Last month in the Sunday News Journal was an article about a U.S. Marine who took a diary from a dead North Vietnamese soldier in 1966 as a souvenir. The Marine decided he wanted to give the diary back to the family in Vietnam and used the television program "History Detectives" to track them down. The North Vietnamese soldier left a baby son. When the son received his father's diary he was overjoyed. "When my father left for the battlefield I was too small to know anything, even to say goodbye to my father!" Now with the help of the diary he is going to learn some things about his father.
This article got me thinking about Pete Dawson who broke his neck in a swimming accident up Creek Road in 1974. The accident happened on a Friday and Pete died the following Friday. One of those Fridays was on the 13th of September. I was never superstitious before that but I've been very careful since then, especially this year with so many Fridays falling on the number 13.
Anyway, in the booklet made up for our 25th class reunion in 1992 I mentioned that when Pete died he left a six year old daughter and a three year old son. Not only was I a close friend of their father, I was also stationed at the same Navy base with their Uncle Mike(NHS'64) in 1968. I thought that if anyone could connect me with Pete's adult children I may know some interesting stories about their dad that they wouldn't hear from anyone else. In the last twenty years I haven't heard one thing. Now Pete's children are in their forties. The offer still stands and I'd really like to meet my old friend's children. Ira Dale Coover