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Patriotism Leads Griffin Back to Air Force GRIFFIN FAMILY--(Front, l-r) Gayla, Emily, Hannah, and Rachel. (Back) Dr. Randall Griffin.
By Alice Gilroy Friends and patients of Floydada dentist, Randall Griffin, have always known Griffin was a patriot. Now the community has seen him put his words into action. Dr. Griffin believes his country needs him, and he believes it so strongly that he has reenlisted in the United States Air Force. His last day of work at his successful private dental practice in Floydada will be Jan. 30. He must report for duty Feb. 9 in Montgomery, Alabama. Griffin was first commissioned as a Captain in the Air Force in 1985&emdash;during his senior year at the University of Texas Dental School in San Antonio. "They commissioned me a Captain because of the years I had already put into college and dental school," said Griffin. "When I came out of dental school I had a significant amount of debt from student loans. I knew if I went straight into private practice I would have to take out even more loans and I didn't want to do that. After checking everything out I realized the Air Force had a good offer." At the age of 26, and straight out of dental school, Griffin went into active duty in a one-year general practice residency in Tucson, Arizona. "The program I entered was advanced dental training for me," said Griffin. "I was very fortunate to get into the program. The application procedure was difficult. There were between 300-400 applicants and they only take 30-40. "The program taught difficult procedures to those in general dentistry, so the dentist could be sent to remote bases worldwide. It is too expensive to have a specialist at every base. The government could better utilize their resources by training 'general' dentists in specialized areas." After the training, Griffin was sent to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, where he fulfilled his two-year commitment of additional service. In 1988 Griffin came off active duty and was in IRR (Inactive Ready Reserve) until 2000, at which time he was honorably discharged. In July 1988 Griffin moved to Floydada and took over the dental practice of Dr. Andrew McCulley. Now, more than 15 years later, Griffin feels led to serve his country again, and his wife, Gayla, and three daughters, Rachel, 16; Emily, 13; and Hannah, 9, are supportive. "The president needs us," said Griffin. "The military is in short supply of dentists and other medical personnel." Griffin says that 9-11 and the things that have transpired since then have affected him deeply. "I want to make sure my kids grow up to know and love the same country I grew up in," said Griffin. "It appears to me there are forces outside the U.S. that want to do us great harm. If there is anything I can do to help the military defend us then I am proud to do it." Including his active duty time and IRR time, Griffin has already served 15 years in the Air Force. Those years will now put him at a rank and pay scale of Major. Griffin will report to a four-week program called Commission Officer Training (COT), Feb. 9. The program is designed for all newly commissioned medical personnel. "I've already been through this once," said Griffin, "but I asked to go through it again. "We will receive small arms training, chemical warfare training, Air Force Customs and courtesies, computer training, and security training. "We will also take part in Aerospace Expeditionary Deployment (AED). The AED simulates actual deployment and support of a mission as a medical group." At 45 years old, Griffin believes he will be one of the oldest officers there. "On their web site it says, 'Don't show up if you're not in shape.' So I've been running and trying to get back in shape." After the four weeks of training, Griffin will be stationed at Dyess Air Force Base to begin his four-year commitment. At Dyess, Griffin will be part of the 7th Bomb Wing. The 7th Bomb Wing is the host unit at Dyess and is a component of Air Combat Command, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The Wing is composed of many units working together to support maintenance, operations, medical and support group functions. The mission of