar regarding the photographs — online thieves and spammers are using the killing of bin Laden to send out malicious software and spam to unwitting Internet users. In what’s become common practice among the Internet’s less savory citizens, these scammers are sending out emails and spreading Facebook posts that purport to be videos or photos of the dead bin Laden.

They are not.

But by clicking the links, users can download computer viruses that steal personal information or otherwise infect their computers. Computer security firm Symantec says one spam email contains a link to bogus photos and videos purporting to be from CNN Mexico.

Instead, it directs people to a scam site designed to look like the real thing but created to steal passwords. Facebook users also fell victim to fake bin Laden links.

Meanwhile Rogers, tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” it’ll be a big task to go through the material, which includes encrypted information and writings in Arabic.

Some that information includes al-Qaeda considering an attack on U.S. trains during the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase. The officials say they have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.

Information on the train plot appears to be the first widely circulated intelligence pulled from the raid this week on bin Laden’s secret compound. Rogers said documents indicated a desire to hit the U.S. with large-scale attacks in major cities and on key dates such as anniversaries and holidays, but there was no sign those plans were anything more than ambitions.

Following up on the reports of planned train attacks, officials with the FBI and Homeland Security told local law enforcement to be on the lookout for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks and other indications that a train could be vulnerable.

Rogers also warned, “we’ve got to be careful. They still need us and we still need them.”

He was speaking about demands in Congress for answers from Pakistan — about how bin Laden could have been living in a well-protected home in a city not far from the country’s capital. Rogers says he worries about a “love-hate relationship” with Islamabad.

At the same time, he cautions against terminating U.S. assistance.

As for the Navy SEAL team, military officials say the highly secretive unit that killed bin Laden will likely be honored in the only way such a covert group can be: in private with nobody but themselves and their commanders in the know. The Navy still has not even confirmed its SEALs carried out the much-lauded, 40-minute raid on bin Laden’s compound.

But privately, Rear Adm. Edward Winters, at Naval Special Warfare Command in California, sent an email congratulating his forces. Navy officials say the names of those on the force will not be revealed for their personal safety.

Then there are the ever-changing narratives as to what happened — now administration officials says the raided on bin Laden’s lair met far less resistance than first described. In the latest account, a senior defense official says the commandos encountered gunshots from only one man, whom they quickly killed, before sweeping the house and shooting others, who were unarmed.

In Thursday’s revised telling, the Navy SEALs mounted a precision, floor-by-floor operation to find the al-Qaeda leader and his protectors — but without the prolonged and intense firefight that officials had described for several days.

And as for the strange helicopters used in the raid, a military aviation experts looking at pictures of one of the helicopters got a surprise — a chopper he hadn’t seen before. The editor-in-chief of Defense Technology International says photos of the remains of the helicopter destroyed in the raid shows an unusual number of blades and a dishpan-like cover.

Bill Sweetman says that’s when he knew he was looking at “some kind of stealth helicopter.” Sweetman says the chopper was clearly designed to not give bin Laden any advance notice that U.S. forces were coming.

It also was likely to evade Pakistani radar. One of the two helicopters made a hard landing at the compound and was destroyed by the military team.

Along with a successful raid comes a new House budget approval of $10.5 billion for Special Operations Command and the Navy SEALs. By voice vote Wednesday, the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities approved its portion of the overall defense bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It includes money for the command.

The amount represents an increase of about 7 percent over this year. The full committee will consider the legislation next week. The chairman of the subcommittee, Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, praised the Special Operation Forces, saying what they do is unmatched and that the nation owes them a debt of gratitude.

Lastly — and like we really need to know this — a doctor who sold the piece of land where  bin Laden’s final hideout was built is identifying the buyer as Mohammad Arshad, a name that matched one of two Pakistani men often seen coming out of the al-Qaeda chief’s compound.

