Vance Burris:  

The passing of the reunion gave me the determination to make the trip back to my childhood home in Illinois. So after a 42 year delay I went back to close out old memories. I am adding some pictures from the present there and my past. I still have a few relatives in the area that I got to visit with. Time to get back to the end of High School. The last half of our senior year in 1968 saw Vietnam going hot and heavy, with the Tet offensive that spring, the U.S. had the draft lottery in place and my birthday drew lotto ball #36. That ball put me just inside the first 10% for the draft, since I was 18 and not overly thrilled about the prospect of being offered a job with the US Army, I made some immediate alterations to my summer plans. I enrolled in the first summer session at UTA and started my college education before I really wanted to. I had been feeling a need/desire to get away from this area during those last days of high school and they stayed with me in that initial foray into college. The feelings finally pushed me away from school in 1970, I found a Navy program that would allow me the school of my choice, and only required 2 years of active duty, only requirement was that you enter prior to your 21st birthday, so march of 1970 saw me finally moving away to Navy Boot Camp in San Diego. After completing all the Navy tes...Expand for more