the 7th Bomb Wing is to "develop and maintain operational capability for its B-1B fleet to deliver global power to theatre commanders." It is also charged with "producing combat ready aircrews in the Air Force's only B-1B formal training unit. The 7th Medical Group, of which Griffin will be a part, is one of many groups assigned to the Wing. The 7th Medical Group provides personalized health care through five military TRICARE Prime teams staffed by board-certified family practice physicians, flight surgeons, internists, etc. The 7th Dental Squadron provides the full scope of dental care for active-duty members. "I will be doing general dentistry but I am also going to apply for a three-year specialty training school at Lackland Air Force Base," said Griffin. "I've already started the application process. It is very competitive. I would like to specialize in Implant Prosthodontics (which is placing the crown, bridge, or partial denture, on top of the implant). Griffin says he is full of gratitude for veterans who fought in World War II, Vietnam and other conflicts. "I can start naming people I know who have suffered through so much to make America what it is today&emdash;but then I know I would leave people out. "If I can pay those veterans back with some service then I will feel like I've accomplished something." Local Political Races Will Be Contested 'Floyd County will have some political races during the March primaries and in the November general election. Incumbent Commissioner Ray Nell Bearden, (D) filed her intentions to seek reelection. She has drawn two challengers who have filed as Republicans: Paul Moore and Clay Simpson. Moore and Simpson will face each other in the primary race and the winner will go up against Bearden in November. Another contested race will be between incumbent sheriff, Royce Gilmore, running on the Democratic ticket, and Ray Macha, running as a Republican. County Attorney Lex Herrington has filed his intentions to seek reelection, but has switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He has no challengers on the Democrat or Republican ticket. Also filing their intentions, but facing no opponents are: Penny Golightly (D), for County Tax Assessor; and Becky McPherson (D), for District Attorney. The primary race is March 9th, and the general election is November 2, 2004.
Bad Weather in 2003 Leads to Low Bale Count in County By Darwin Robinson The Floyd County total cotton bale count for 2003 was 45,948. This extremely low count was due to the wind and hail that brought disastrous losses to the cotton crop back in May and June. Over 85 percent of the county's cotton was lost in two different storms. 2003's cotton bale count was down by 72,335 bales compared to 2002's 118,283 bales ginned in Floyd County. A bumper crop of 177,469 bales were ginned in 2001. Most of the county's ginners were surprised with the numbers that were ginned this year. A spokesperson at D & J Gin of Lockney said, "Our 8,428 ginned bales was more than we expected this year." Don Marble of Marble Brothers Gin in Lockney told the Hesperian-Beacon, "We sent all our 1,158 bales to Barwise Gin this year to be ginned on our tax number." Manager John Woelfel of Scott Gin of Floydada said, "Due to the weather related storms in May and June, we sent all of our 1,337 bales to Quitaque for ginning this year." Floydada Co-op Gin reported the most bales ginned this year in the county with a total of 12,479. Blanco Gin and McCoy Gin were still ginning three days before Christmas. Both gins estimated their final totals based on the number of modules still to be ginned.
FLOYD COUNTY'S FIRST BABY --
The first baby born in the new year at W.J. Mangold
Memorial Hospital in Lockney was Lacy Tyann
Phillips. Lacy is the daughter of Tyler and Lacy
Phillips of Lockney. She was born at 5:35 p.m. Jan.
1, weighed 9 lbs. 2 ozs., and was 21 inches long.
Her father is a farmer and her mother is a student
at Wayland Baptist University. Grandparents are
Ronnie and Elaine Austin, and Keith and Marcia
Phillips of Lockney. Great grandparents are Melba
Austin and Jim and Davis Lindeman of Plainview;
Almeda Phillips and Gayle and Boyd Reay of Lockney;
and Eddie Joe and Amelia Fortenberry of Abernathy.