The doctor says he sold a plot of land to Arshad in 2005. He said the buyer was a “modest, humble type of man” who claimed to be purchasing it for his uncle.

Property records obtained by The Associated Press show Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005. Though it is unconfirmed at this time, it’s believed Arshad was one of those killed during the raid.

Only a few months shy of the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on America, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead.  President Barack Obama announced from the White House that bin Laden was killed by a U.S.-led operation in a mansion outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and the al-Qaeda leader’s body is in U.S. custody.

According to Obama, he was briefed on bin Laden’s possible whereabouts last August. He said he felt the White House had enough intelligence last week to stage an attack.

The U.S. offered a reward of 25-million dollars for information leading to bin Laden after he was implicated in the 9-11 attacks.  He was suspected of being involved in the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American soldiers and indicted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

“We have been pursuing bin Laden for ten years, and obviously that puts us at greater risk. There are probably going to be a number of follow on attacks,” said Retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold to KOLO-TV in Reno, who was aboard the Cole when it was struck by terrorists.

“I don’t think any American realistically expected that, when we caught or killed bin Laden, that the war would suddenly collapse in on itself and be over in a matter of days if not weeks,” said Lippold.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1958, bin Laden was the 17th of 57 children of a Saudi construction magnate.  Bin Laden attended college in Saudi Arabia.

He was 23 when he arrived in Afghanistan to join the jihad against the Soviet Union.  Bin Laden used his family’s fortune to help the mujahideen, then after the Soviets were defeated in 1988, he decided to form what would become al-Qaeda as a potential general headquarters group for future jihads.

In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and bin Laden proposed to the Saudi monarchy that he summon his fighters for a jihad to retake Kuwait.  The Saudis turned him down and instead joined the U.S.-led coalition.

Bin Laden publicly spoke out about Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow U.S. troops to be based there.  Saudi Arabia eventually froze all of bin Laden’s assets and revoked his citizenship.

He moved to Sudan in 1991, where he set up a large and complex set of businesses and terrorist enterprises including Al-Qaeda. He also issued a call for jihad against the West, especially the U.S.

Bin Laden eventually returned to Afghanistan, where its Taliban government was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces in 2001.  Since then, he was believed to be hiding in the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where he was estimated to have about 300-million-dollars in personal assets and rumored to be suffering from kidney ailments and receiving dialysis treatment.

Intelligence reports indicate DNA testing on bin Laden’s body is a perfect match.  A woman believed to be one his wives also positively identified the al-Qaeda leader’s body.

Most Americans stand behind the killing of the al-Qaeda leader.  An online Reuters poll indicates 79 percent believe killing bin Laden was the right thing to do.

However, 14 percent of respondents said killing him was not a good decision.  The poll also shows just 25 percent feel safer, compared to 59 percent who do not feel that way after his death.

Dead or alive — that’s how White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan characterized the mission to go after bin Laden. Brennan told the Associated Press that U.S. forces were prepared for resistance and for the possibility of a relatively peaceful capture.

As it turned out, bin Laden fired at U.S. forces before being killed, but Brennen adds bin Laden tried to use women as human shields when U.S. special forces raided his compound.  Brennan said the women died in the attack as a result.

He said it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have some sort of support system within Pakistan.  Brennen said the U.S. acted alone and did not inform Pakistan government beforehand.

Pakistan is a U.S. ally and a major recipient of American aid received an estimated $1.2 billion in military and security aid in the last fiscal year and another $1.4 billion in economic assistance.  Questions have been raised about Pakistan’s commitment to the fight against terrorism.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid tells The Economic Times the successful operation against bin Laden was mainly due to President Obama’s efforts to refocus on Afghanistan and Pakistan as a central battleground in the fight against terror, adding “Over the past two and a half years, the Obama administration has significantly escalated our military, diplomatic, intelligence and economic efforts to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al- Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan and around the world.”

