>To:
>Subject: Photos on Okinawa
>Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 01:21:01 -0600
>
>Thanks for the posting on the 30th Arty Site. I am the son of Colonel L.G.
>Hergert, Jr. There isn’t a day we don’t go through old picture taken on The
>Rock, and there is no doubt now that you took most of them. It was the best
>place I had ever lived, other than being born and raised on Hawaii in the
>mid-50’s. If there is any way you have any other pix of my family, even of
>me and my brother (me –dark hair probably red dbl-breasted coat, and younger
>brother-tall, slender, blond) I would pay for replacements or duplicated.
>
>Thanks so much for your posting. It fired back great memories!
>
>THANK YOU-
>Gus Hergert III
>Downing Sound Studios, LLC
>Huntsville, Alabama, USA
>
>From: "Gus Hergert"
>To: "'David Crews'"
>Subject: RE: 2 more Okinawa pics
>Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:55:51 -0600
>
>I'll send more thanks over the weekend when I have a chance, but suffice to
>say, you said very kind things about my family and I am going to share the
>pix and email with Mom and Dad.
>
>They'll love the.
>
>I'll drop more of a note over the weekend.
>
>THANK YOU-
>Gus Hergert III
>Downing Sound Studios, LLC
>Huntsville, Alabama, USA
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Crews [mailto:ursusdave@hotmail.com]
>Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:38 AM
>To: gushergert3@bellsouth.net
>Subject: 2 more Okinawa pics
>
>I have to do this in the limitations of dial up on an old PC, but I love to
>be sharing my photos with some folks who lovedvbeing in Okinawa too.
>
>From: "Gus Hergert"
>To: "'David Crews'"
>Subject: RE: That's About It For Pics
>Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:31:44 -0600
>
>Dad was assigned to the Secty of Defense, Robert McNamara in the Pentagon
>before we came to Okinawa. After leaving The Rock, we came to Huntsville,
>Alabama where Dad commanded the SAFEGUARD Project Office. That was the
>genesis of what became the Ballistic Missile Defense Command or STARWARS.
>It was light-years ahead of whatever the public knew, and that was back in
>1972-76. Dad retired after 32 years in the Army rather than accept
>promotion and took over a small R&D company called Science Applications
>International Corp. He helped build it into a multi-billion dollar/Fortune
>500 company which went public on the NYSE (SAI) just a month ago.
>
>Hope that helps.
>
>THANK YOU-
>Gus Hergert III
>Downing Sound Studios, LLC
>Huntsville, Alabama, USA
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Crews [mailto:ursusdave@hotmail.com]
>Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:56 PM
>To: gushergert3@bellsouth.net
>Subject: That's About It For Pics
>
>
>I have some color slides from The Rock that I need to get into digital files
>
>and also a few 3 1/2 x 5 commercially printed color pics too. I don't have
>the scanning equipment nor access to any to complete that intended task yet.
>I sure wish I had put together a good portfolio for myself while I was on
>The Rock. These 8x10 B+W photos I have are all actually rejects (by my
>standards). They needed more burning and dodging type custom hand printing
>technique. I love to burn and dodge. I sent the final copies of the prints
>to the schools and some went up on our bulletin boards or to the soldiers in
>
>the photos.
>Through the years when I thought of Col Hergert, now and then, I wondered
>what his background and military experience is. He seemed like a CEO for a
>major technical firm to me, but one who was willing to sacrifice all for his
>
>country and live on a lower salary than others who worked in similar
>positions in the private sector. The 30th Arty was basically a group of
>warrior technicians who there to deter nuclear war with communist China and
>Russia by maintaining a 24/7/365 missile defense shield.
>Now that I am writing about my times in the 30th Brigade, I'll be using my
>riding around the beautiful island in the Col's car and the change of
>command ceremony memories in my stories somewhere. I am thinking ahead here,
>
>and the way it will look will be something like "the Col was in the (blank
>brigade) before he came to the 30th and had worked his way up through the
>ranks as a leader of warrior technicians. He wasn't a guts and glory guy,
>but a level headed leader of technician warriors." or whatever it turns out
>to be. Serious writing takes a lot rewriting to get it right. Anyway, if you
>
>could tell me a short bit about his immediate background prior to his
>assignment to the 30th or anything I might have found out about him at the
>time we served together through casual conversation with him, your family,
>and/or other soldiers who knew him a long time, I can include that in my
>story. I won't insinuate that I learned it back then though unless this
>story turns into a fictional novel.
