Memorial Day

Remembering my Grandfather, William H Wolff Lt Colonel

William H Wolff was born on January 18, 1928 in Flint, Michigan. When he was just sixteen years old he enlisted into the Florida State Guard. Then in July 1946, he enlisted in the United States Army and soon after received orders for Korea. This was just one month before World War II ended. He was assigned to Company D Sixth Medical Bn. at Camp Hillenmeyer as a motor vehicle mechanic. There was no special training in mechanics, but because of his love for motorcycles and airplanes he became the company’s mechanic.
In 1947, Wolff was able to attend the University of Cincinnati for teaching automotive material and was awarded the Ordnance Medal upon graduation. At this time, Army Aviators were not required to be instrument rated, but they sent Wolff to Atlanta for instrument school training to see if it was safe. While in Atlanta, he took the FAA test for metrology instructor and passed. This would come in handy later.
Wolff was trained to fly helicopters by the Air Force and Army. He was a member of the second class to train at Ft. Rucker. Wolff worked with the H-21 helicopter as a Maintenance Officer in the 8th Helicopter Company in Korea. He was promoted to Captain in February of 1958.
Seven years later, he was promoted to Major. He was a Transportation Officer, the second ranking man in the Ordnance Bn. as well as their first Aviator. He was part of the company that established a program to install mini-guns on the HU-1 helicopter replacing the old mount of 4 M-60 machine guns. He installed a mini-gun on an armored personnel carrier (M-113) belonging to the Australians. For this service, Wolff was awarded the Bronze Star.
Then October 1968, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel. Wolff’s last station was an Army advisor to the FL National Guard and he was the Senior Army Officer in northwest Florida. After serving in three wars (World War II, Korea and Vietnam) and twenty-six years of service, Wolff retired from the Army on May 1, 1972.
My Grandfather, William H Wolff, was a great encourager throughout my college career and he inspired me to never give up. His last words were, “Continue to march”. He began marching the streets of gold on October 21, 2004.

Mike and I honored my Popop this year with a paver

My Tampa Bay Rays Birthday

My birthday was on May 27 and it was full of hugs, surprises and blessings! My class threw me a birthday celebration at school on May 26. got lots of gift cards, Tampa Bay Rays things, yummy treats (Oreo's, Reese's Pieces, Butterfingers), a Kindle,and LOTS of homemade cards with thoughtful poems. Then for my actual birthday, I had a sweet friend and family make a birthday cake for me~it was a Rays Jersey cake!! It was delicious.
Several weeks before my birthday, I told Mike for my birthday I wanted to go to a Rays baseball game. Mike was sweet and bought tickets for my birthday on May 27.Then a friend of ours gave us tickets for May 28 for my birthday. So I went to TWO Rays games for my birthday. Friday's game was exciting and the Rays won! Saturday's game was exciting because of where our seats were--5 rows right behind the Rays dugout.I almost caught a ball from Evan Longoria, but the man sitting beside me took it out of my glove. I was very sad. Even the workers a the stadium saw that I had it. It was a sad ending because the Rays lost. I made a sign for my birthday to take to the game. . This is the best I could get with a picture with Ben Zobrist, you can see him "on deck" getting ready to go to the plate to bat. THEN, after the game we saw Zobrist, just hanging out on a wall and thought this would work! I guess you can guess who my favorite player is? I did have my picture made with Matt Joyce, the Rays Right Fielder when he came to my school to our Respect Rally in January.