Meanwhile, Brennan described the scene in the White House situation room as extremely tense as the President and high-level officials awaited word about the outcome of the mission.  Brennan said minutes passed like days.

He also sidestepped questions about whether photos of the dead bin Laden will be released.  He said the issue is being assessed.

Brennan stressed the U.S. will do everything possible to head-off speculation that bin Laden was not killed.  Brennan confirmed that bin Laden was buried at sea, in strict compliance with Islamic practices.  He declined to say where the burial occurred — although it was later learned to have been the Arabian Sea.

He said the bin Laden strike is a strategic blow to al-Qaeda but probably not the end of the terror network.  Brennen stressed that the U.S. is on alert for possible retaliatory actions as al-Qaeda and its sympathizers ponder possible moves to avenge bin Laden’s death.

With news of  bin Laden’s death, al-Qaeda’s second in command may be taking over.  Egyptian-born doctor Ayman al-Zawahri is largely rumored to be the first choice to succeed bin Laden.

Zawahri was bin Laden’s closest mentor after meeting him in the mid-1980s when both were fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan.  Since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, Zawahri has broadcast dozens of anti-American messages, most recently, urging Muslims to fight NATO and American forces in Libya.

There is no word yet on who — if anyone — will collect the $25 million dollar bounty offered on bin Laden’s head.

Not every book I purchased from the libraries recent sale is a winner with me. While I really love my Doten Journal and the two Don Garate books on the Susanville-Reno connection – one tome – “Tahoe beneath the Surface” – is not so good.

It’s written by Scott Lankford and is about “the hidden stories of America’s largest mountain lake,” — early 264-pages of wordy articles that talk about global warming and other political treatise that I don’t agree with — mixed with tales about Lake Tahoe.

I’m trying – trying – trying.

As for Don Garate – the two books I have in my possession are histories of northern Lassen County. I had never heard of Don Garate before though I do know another Garate, who I once worked for.

The last name is Basque and that might be a dead-give away that this is the same family – but I don’t know for certain. What I do know is what is written on the back of those books:

“Donald T. Garate was born in 1950 and has lived his entire life on the Madeline Plains, being a member of the third generation of Garates to have lived there. He attended the Ravendale Elementary School and Lassen High School and is a graduate of the University of Nevada with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture.”

“Don has written newspaper articles, family histories and a thirty-page pamphlet in both English and Spanish on the history of the Garate family. He is married and his wife Alice (Nord)… (and) are the parents of five children.”

“He is of Basque descent…mak(ing) his living from cattle and sheep ranching on the family ranch east of Ravendale. Over the years he has ridden for cattle and put up hay on every ranch on the Madeline Plains, making it possible for him to write about the area with familiarity and understanding.”

I had to combine the last couple of parts from both books, as one was published in 1975 and the second in 1982.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I sensed I might be walking into an ambush. But I also knew I had to face the five men at some point so I decided the sooner, the better.

Normally I would have come up the back stairs of the barracks as the door to my room was almost directly across the hallway from the second floor landing as it led into the barracks.

“Why give them the edge,” I thought.

Instead I entered the barracks from the front door, making certain to say hello to the Airman on Charge of Quarters duty. Then I turned right and walked down the long hallway of the first floor and stepped inside the stair well.

Having reached the second floor, I was now positioned at the farthest point I could attain from my room. I wanted to be able to stand back in the shadow of the opposite hallway and watch for any unusual activity.

Within minutes I say three of the five I had been avoiding, come walking down the hallway towards me, and the direction of my room. The three were living off base now and had no business being in the barracks.

The trio stood, talking in front of another of the five’s door. One of them knocked on the door and disappeared into the room. The other two turned and walked back into the dark end of the hallway.

It was at that moment that I noticed only the first two lights were operating. Somehow they had disabled the remainder, leaving my end of the hallway virtually in the dark and ripe for an ambush.

