| Fifties Frogs Magazine |
Vol 11 |
| Pg 4 |
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A letter from LT John Macdonald USNR Class 43, COR UDT-11, SEAL Teams 1, 3, & 5.
Don, it was fun meeting you this past August at the Louisville Ironman Triathlon. I don’t know if you knew but a SEAL was first to finish Ironman twice. John Dunbar finished second in the first Ironman. There were different winners the first two years, starting back in 1978 on the Island of Oahu. Today the Ironman Triathlon organization has races around the world and Louisville was added this year. Many SEALs have completed the Ironman, some placing very high. Dunbar is the closest a SEAL has come to winning the World Championship in Hawaii. The Ironman is a combination of three individual Hawaii events run simultaneously the same day, the 2.4 mi Waikiki rough water swim, the 112 mile bike race around the Island of Oahu and the Hawaii 26.2 mile marathon. The race was moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, the Kona coast, to avoid traffic, but the distances remained the same. So, in beautiful Louisville, Kentucky the 2.4 mile swim was in the crystal clear Ohio River, the first part into the current which was a bitch. The bike portion went east in to thoroughbred horse country. Those horses live pretty well out there. And the marathon went from the river, south through downtown to the area of Churchill Downs and back passing by the University of Louisville. All Ironman triathlons start at 0700 and you have to midnight (seventeen hours) to be an official finisher. Our buddy Rudy Davis (frogman extraordinaire and former UDT teammate of mine) was a big help on race day. As you know he is a St. Matthews police officer and has that unauthorized Crown Victoria fixed to look like a cop car. He was able to get my wife to the good viewing areas along the race course by using his badge and gun and that fake cop car. I’ve sent a picture of us at the finish line. My wife Katy on my right and Rudy with his badge and gun is on my left. I’m the one with the beer gut and Gatorade. We had so much fun we’re coming back next year on Labor Day weekend to do it again. Hope we can all get together for some pasta and beer. If you see Rudy try to talk him into doing the Ironman with me. (Rudy has been working out for a while and has lost a lot pounds but we will see). More on John Macdonald: (John is 63) "I got out in 70, went back to school, University of Mexico. I met my wife there. She got into med school at Iowa so it was off to Iowa City for five years (one year intern). I got a Masters at Iowa and a job with USC’s Catalina Marine Science Center researching diver work performance for the Navy. I joined the SEAL reserve unit in San Diego and had a pretty good time. Rohrabach was CO at one time I got PHD at UCLA and taught there but my wife wanted to move back to St, Louis once we had kids. She didn’t like the schools in California. The kids could speak Spanish better than English. We moved here in ’93. She thought I’d like dentistry. I knew better than to listen to my wife but went to University of Illinois’s tooth school anyway. So here I am languishing in St. Louis. When I became a dentist the Navy shipped me to the Dental Corps but I wrangled a deal and went to diver medicine course in Panama City and became a diving medical officer. Since I am not a physician I couldn’t sign diving physicals but I could run the chamber which any chief can do but it kept me in the Teams. I was in unit Ten, home ported in Rota, Spain. That pretty much brings me up to date except for doing these crazy-ass Ironman and riding my Triumph Bonneville. I‘ve gotten a new one since the ’68 I had in the teams." John served four years active duty. And off and on in the reserve. [ top ] |
Letter of a Friend of a Friend Email from Bill Taylor: After 20 years in the military and having many friends who are still active in the regular or reserve forces, I have been touched by a combat fatality of a friend. I learned a few weeks ago that Navy SEAL LCDR Erik Kristensen was killed in Afghanistan on 28 June 2005 during a helicopter infiltration to rescue other SEALs who were pinned down by enemy forces. The fact that he died during a mission to help his fellow SEALs is a testament to his character.
Erik served with me at SOCEUR for a couple months during my one year mobilization. He was about the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet. Contrary to his physically imposing size and his profession, he was completely easygoing, laidback, calm, and mild mannered. He was knowledgeable and an absolutely dependable officer. He was clearly intelligent and well read, and even wrote poetry. Everyone liked him. I can’t imagine anyone not liking Erik, except Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Some of you might remember in my weekly writings during my call-up after 9/11 I mentioned Erik a few times. Most memorable to me was a the following passage although it might seem harsh. It was meant only in fun and with fondness. "The highlight was an evening bowling with a few friends, most of them from our office; some of whom really sucked this time. Our Navy guy, Eric was the worst by far. He’s tall, muscular, obviously athletic. It was hilarious to see him continually roll gutter balls. He just couldn’t get it right. His ball went into the gutter well before getting halfway down the lane. I won’t say what his score was, because another friend, who will read this, was very proud of her bowling experience, so I don’t want her to compare herself with Erik—who sucked. When Matt told me of Erik's death, over two year after it happened, I was very saddened despite the time that had passed since I knew Erik. The world was a better place with Erik in it and I am very glad to have known him, if for only a short time. Erik was a shining example of the personal quality of our best fighting men and women. He was the kind of person who made me proud to have served in the military, honored to have been his brother in uniform and happy to have been his friend. (Brian) Editor: Erik is a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover MA. He was 33 years old. He was single.
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