Obituaries BEATRIZ H. GARCIA Beatriz H. Garcia, 80, of Emporia, died Monday, January 5, 2004. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jose M. Garcia and one sister, Juana Vega. Survivors include one son, Juan Garcia and fiancee, Exie Kay Fowler, both of Emporia; three granddaughters, Martha Garza of Floydada, Pat Posada of San Antonio and Christina Banda of Owattana, Minnesota; one brother, Arturo Hernandez of Dalhart; one sister, Martha Smith of Stratford; seven great-grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews. Arrangements were under the direction of Owen Funeral Home of Jarratt, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Greensville Volunteer Rescue Squad. EVELYN POLLY REAY Funeral services for Evelyn Polly Reay, 90, of Seiling, Oklahoma were held Sunday, December 28, 2003 in Redinger Funeral Home Chapel in Seiling. Her grandson Kyle Brock officiated. Burial was in Brumfield Cemetery under the direction of Redinger Funeral Home of Seiling. Mrs. Reay died Thursday, December 25, 2003 at the Stroud Regional Hospital in Stroud, Oklahoma. She was born February 20, 1913 to Curtis Solomon and Cora Alice (Flora) Green east of Chester in Major County, OK. She received her formal education at the Chester School. She was united in marriage to Glen Carlton Reay, July 4, 1931 at Fairview, OK. They made their home on a farm just north of Seiling where they raised their four children. She helped her husband on the family farm and worked several years as a cook at the Seiling School cafeteria. She was an active member of the First Christian Church and the quilting guild. She was preceded in death by her husband Glen, March 28, 1994. Also preceding her in death were her parents, her daughter-in-law Phyllis Reay, one grandson Joe Reay, one sister and four brothers. Mrs. Reay is survived by her son Boyd Reay and his wife Gayle of Lockney; three daughters, Donnella Will and her husband Kenneth of Oklahoma City, Shirley Turk of Mineral Wells, and Debbie Reay of Davenport, OK; five grandchildren and their spouses, Diane and Alan Sears, David and Cathy Turk, Danny and Kim Turk, Kyle and Kay Brock and Vonda and Scott Paulus; eleven great-grandchildren; and many other relatives and friends. Memorials may be made through the funeral home to Area Medical Foundation, Brumfield Cemetery or Seiling Ambulance. PATRICIA RUCKER Funeral services for Patricia Davidson Rucker, 78, of Amarillo and formerly of Floydada, were held Tuesday, January 6, 2004 at the First Baptist Church in Floydada. Reverend Anthony D. Sisemore officiated. Burial was in Floyd County Memorial Park under the direction of Moore-Rose-White Funeral Home of Floydada. Mrs. Rucker died Saturday, January 3, 2004 at the Craig Methodist Nursing Home in Amarillo. She was born on March 11, 1925 in Warrington, England to John and Jeanne Davidson. She married Ralph Rucker on January 8, 1944 in Warrington, England. They were five days from their 60th wedding anniversary. She arrived in America on March 9, 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts and received her citizenship on January 31, 1952. She moved to Floydada in October, 1951 and to Amarillo in March, 2003. She was a bookkeeper at Ruckers OK Tire Store. She was a longtime member of First Baptist Church and Sunday School and a former member of Rebekahs and Cosmopolitan club. She loved her husband, children, grandchildren, reading, sewing and her Sunday School family. She was preceded in death by her parents, one brother, Jack Davidson; three sisters, Maggie Radley, Nancy Lunn and Jean Hay; and one grandson, Sean Rucker. Survivors include her husband, Ralph Rucker of Amarillo; three children, Max Rucker and wife Cheryl of Amarillo, Linda Woodall and husband Woody of Clovis, NM and Patrick Rucker and wife Kathy of Amarillo; one sister, Sis Topham of Appleton Cheshire, England; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Panhandle Branch, 2201 Civic Circle, Amarillo, TX 79109; the Epilepsy Foundation Greater North Texas, 2906 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204-5929; or to the First Baptist Church Exodus Fund, P.O. Box 610, Floydada, TX 79235. BEE WELLMAKER Graveside services were held for Bee Wellmaker, 95, of Denton, formerly of Floydada, Saturday, January 3, 2004 at the Floydada Cemetery. Reverend Anthony Sisemore, pastor of First Baptist Church, Floydada officiated. Burial was under the direction of Blackburn-Shaw Funeral Directors Memorial Chapel of Amarillo. Mrs. Wellmaker was born in rural Bethesda, Johnson County, Texas on November 7, 1908 to Joseph Albert Moore and Mandy Laura Gillentine Moore. She married Troy Wellmaker on April 21, 1946. Mrs. Wellmaker was a longtime Floydada resident before moving to Denton. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Floydada, the Women of the Oddfellows in Floydada, and held various offices in that organization including Noble Grand. She was the last of 8 brothers and sisters. She was preceded in death by her husband in May of 1971. She is survived by two nieces and one nephew.
