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DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2022
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
Special reunion
brought about
by this column
It is one of the
most rewarding
experiences in my
25 years of churn
ing out columns.
And it was a total
accident. A happy
accident.
You may recall
that back in July, I
asked my friend Hans Trupp in Brunswick
his take on the recently-released Top Gun
Maverick. He was a Top Gun during the
Vietnam war and I was interested in getting
his take on the movie and how authentic he
found it.
Although I have known Hans Trupp for
many years and have even done some busi
ness with him, until that column I didn’t
realize the extent of his involvement in the
war. He flew more than 200 combat mis
sions over North Vietnam from two differ
ent aircraft carriers: the USS Ranger and
the USS Constellation.
Among the many medals and commen
dations Trupp received, one stands out in
particular: The Distinguished Flying Cross.
It is awarded for “heroism or extraordinary
achievement while participating in aerial
flight” and “involving operations that are
not routine.”
That was the case on June 14, 1966,
when Lt. Hans Trupp and a colleague
aboard the carrier USS Ranger took off in
their F4B Phantom jets for a target not yet
defined. “It was 3 AM,” he says, “and we
had no idea what was going on. But once
they tell you to go, you have 2 minutes to
be in the air.”
It turned out to be two enemy planes
bombing a PT boat trying to smuggle spies
into Haiphong Harbor. Both planes were
shot down by radar-controlled missiles.
“We never had a visual on them,” Hans
told me. “It was all on instruments. That
was very unusual. We were instructed
never to fire without a visual. This was an
exception.”
It was also the only time in Naval history
when planes launched at night from a car
rier in all-weather conditions resulted in a
kill of enemy airplanes. And this is where
the story takes an incredible turn.
When I wrote about this episode back in
July, I received a lot of mail from readers
recounting their own Vietnam experiences,
including a hand-written note from Fred
Washburn in Dawson County who remem
bered that night very clearly.
Washburn was a seaman working radar
aboard the destroyer USS Rogers and spot
ted two blips on the screen flying around in
a circle. He had tracked them from Hanoi
down to Haiphong Harbor. “I didn’t know
what they were doing but I figured they
were up to no good,” he said.
The problem was he had to convince his
captain on the USS Rogers that these were
bad guys and then get him to call the cap
tain on the lead destroyer, the USS Kuntz,
the only ship authorized to communicate
with the USS Ranger. Fortunately,
Washburn’s persistence paid off and the
rest, as they say, is history. Hans Trupp
promptly took care of the bad guys.
I shared Fred Washburn’s letter with
Trupp who was astonished. “I have had a
lot of questions over the years how this all
came about and didn’t know until you sent
me his letter. There are a million people
who could have been running radar that
night,” he said, “and it turns out it was a
guy from right here in Georgia.”
With the persistence that can only come
from a Top Gun-turned real estate mogul,
Trupp tracked down Washburn and talked
to him on the phone. The next step was a
Zoom call and a face-to-face meeting 56
years after that fateful night. I was privi
leged to just sit and listen.
Washburn, an unassuming man who ran
a service station in Albany for 41 years,
told me he wasn’t much of a letter writer
but that my column struck a chord with
him. “I remember the whole thing well,” he
said. “Fifteen minutes after the Ranger was
alerted, Hans was out there doing his thing.
It was the highlight of our whole tour.”
Hans Trupp got the kill and the
Distinguished Flying Cross but wanted to
be sure one thing about that episode got
corrected. “The Kuntz received credit for
what happened that night. Until I got
Fred’s letter, I never even knew the Rogers
was involved. The credit belongs to Fred
Washburn.” You read it here.
People ask where I get my ideas for col
umns. Sometimes it is pure luck. I had sim
ply asked my friend Hans Trupp what he
thought about a movie and ended up with
an incredible story that beats any movie
you could ever imagine.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick-
yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
Doodles big surgery was nerve wrecking
“Doodle didn’t eat this morning.”
Lamar’s statement made me pause.
Doodle always ate. Even if she was
full, she could still eat.
This was the pup that
tackled Cole to the couch
and took a creme horn pas
try out of his hand one eve
ning. She has been known
to eat tubes of cookie
dough. A peanut butter
sandwich that she stole out
of Lamar’s cycling jersey.
Even swiping leftover
salmon off the counter one evening
after she had a bowl of kibble.Doodle
was always looking for a morsel of
food.
“Is she OK?” I asked.
Lamar frowned, looking visibly con
cerned. “She’s not feeling like herself,
that’s for sure.”
It was odd, but I also thought about
how my sweet Venus got kind of picky
as she got older. The only way we
could get her to eat was if I made
chicken for her, boiling it tender and
putting only white meat with some
broth to her kibble. We started that rou
tine when she was around Boo’s age so
maybe Doodle was just following in
Venus’ pawprints.
