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 In the late 1970s there was a popular TV show (I think it was on PBS) called “Connections.” It explored the gestalt of current events and inventions. A mind boggling, detail heavy, exploration of how we got to where we are. This program came to mind while I was eating my breakfast this morning, staring out at the rain-soaked trees dropping their leaves on the green grass of the far west suburbs of Chicago. How in the world did I get to this exact spot on this exact day? The short answer is “the sovereignty of God.” But a couple of the connections can be listed as Jesus and US veterans. God’s provision for my life and eternity can be directly attributed to Jesus’ death and resurrection. The many connections He had to plan for me to get to the Cross of Jesus included the second major connection … US veterans. When I was 10 years old, my father was a pastor in a very small church in Montana. There were weeks we apparently lived on the good graces of congregants who canned for the win...

From the first televised images to the heroic “let’s roll!” those of us who were of age remember where we were and the shock of the evil that attacked our country 20 years ago today.  Following are the memories of my brother Danny, who was working near the Pentagon that day. I had never heard his entire story and part of it brought me to tears. Danny is a man of character. I am proud to call him my brother. These are his memories as he wrote them. Stand By – Meetings Postponed  On the morning of 9/11/2001 and in Skyline-1 of the Skyline Office Complex, my TMA support teammates and I had seen the pictures and reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center in NY. It was time for us to make our way to Skyline-6 for a meeting with your client in TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) Information Management (IM). We discussed what we had seen about the World Trade Center as we walked through the underground and then as we sat waiting in one of TMA’s Skyline-6 conference rooms. The me...

 by Rex Eldon Nelson (from an article that appeared in “The Good Old Days” In 1907, I worked as a bridge carpenter for the Utah Uinta Railroad. This was a narrow gauge railroad that ran forty miles up into the Uinta Mountains to the mining town of Dragon. The railroad hauled gilsinite from Dragon, down the mountain, to a loading platform for the Rio Grande Railroad. The Rio Grande ran from Denver to Salt Lake City.  The town of Dragon was home for the railroad workers, as well as the gilsinite miners. When I got word that I had the job in Utah, my wife Nettie and I were staying with her aunt in Grand Junction, Colorado. At the time, Nettie and I had one baby [William Earl Nelson] and another in the oven [Oliver Lescher Nelson]. We were both excited about the job, as I had had no work for a few months and we both disliked having to lean on relatives. The job started as soon as I could arrive, so we packed our things and bundled the baby, and were ready to leave in a few days. [...