It had been less than two months since I had confronted the five men as they rushed me at my house trailer off-base. They were a petty bunch in my mind and still out for revenge after I had gotten sick due to an allergic reaction from marijuana smoke.

I had been exposed to it one evening during a card game inside the barracks — but had no idea I was allergic to the stuff.

The night I was exposed, I was rushed to the hospital, swollen and gasping for air. Evidently the odor of marijuana was detected on  my clothing and this led to the Security Police being notified and I was labeled a “narc” from that point on.

The day the five stormed my small house-trailer off base, I surprised them when I fire a .45 caliber machine gun round into the floor of the house, near their feet. This scared them off — but it didn’t stop them from continually harassing me on a daily basis.

That event left me a bit shaken, so I decided it would be best if I moved back on base. At least it would afford me some sort of protection from the menace of the five men.

“Be careful,” Barney had warned over the telephone, “They’re planning to kick your ass.”

Barney and I had been separated by our commanding officer. The C.O. felt I was a negative influence in Barney’s life and would cause the Texan’s career to come to an end.

I figured our C.O. separated us knowing that there was strength in numbers and therefore by not having Barney around I was more vulnerable to whatever might happen.

The officer ordered us to not have anything to do with each other while on duty. After work though, the Captain had little to no control over our actions.

As I stepped out of the hallway and into the common area, I took a deep breath. I knew once I crossed over the common area and into the second half of the hallway, the overhead light would give me away and there would be no turning back.

Without hesitating, I walked passed the door the one man had entered. I was certain he and the man who occupied the room were watching the hall through the peep-hole in the door.

Walking a quietly as I could, I strained to listen for whatever awaited me in the ever enveloping darkness. I could detect voices but couldn’t tell what was being said.

As I made the corner, the light from a street lamp shining through a window at the end of the hall and behind me, cast some illumination down the darker end of the hall. There, I could jus’ make out three figures huddled near my doorway.

Having seen them first, I turned hoping to retreat to a better position, but the two men who had been hiding in the room, were walking down tha hallway towards me and each had a bat in their hands.

There was only one chance for escape and I knew it. I backed up against the window where the street lamp shined through, a quickly unlocked it. I popped it open a fully as it would go and by this time all five men were on me.

First I felt the blows of their fists and their kicks as I fought back. I positioned myself into one of the corners near the window, knowing that the walls might absorb the blow of a baseball bat better than my head.

As expected one of the men swung  his bat at me, but instead of trying to duck the incoming blow, I stepped in as close to my attacker as possible. The move caught the man off guard.

About the same time I saw a fist coming at my face. I yanked on the bat and the fist struck the wooden club, full force.

The blow knocked the bat from my attackers hand and I managed to hold on tight to it. Without hesitation I gripped it and started swinging away at the group causing them to back away, fearful that I might connect with one of them.

For a couple of seconds it appeared as if the fight would end in a stand-off. However I didn’t waste my time on that hope.

Instead I raised the bat over my head with both hands and swung it downward. I let the hard wood object fly as the group scattered to get out-of-the-way.

As the five sought cover by diving into the adjacent hallway, flattening against the wall or using a doorway for cover, I turned and dove head long out the still open window. It was a two-story fall that sent me crashing to the sidewalk below.

And though the wind was knocked out of me and I was certain I had broken something somewhere in my body, I wasted little time getting to my feet and dashing down the sidewalk towards the post office where I knew someone would be.

Though I reported the attack to my First Sergeant and his boss, a First Lieutenant, nothing was done. The two men told me there was no way to prove the attack had happened.

From that point on I started carrying a folding lock-blade knife in my back pocket. I didn’t want to be in a position like the one in the hallway and be left defenseless again.

“If it ever happens again,” I told Barney, “I’m going to leave my mark on at least three of them.”

After that night in the hallway, all five men fairly well stayed clear of me. They never physically confronted me again though they did, either singly or in pairs, threatened to “beat me to death when I was least expecting it.”

I expected it though — at all times.