In New York for Research on Spring 2011's Release of Red Earth Courage

Rachelle and I have been enjoying our week in New York. We arrived Monday at Laguardia and drove two and a half hours north to Albany. On Tuesday we spent all day in the Research and Archives Division on the 11th Floor of the New York State Library and Cultural Center. I have been working for about a year and a half researching a book which will be released next spring on the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Red Earth Courage recounts the incredible true story of the Civil War's first secret mission.  My hometown, Enid, Oklahoma, is opening a new Smithsonian affiliated $8.5 million dollar museum this fall, and I am working on material for an exhibit covering this unique mission, which tangentially touches the land upon which our fair city is located. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the project for our community and state, and will conclude the research tomorrow. I intend to spend the next four months writing, and will having the manuscript ready for submission by September. Everyone in New York has been extremely helpful, and it has been a profitable week.

Yesterday Rachelle and I spent some time with West Point's military historian Alan Aimone, at the stunning United States Military Academy Library. One of the heroes of the Civil War's first secret  mission was an 1855 graduate of West Point, a man who after completion of the successful mission eventually became a Union General. Alan was able to assist us with some great background information concerning West Point at the beginning of the Civil War. Upon leaving the Library we went to visit Major Paige Heard. Major Heard is a Southern Baptist military chaplain and I've written before about her service as the Protestant Chaplain for the United States Military Academy. We were told upon arriving at West Point's Chapel that Major Heard had been promoted and transferred. We visited with the staff for a little while, all of whom complimented Chaplain Heard on her faithful ministry to the cadets, and then my wife took the picture you see to the right. I am standing in the building where Major Heard faithfully preached every Sunday to hundreds of cadets.

We were able to see all the beautiful campus of West Point, and the picture to the left is from Bear Mountain, looking east toward the Hudson River. The river runs from the north to the south, with its mouth at New York harbor, just 25 miles south of West Point. The military academy can be seen in the foreground of the picture, sitting the plateau above the western bank of the Hudson. It was a thrill for us to visit yesterday with  one of our church members, Trey Wheeler, who is graduating this Saturday as a member of West Point's Class of 2010. Trey was tops in his class his freshman year, served faithfully on the Army's Parachute Team all four years at West Point, and is now engaged to the valedictorian of the Class of 2010. His fiance is a young lady who will be addressing the cadets this Saturday along with President Obama. Rachelle and I dodged the Secret Service as they were already in full protection mode getting ready for the President's visit, but we enjoyed visiting with both Trey and his mother before the day was over.

We closed yesterday evening with dinner at a wonderful Mediterranean restaurant near Rockefeller Plaza in mid-town Manhattan. We have some work to in a couple of museums today (Thursday), and will be returning to Enid on Friday. It was a little surreal to walk down Broadway after dinner Wednesday and listen to my phone as our son, Logan, put his own phone next to the television set in Enid to allow me to hear the tornado coverage for the area. New York may have the throbbing pulse that goes with a cosmopolitan city, but little old Enid, Oklahoma has the heartbeat of a city shocked by the powerful defibrillator of unannounced tornadoes. Though I love Manhattan, I was sad I couldn't chase the tornadoes with my boys.

Oh well, springtime is not over.

P.S. Just as soon as I posted this, WNBC TV, New York City posted dramatic visual video images of the tornado just south of Enid and north of Hennessey. It's weird to sit in the Kimberly Hotel in mid-town Manhattan with the newscasters mentioning your hometown. The weatherman was shocked at the size of the tornado. To us Oklahomans, it was a little one. Lord willing, none of our church members who farm south of the city had any property damage.