By The Way | by Alice Gilroy
A View From The Lamplighter | by Ken Towery The New Year 2004 is starting off on the heels of some very positive developments from last year. With a little luck, and a lot of rain, things could look promising. Now, finally, Attorney General John Ashcroft has arranged for a Special Counsel, or a Special Investigator, or a Special Something, to find out who leaked to columnist Robert Novak the name of a (theoretically) undercover female agent of the CIA. The new special counsel is supposed to find out (1) if laws have been broken, and (2) who broke them, if any were broken. We welcome the move by Ashcroft, and our only hope is that in the process of finding out who "leaked" the information (which we are not overly concerned about) we may also find out a good bit about the Jewish cabal that has been agitating for American support, (which Ashcroft is not really concerned about) in the form of arms and money, in the seemingly eternal struggle between Abraham's spiritual descendants, the Jews and Muslims. The national press started dancing around the fundamental issue of Iraq many years before Bush finally gave the go ahead for the invasion. America's politicians also did their share of dancing. With politicians, it is understandable. Electoral support in the form of money, media, and religion is involved, and anyone who thinks those forces are not formidable just hasn't worked in Washington's vineyards. With the press, it's also understandable, up to a point. In the big cities, where media power is concentrated, the press must depend for its livelihood on forces that are friendly to the state of Israel. Any hint of wavering support will bring forth instant questions, threats, and denunciations. Perhaps, just perhaps, one of the things that will be brought to light in this prospective investigation is the role played by the so-called "neoconservatives", a group of mostly Jewish political activists who have latched on to the "conservative" label in such a way as to draw attention to the fact that they don't really like traditional conservatives. It is a matter of having one's cake and eating it too. They want to be known as being part of the conservative community, since that's where most people are, but to let it be known, also, that they are not really part of that penny-pinching group known simply as "conservatives." That little bit of political legerdemain allows them to claim conservatism as a base, while working tirelessly for billions of American tax dollars in "foreign aid" for Israel. And to do it with a clear conscience. We've thought for many months that our government's seeming obsession with "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, a term foisted on the Bush Administration by one of the neoconservatives' principal Washington operatives, was a poor fig leaf for reasons to commit American arms in the Middle East. Not that there were no good and sufficient reasons to commit those arms, but the stated reasons, we thought, and wrote, were way off base. We still think that way. There well may have been good and sufficient reasons to topple Saddam. He was a ruthless, murdering dictator, a Baathist admirer of Joseph Stalin and to a somewhat lesser extent, of Adolph Hitler. He and other Baath leaders patterned their party after the National Socialism of Hitler, and the International Socialism (called Communism) of Stalin. The Baathists hoped to create a sort of Pan-Arab community of secular Arabs, ultimately eradicating the ancient rivalry between Sunni and Shi Muslims (or Shiite, or Shia, or however one wishes to spell it) To get there, of course, required killing thousands of people. Saddam was quite willing to do that, so long as he, like Stalin, ended up on top. But Saddam's choice of heroes was no real reason to remove him from power. Lots of professors in our Universities back in the 1970's thought both Hitler and Stalin were great guys too, though misguided about certain non-economic policies. In fact, there was a time when our government, with Henry Kissenger as Secretary of State, helped Saddam at every turn in his quarrel with Iran. The Iranian revolutionaries were intent on establishing a fundamentalist Muslim society, so naturally they were at odds with any neighbor, like Iraq, favoring a secular state. Kissenger felt, perhaps rightly, that America (and Israel) would benefit by Iran and Iraq bleeding themselves to