>And don't forget about my request for scanned copies of the photos you have,
>
>I was hoping that between you, your staff at the studio, your tech savvy
>kids, most under 30 yr olds are far more tech savvy than me, I was hoping it
>
>would be easy enough if there's enough time in your schedules. Fattest raw
>files are the best, I am begining to work on my photo shop skills a lot more
>
>as there are no more old fashioned wet labs in my area.
>Happy Thanksgiving. Mine will be a bit more happier as I tell my family
>about how my old Army photos are still held dear by the folks who have
>copies of them, and that I got to send my regards to my old brigade
>commander and his family. Any middle aged veteran would be pleased to have
>this heart warming event happen in their aging years.
>
>From: "Gus Hergert"
>To: "'David Crews'"
>Subject: RE: and 2 more Okinawa pics
>Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:40:36 -0600
>
>I really have no idea what became of the missile sites. I know they were
>taken over by the Japanese during Revision, and they were active for a long
>time. I have no idea if they have the PAC2 Patriot system over there or
>not. I know we still have portions of the 7th Fleet and almost all of our
>overseas Marines are located on Okinawa. So some missile shield seems
>likely.
>
>THANK YOU-
>Gus Hergert III
>Downing Sound Studios, LLC
>Huntsville, Alabama, USA
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Crews [mailto:ursusdave@hotmail.com]
>Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 1:19 PM
>To: gushergert3@bellsouth.net
>Subject: and 2 more Okinawa pics
>
>Here are two shots of the Okinawan kids doing a traditional dance as a thank
>
>you to us for the backstops. As a barely experienced photographer, I
>remember being amazed at how neat the spit of sand being kicked up by the
>girl in front looked. Freeze action photography!
>I wanted you to know that though my "A Wild Start" story is on the Japan
>Policy Research Institute web site I do not agree with all they have to say
>on there. I understand why the Okinawans want our military bases off their
>island, I’d want us off my island too; the JPRI literature gives some
>dynamic, thought provoking arguments against our continued occupation of the
>
>island; but I can’t stop believing that it is a superb, natural strategic
>location for a military position that helps thwart Chinese, and other
>county’s, world aggression. It is a location which the Okinawans can’t
>defend from any aggression—they have a multi-century long historical record
>of not being able to stay free from Japanese or Chinese occupation. And that
>
>occupation always suppressed them, at least America built the place back up
>after we had to bomb it to bits, because the Japanese hid in caves, behind
>the backs of Okinawan woman and children, in a self righteous attempt to
>prolong a lost war of attempted world domination Then I think of all the
>men we lost there in taking that military position from the Japanese, and I
>feel that those sacrifices by my country paid part of the rent for the
>Okinawan property occupied by our bases for a long time coming.
>For the past several years, I have read everything I could find on the
>Internet about the 30 Arty Bgde. I am wondering if you can fill me in on
>some missing facts. When I left The Rock the 30th Arty was about to turn our
>
>missile sites over to the Japanese Army. I did several photographic
>assignments when Japanese Army Officers visited the missile sites (and
>guldamit, I never kept copies of them photos). The US Army decommissioned
>our last Nike Hercules Missile sites in 1979. Can you tell me what became of
>
>our missile sites on Okinawa?
>I apologize if this is a lot to email about. I am doing all I can to
>overcome service and non service connected disabilities and you happened to
>contact me when I have been working at that goal by writing out about my
>life and publishing my stories on the Internet. I need all the contacts who
>have info about Okinawa I can find right now. My stories and web site
>postings about my time on The Rock have gotten me a lot of emails from other
>
>ex GIs and their dependents who just can’t believe they still love that
>little island and their memories of it so much. By the way, you know that
>there are some great web sites for the alumni of Okinawan US Military
>Schools. Web search your school’s name if you are not posted on that site
>already.
Okinawa
Army
David Robert Crews
US Army
30th Artillery Brigade
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