Okinawa Memories Part III

Betsy and Joann

August 2009

Who's Missing?

Julie Arnold who was the third member of our Sukiran Elementary Gang.

Julie and I taught first grade.

Betsy taught second grade.

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Betsy who was from the San Francisco, California area married Jerry Plunkett in 1970 and moved with Jerry to Korea, then Germany, then the Panama Canal Zone, then Germany again and then back to California where Jerry retired from the army twenty years. Betsy then became the principal and classroom teacher of the smallest one room school in California.

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Joann left Okinawa after two years there to spend four years teaching with DOD schools in Frankfurt, Germany where she met and married Jack. Jack and Joann returned stateside to spend five years in Arizona before moving to Virginia where they have lived in various homes for the last thirty years.

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Julie transferred from Okinawa to Iceland to teach DOD students stationed there. Iceland has periods of all daylight and periods of all night.When Julie visited me in Germany she told me that they had to take each kindergarten and first grade student by the hand and walk them from and back to the school buses during the period of total darkness. Wild, huh? She also related how she kept falling into holes in the dark on her walk from the BOQ to her school. She related that the astronauts spent time training in Iceland because its topography is a lot like the surface of the moon. iceland was such a hardship tour that all teachers were flown free of charge on military airtcraft to Germany for a two week Christmas holiday. Interesting.

Julie met and fell in love with Gordon Arnold, a navy officer who hailed from Texas. Julie was from the Los Angelas area but when she married Gordon in 1971 she became a Dallas, Texas lady after spending a short period living with Gordon in the new planned city of Reston, Virginia. Julie and Gordon have now moved from Big D to Austin, Texas since they both are retired.

August 2009

Jerry and Betsy

Jack and Joann

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I attended Betsy and Jerry's wedding in 1970 in San Francisco, California Betsy and Jerry attended our wedding in Frankfurt, Germany in 1974. April 15, 1974 --it was our wedding day.That was the last time that that we had seen each other till this past week.

Jerry and Joann goofing for the camera clickers.


Betsy and Jack goofing for the camera clickers.



Let me introduce you to the next generation of DOD teachers.

Here's Patricia Plunkett.

Math and AP Chemistry Teacher at a DOD high school in Turkey.

You can tell that Jerry and Betsy are very very proud of her. Tomorrow I will show you photos of Betsy and Jerry's beautiful wedding at the Octagon House Museum in San Francisco. I will also show you some photos of Sukiran Elementary School on Okinawa where Betsy and Julie, the golden California girls, taught with Yours Truly, the Midwest farmer's daughter. (Does that remind you of an old Beach Boys song entitled California Girls?)

Just for the fun of it you can go here to see the lyrics of California Girls: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beach+boys/california+girls_20013916.html