PRESENTING "A YOUNG SOLDIER'S DREAM"

Taken from my alter ego Mr. Dick Flood's autobiography

"My Walk Among the Stars"

"Sub titled; "Rubbing Shoulders with Country Giants"

In Dick's own words; "It was 1952. I had purposely flunked my senior year in high school just to play one more fall season of football for my school. But early that fall my plans for playing football abruptly changed. Because Something else was in the wind. This was during the Korean conflict. I was now 19 years old and by now too many of my close friends had been horribly wounded. over there. Some had even sadly lost their lives in battle in a far off place that most Americans including me had never even heard of before.

I felt a strong urge to join up and do my part to help get the durn thing over with. So unbeknownst to my parents I joined the army. In October of 1952 I was sworn in and I was assigned to what was then known as the ASA. They sent me to Camp Breckenridge Kentucky for basic training with the 101 Airborne Division. Upon completion of basic I was deployed to South Korea. I know that it about broke my poor Mom and Dad's hearts but deep in my own heart I knew I had to do it. And I did"

Later in Dick's story; "I remember sometimes walking guard duty late at night trudging through a foot or more of snow at our base camp in South Korea and hearing someone's portable radio somewhere quietly playing the latest stateside country songs. I'd hear; Faron Young's "Goin' Steady", Ernest Tubb singing "Walkin' the Floor" or Hank Snow's "Movin' On", or pretty Miss Kitty wells singing "It Wasn't God Who Made Honkytonk Angels". And oh how I was wishing I could go stateside and rub shoulders with those people and sing their songs with them up on a stage somewhere. It would be a soldier's dream come true!"

After an eight month stint in South Korea with the U.S. Army Dick was re-assigned and sent for a time to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippine Islands. Here at The Silver Wing Service Club during his off time he organized his first country music band ever.

"We called ourselves ‘THE LUZON VALLEY BOYS’. Our group was made up of several young hopefuls like myself. As leader of the group most of the time I was the one to talk over the mike and introduce my different friends. I played rhythm guitar and sang. By that time I had mastered most of the open chords on a six string guitar, but I kept my old beat up four string harmony around just in case I might need it Sometimes I doubled on the steel guitar. I had purchased an old single neck National steel guitar and I had been teaching myself how to play it. I wasn't very good but I played "The Steel Guitar Rag", The Pan Handle Rag" and I did quite a lot of back up on some of the country love ballads. I still have some old old recordings of my playing and singing back then. Over the years I have stayed in touch with a few of my old Luzon Valley Buddies but time has a habit of changing everything, and as of 2020 all of them but me have met their maker. God rest their souls."