Life in the danger zone tour

[HAB911]

I'm in North Tampa, the latest track has landfall to the south around Sarasota which would save Tampa Bay from the storm surge, of course that could change at any moment. We expect tropical force winds by noon today, 10/9, and hurricane force by late afternoon.

We haven't had time to clean all the debris from Helene when I lost six fully loaded Papaya and one large banana. The county had no time to begin storm debris pickup, so all the streets are lined with piles of what will become missiles. Milton will take down my remaining Papaya and maybe much much more. I spent a full day putting up Kevlar shutters over all openings in the house, we have a generator at the ready as I expect we will lose power sometime today and will be without for perhaps weeks. I have two networks, Spectrum cable and Frontier fiber to the home, followed by the cell network as long as the cell towers are standing and their generators have fuel, so this will be a test of what survives for how long.

So what is a photographer to do waiting for the apocalypse? Photograph to the last minute like I have since 1970 on the DMZ. To the extent possible, I will be updating a gallery on my site, may even be useful for the insurance, lol.

Depending on conditions, I may ask mnhtnbb to post my October photo entry if I lose all access. Wish us luck!

FWIW, https://jamesdevore.smugmug.com/MILTON

[Glorfindel]

1. Good luck!

Stay safe.

[Mousetoescamper]

2. Wishing the very best for you and everyone in Milton's path, HAB.

Photo documenting your property is a good idea for practical and sentimental reasons. It looks like you've done everything within your means to protect the house.

Looking forward to seeing any photos you can safely take. You know how to stay safe.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Oh wow, my dear HAB! Best of luck to you and yours.

Sounds to me as though you've thought of everything you can do to stay safe.

You take care! I want you safe.

[ShazzieB]

4. Glad to hear you're okay and hope you stay safe!

We haven't had time to clean all the debris from Helene when I lost six fully loaded Papaya and one large banana.

I'm laughing at myself right now, because it took me a few moments to figure out that you wsre talking about trees!

Being a creature of the north, I just don't automatically associate the words papaya and banana with trees that someone would have growing in their yard. D'oh!

[Bo Zarts]

5. I also did some photography from over Dong Ha and the DMZ in 1970-71 ..

And in Laos while flying missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This is a photo I took while flying an ECW mission just inside Laos during Lam Son 719 in February 1971. It has been scanned, sharpened, enlarged .. etc .. so it has lost that original Pentax SLR clarity.

But the amazing thing is the 1968 map table. I saw the map table in the LBJ Presidential Library on a visit a couple of years ago and said, "Whoaa!!! That's exactly where I was flying in 1971!" My missions were always TOP SECRET/CRYPTO/SI, so the sight of the map marked SECRET gave me pause.

The labels on the map are my quick additions, not to scale, and just general info. Map and photo are oriented north up. The bare sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in photo are bombed out and not in use, and these sections are close to the Tchepone River. By 1971 the HCM trail had shifted a little bit west, keeping ever out of our sight under jungle canopy where available.





Aerial Photo: © 2024 Bo Zarts Studio
Map Photo: Public Domain - 1968, from the LBJ Presidential Library

[HAB911]

6. Whoaa! My DMZ was not quite as exciting

except for three times we almost saw some action. My DMZ was at Panmunjom, also some secret stuff, staring down N. Korean guards, getting hostile fire pay and being sprayed with Agent Orange. My camera at the time was a Minolta SRT-101, some photos I took were strictly forbidden of course.

Might as well take the tour, most everyone has had to endure it:

https://jamesdevore.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-BACK-TO-THE-1960S/DEMILITERIZED-ZONE-CIRCA-1970

[Bo Zarts]

7. Very interesting photos ..

Two guys from my flight school class got orders to Korea in 1970, to fly Cessna O-1 Birddogs on the DMZ. They were excited not to be going to Vietnam.

Six months later I saw them in the club at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. They said that Korea was so bad that they volunteered for Vietnam to get out of ROK. Worse, they did not get credit for their six months in Korea .. so they incurred a 12 month tour in Vietnam!

But they both survived their Vietnam flying. Barely.

[HAB911]

8. I too was excited not to go to VN

As bad as it was on the Z, no civilian clothes, always in uniform, knowing you were suicide speed bumps sandwiched between the fence and and the Imjin river if war started, cold as hell, -65 for three memorable days, constant 30 mph wind......it was perhaps worse south of the river, like being in the states with inspections etc, which we never had.