I told Lamar I’d make her some
chicken to see if that would entice the
little pittie to eat.
She ate maybe a bite of it, before
turning her head away.
“She may be in estrus,” Lamar said.
“She never feels good when she is.”
Before anyone says anything about
not getting her spayed, let me explain.
If you have ever had a pittie or pit-
mix then you know they can be quite
the big drama queens about everything.
When she was a puppy and I scolded
her once, she ignored me - as in
shunned me by refusing to look at me
- for two days until I apologized. And
even then I had to give her several
treats to get back in her good graces.
Trimming her nails usually brought
havoc. She’d scream like a human
before we even touched her
paw; all we had to do was
get the nail trimmers out
and she would act like she
had been abused. When we
did touch her, she’d fall
over as if she’d fainted and
flail around. We finally
realized giving her peanut
butter was one way to do it
but she also knew how to get the spoon
and take off with it.
So, needless to say, we worried if we
had her spayed she would never forgive
us.
Worried, I did what every person
with the internet does and Googled her
symptoms. The results came up with
pyometra.
I freaked out and started calling
around - our regular vet was closed
that day, so I was frantic and calling
everywhere I could, trying to get her an
appointment.
We finally got her seen and she defi
nitely had an infection, as her blood
work revealed. She was given an anti
biotic and an appointment for the next
week to be spayed.
I could tell my sweet girl seemed to
not be getting better and it worried me.
I’d wake up in the middle of the night
and check on her, and often just lie
beside her on the bed, trying to com
fort her the way she does any of us
when we’re sick.
We ran into a problem with getting
her to take her medicine. She was sup
posed to take it with food and she
didn’t want to eat; if we gave it to her
without food, it made her sick.
But Boo wouldn’t even eat mac and
cheese - her favorite meal.
“If she won’t eat mac and cheese,
she’s really not feeling good.” I said.
“We’ve got to take her to the emergen
cy vet.”
I called Mama and told her where we
were headed and burst into tears.
“Mama, I’ve lost Ava and then Bobby;
I can’t lose another piece of my heart. I
just can’t.”
Thankfully we were the only ones
there when we arrived. She got some
IV antibiotics and some fluids since
she was dehydrated and we were told
to take her straight to the vet the next
morning, which we did. We were there
before they opened.
“You’re going to be OK.” I told her
as I kissed that spot between her eyes,
the same spot I kissed when I told her
she was coming home with me nine
years ago. “They’re gonna get you
fixed right up.”
We had no idea not getting her
spayed would cause any kind of com
plications. We thought it was mainly to
just prevent her from having litters of
puppies and we thought since Doodle
doesn’t like to go outside, she’d be
fine.
Her surgery was complicated,
involved, and nerve wrecking for us,
but she’s doing well.
She doesn’t like the cone but she’s
gotten used to it and has even figured
out how to use it to create a forcefield
of protection around her food.
The other night, she sat at the baby
gate and watched me intensely as I
cooked some salmon and begged for a
treat every time I passed the cookie jar.
“I’m so glad she’s feeling better,”
Lamar said. “I wouldn’t know what to
do without that little pittie.”
Neither would I.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning
humor columnist and author of the
recently e-published novel, "The
Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman
Paranormal Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
DR. ANDERSON
Prevention is best treatment for flu
By Dr. Larry Anderson
Anderson Family Medicine
Good news first. COVID cases seem
to be leveling off here in Dawson and
our adjacent counties. It is still alive
and well but at low numbers. Add a lit
tle more effort in your prevention mea
sures and that will help keep your risk
of getting COVID (again) to a mini
mum.
Flu is winning. So far we have had
over 245 influenza outbreaks, 12 influ
enza-associated deaths, and over 940
hospitalizations in metro-Atlanta alone.
Not sure of the numbers for the rest of
the state. Flu and other viral and bacte
rial infections are overwhelming our
children. School attendance is falling
off in some areas, ER’s and peds/prima-
ry care offices are being crowded. There
is a shortage of Amoxil in the liquid
form for children. There seems to be an
OK amount of Augmentin liquid but
talk with your doctor about that. It is
not always the best alternative depend
ing on several factors. Liquid Tamiflu is
also beginning to be in short supply.
Prevention is always the best treatment.
If you or child seems to be sick, keep
them home, and you, too if you are sick.
Not worth the risk of getting sicker
away from home or exposing everyone
else. I am trying to find different ways
of saying stay home if you are sick, get
the flu vaccine, stay away from sick
people, stay away from people if you
are sick. Take your medicines. Thanks
for reading.
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