Dear Yuichi:

I just want to wish you a "Happy New Year" as this one comes to an end in few more hours. We have been fortunate in being able to see so many years come to a close. I trust that all is well with you and your family.

Although this past year has had its low points, I am glad to say that it has been a good one for me because I came through the cancer operaton successfully. The week before Xmas I had another cataract removed and this will bring my distance vision to 20/20. I will still need reading glasses. The need for dental work continues to be my most irritating problem as it has interested with my traveling plans. I hope it will not effect my attendance at the Am.Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor meeting in Virginia in May nor the reunion of my bomb Group in South Carolina at the end of August. I still want to make another overseas trip sometime during thenew year.

There is very little news to report at this time, so I will just say again-"Happy New Year".

Sincerely
Bob
Robert R. Martindale

HOLIDAY GREETINGS
(2000)

I am very glad to be able to send you my best wishes for the holiday season and the new year once again and that you are able to receive them.

This wan another eventful year for me. The major event, as some of you know, was the need to have a small node removed from my left lung in April. Fortunately, the cancer had just started and surgery was all that was necessary. The later check-ups have not indicated any developments. It was not until October when I felt well enough to do any traveling.

A symposium ath the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, was of particular interest because of the chance to meet with several Japanese former pilots and to hear their combat stories. One of them had flown a torpedo bomber and another had been a Zero pilot. I have found it rewarding, as a history major, to learn more about sides of an event because it gives me a better perspective and appreciation of what small part I may have had in its occurrence.

My first time attendance at a high scool class reunion in Brownsville, Texas, was done with some trepidations. I was not sure if I wanted to see the former classmates as they are now or to simply remember them as they were many, many years ago. I was pleasantly surprised by those who were there. Most of them, like good wine, had improved and become more attractive with aging. I only hope that none thoguht that I was like a bad bottle of wine and had deteriorated to the point of no longer being of interest.

Novemver has been a busy time for me. First was the arrival of a Japanese film crew from Los Angles to interview me for a program about Chiristmas in Omori P.O.W. Camp ( TOKYO ) which is scheduled to be shown in Japan on December 22nd. A half a day was spent here and the afternoon was spent being filmed at the Admiral Nimitz Museum. The crew then went on to San Antonio to interview Joe Alexander and Charles Dutterworth the next day. Joe and Charles are better photo subujects than I am on film.

The highlight of the month, and perhaps of the year, was the opportunity to visit with my youngest daughter and her family from Charlotte, North Carolina, at their house on Kiawah Island near Charleston, South Carolina, for the Thanksgiving holidays. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the island home of their friends and my son-in-law's co-worker. The dinner was made more memorable when I heard on TV four days later that our host had been named the next CEO of General Electric.

Happy holidays

Robert R.Martindale