West Richand WA, then Home to Emmett ID 9/28/09 - 10/8/09

We left our last campground of our fall camping trip and stopped for a couple of days in West Richland, Washington, where my brother Ron and his wife Kathy and daughter Destiney live.

We ended up taking up their whole driveway because we were too long to fit unless we backed in at a diagonal. They had to park out in the street! There was construction going on right in front of their house so we couldn't park along the road there. They fixed us a great salmon dinner the night we got there. This is a picture of them standing in the little bit of driveway they had left.

Destiney liked to come and keep us company in our "little house" parked in her driveway! She had fun putting together our puzzles.

On our way back to Emmett, we stopped at this rest stop. This rest stop between LaGrande and Baker, Oregon is an ICON in our family. Years ago on one of our family vacations with all six of our kids, we stopped here to change a tire. While Travis was in washing his hands after helping his dad, we just left without him! Down the road aways, we started counting noses and realized he was missing. There were no exits on the freeway, so we pulled over and I ended up walking back to the rest stop and found Travis waiting for us. He said he was about to ask a truck driver if he could call us on the CB radio, which we usually had on. That would have been hilarious (?) to have your son's voice come over the CB and say you had left him at a rest stop!

We were only home a few days and Ron and Kathy followed us there that evening. We had a family get-together at our (Lorrie's) house one day.

When Mom used to come each summer to live with us for a few months, we always got together, usually the night before she left, at the pizza parlor to eat and so everyone could say goodbye. We have kind of kept up the tradition when we leave Emmett to go on our travels. My brother Frank and wife Andy, brother Mike and wife Janet, and sister Lorrie came to say goodbye.

Jesse Donald Phelps Memorial

Forty-four years ago, my cousin, J.D. (Jesse Donald) Phelps' helicopter was shot down when he was flying in Viet Nam. We kept hoping that he would be found as a prisoner of war. They kept looking for the crash and finally found it last year. It took almost a year

before they were 100% sure it was his helicopter. This picture was from the news media when they brought his remains to Boise. Most of the family (his wife, three sons, and a daughter) were there at the airport. It was really a "big deal"--on TV and in all of the newspapers.

It worked out well for us to go to the memorial because we were going through Emmett at that time. There were lots of military and lots of flags flying.

There was also a big procession of motorcycles that followed the casket from the airport and again a few days later at the memorial/funeral.

Hope no one thinks this is too macabre, but we wondered what was in the casket, since they only found a couple of J.D.'s teeth that identified him. I thought it was kind of cool the way they did it, with a uniform and all of his medals.

Throughout the memorial services, they had an armed guard standing at the casket. Every 15 minutes they changed the guard with a really formal ceremony, with the services just continuing while it happened. The new guards would stand and, very slowly, salute the casket and then they would change guards.

Everything was done very "military formal" and was so respectful. Here they are loading the casket into the vehicle to go to the cemetery.

After the ceremony at the cemetery, they folded the flag, put it in a really nice box with J.D.'s name on it and his medals he had won mounted in the lid of the box.

Governor of Idaho, Butch Otter, presented the family with an official seal of Idaho with a special plaque on it thanking J.D. for his service.

J.D. graduated from Nampa High school, so the Mayor of Nampa proclaimed that day, October 1, as "Jesse Donald Phelps Day." J. D. would have been 72 years old on that day.

One of the most impressive parts of the whole ceremony was the Huey Helicopter "missing in action" flyover. Four helicopters flew over, and all of a sudden, one in the middle took off in the opposite direction. It just took your breath away!

J.D. was buried in the Idaho Veteran's Cemetery. I want to thank my sister-in-law Kathy for taking all of these pictures. When I saw her taking pictures, I just put away my camera and got to concentrate on the ceremonies. It was a huge tribute to my cousin and to all other servicemen who lost their lives defending freedom!