death. Kissenger was not alone in his thinking. Nixon, bless his heart, felt the same way. Nixon was always the practical politician, though misguided himself on certain occasions. He was another of those politicians who, like Clinton, felt he was, as President, "the law." Like many others before and after him, Nixon seemed to think "what's the use having power if you're not willing to use it?" His proclivity to use American power for personal political reasons did not match that of Lyndon Johnson, but it was there, nevertheless. And we, it must be said, have no quarrel with the idea of an American president using the power of the presidency for the good of the country. We simply feel that power should be used sparingly when American lives are at stake, or are apt to be at stake. So we welcome both the Justice Department probe and the "in-house" flap among political intellectuals that has finally surfaced about who actually paved the way for our involvement in Iraq. For many months the debate danced around the question of just who did what, and who misled the President concerning "weapons of mass destruction" that were supposedly available to Saddam. Democratic Presidential contenders have tried to have it both ways. Practically all the contenders, save former Governor Howard Dean and the nutty Rep. Dennis Kucinich, voted to give the President unlimited power to move against Saddam, and have been criticizing Bush ever since. They didn't have enough intestinal fortitude to vote their convictions when they had the chance, but now they seek to recoup by criticizing Bush for ordering troops to Iraq in the first place.
The Hesperian-Beacon invites you to read a collection of thoughts and memories by Ken Towery. The "Reflections of Ken Towery" can be found on this website by clicking here.
Classifieds
FOR RENT--Clean, furnished apartment in Lockney. Call 652-2642. Barker Real Estate.
Garage sales 1 bedroom trailer house. Single person or couple only. Call 292-9933.
Floydada 825 W. KENTUCKY--Garage sale. Friday, January 9th - 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Lockney Garage sale --608 S.W. 3rd & 118 N.E. 1st----- Saturday. Furniture, toys and more.
FULL-TIME FARMHAND--Must have experience and references. Call 773-5268.
LIGHTHOUSE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. is accepting applications for the position of Receptionist-Cashier. Applicants should have a minimum of five years prior office experience, bookkeeping skills and computer experience. Applications may be obtained at the corporate office, Highway 70 East, Floydada, Texas. Lighthouse Electric Cooperative, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
OWNER FINANCED--2 bedroom, 1 bath, central heat/air at 208 W. Virignia. Call 293-2918. RA Vernon Real Estate.
FOR SALE--3 bedroom, 2 bath, 30x30 shop at 110 South First. Call Mike Giesecke, 983-3453 or 983-3787.
FOR SALE BY OWNER!--3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage, updated throughout, corner lot, nice fenced yard, storage building.PRICE REDUCED!! Call 983-2064 or 983-2865, ask for J.
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BORDER COLLIE/AUSSIE CROSS (RED). See www.assiter.biz for more info or call 806-777-5577 or 806-470-9211.
ALPHATEX KENNEL, AIKEN, TEXAS offers superior quality AKC Registered, DNA Certified Collies, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. Puppies and stud service available. www.alphatexkennels.com
PROPERTY FOR SALE--Floyd County, pursuant to a tax foreclosure sale, is offering for sale the following property in the City of Lockney: All of Lots No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Block 35 and Lots 1 and 2 in Block G of the N.B. Davis Survey located in the City of Lockney, Floyd County, Texas also known as the Webster Service and Supply, Inc. property. Any offers should be submitted to: William D. Hardin, County Judge, Courthouse Room 105, Floydada, Texas 79235.
I WILL DO ALTERATIONS and some sewing in my home. (Experienced). Ann Free, 509 S. 5th Street, Floydada, Texas (983-2681).
ROOF LEAK REPAIRS AND RE-ROOFING on commerical roofs. 24 years experience. See why an Adams Roof Tech roof lasts longer at www.adamsrooftech.com or call 806-928-6062 for a free estimate.
LARRY OGDEN AUCTIONEERING--Estates, Farm, Ranch, Business, Liquidations, State Licensed and Bonded. (806) 983-5808. TX. #9240.
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