"The paths we take in this life are illuminated by the people with whom we walk."

When stationed at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany in the middle 1960's, I joined a folk group -- "The Addicted" -- in company with Jack Krieger and Ed Faulk. We had a lot of fun, made a lot of good music, a couple of other people moved in and out of the group.........but it is in the nature of the military that everybody leaves. People get transferred, people get discharged, etc. Ed and Jack did both. I stuck around the Air Force, eventually got a commission, and retired with 26 years of service.


After finding out about some of the people I knew before I joined the Air Force, I decided to look up Ed and Jack. Ed was fairly easy. He is now Deacon Ed Faulk, with ministry in churches of two different rites. He's also a biggie in the electronics field, raises shelties, and is a certified judge for dog shows and trials.

Jack Krieger is now known as "Cecil" or "CJ". Turns out "Jack" was his middle name. Why didn't I know that? Perhaps I did, and it's part of that increasing part of the personal data storage that seems to have become mushed up with the passing of years. Anyway, he's a world class martial artist, and something of a legend in the world of massage therapy. He also wrote and/or performed an impressive range of music. Did I mention his poetry?

OK, so when we were "The Addicted" Ed played guitar better than I did, and Jack (CJ) sang better than I did. I sort of did the parts in the middle, musically. Outside of a few adventures where I'm not sure about the statute of limitations, it was a good association. OK, even the weird stuff was pretty cool. I also had the opportunity of getting my head handed to me at pool and table tennis. Such things are good for the humility muscles, and I learned enough to actually win a few matches in later years.

Last night, I was noodling around on the 9-string, and found I actually remember the words (and most of the chords) to some of the stuff we did back then. Not too bad for a guy who has to look up the words to the stuff he wrote (and performed) a lot more recently.