There is a little chronological order to these pics, the first two are from graduation at Ft Devens Massachusetts, after a flight to Detroit the next 3 pics are being sent off from Metro to St Louis, where the Spirit of St Louis and big polar bear reside at their airport. The next flight was to LA then onto Japan. A hop skip and jump later it was Second Division Korea for the next year (and next 70 pictures). Most of the time Chuck worked at second division but did earn a trip to Che Ju Do Island, a beautiful paradise off the southern tip of the Korean penninsula. While there he was trained in repelling down cliffs which was a whole lot of fun.

Also toward the end of the photo gallery are pictures of James Dad returning home after a one year tour of Korea (and two promotions later).

Charles served at Second Division which was located about 10-15 miles from the DMZ zone and would make frequent courier runs to the DMZ usually on Sundays. During the week Charles worked at the SCIF (Secured Compartmental Information Facility)

Continue reading “James Dad Goes To Korea 1981” →

After the Iranian hostage crisis, James’ Dad left college and joined the military to help out. He went to Military Intelligence School at Ft Devens in Massachusetts and remembers walking to a cool music store that was located in Ayer, a small town outside of the base.

Dad got to see much of New England’s history while stationed here including the USS Constitution and Plymouth Rock. One of his favorite times was camping at Cape Cod which seems odd since when you are in the military you are camping out all the time (its called bivouac or being out in the field).

Charles graduated ahead of his designated time which was a real accomplishment in those days since you had to learn Morse Code or “hacking dits” as they called it at Fort Devens.

Continue reading “James Dad Graduates Military Intelligence School 1981” →

James Dad was in College (Henry Ford Community College, aka Hank High) when President Carter ordered a rescue mission to save the 52 Americans being held hostage at the American Embassy in Iran. The rescue mission was a disaster and failed miserably when a helicopter crashed and killed 8 Americans. United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned his position following the failed rescue attempt.

The next day James dad signed up for service in the United States Army. He wanted to leave after the softball season which ended in late August. Early September a car pulled up and took him to the Detroit center which took him to Metro Airport where a flight took him to New Jersey and a bus took him to Fort Dix for basic training.

After basic training another bus took James Dad to Fort Devens Massachusetts for AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Army Intelligence School.

With summer coming to a close in August, James Grandma had a farewell party for James Dad as he was getting ready to go into the army and do basic training at Fort Dix New Jersey in early September.

The party took place at Lake Erie in Monroe Michigan (the state park just east on exit 15 on I75) on a perfect summer day and many of James Dads “little friends” (a nickname to Dads friends who he met in first grade, hence the name little friends) were on hand to give James Dad a hearty send off (the keg of beer helped a little as well).

The party was a big success and James Dad made it on time to Ft Dix where basic training awaited him.

Continue reading “James Dad Going Away Party 1980” →

The Lepire Paper softball team made it to the championship game, but lost in a very close game. Seeing that it was only the teams second year in existence playing against teams that had been playing for years and decades in some cases, it was quite the achievement. This would be the last softball game James Dad would play before going to the Army about a month later.

Cousin Terry’s wedding was much fun for the whole family with lots of dancing at the reception. Most of James relatives were in attendance and can be seen in these pictures. The wedding took place on a glorious summer day.

There was hardly a dry eye in the place as many remembered Terry’s Dad Uncle Joe, who had passed away a few years earlier while visiting Disney World with his family. He would have been very proud of his day and everyone was sure he was looking down from heaven with his blessing.

Continue reading “Cousin Terry’s Wedding 1980” →

Jimmy Carter was the President at the time of this visit. Iran had taken the U.S. Embassy hostage, and a rescue operation had failed. The day after the mission failed, James Dad decided to join the military to see if he could help out. James Grandma thought it might be a nice trip to fly into Washington for a weekend so we ventured off to the capital of the United States for a weekend excursion. The vacation included several bus tours which were nice and informative, but depending on what side of the bus you were sitting on you really could not take it all in. Most of the free time we had was spent at the Smithsonian or visiting the monuments and we found out we did much better on our own than with the tour, although the tour kind of gave us direction to where we wanted to go.

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Lots of people do not realize the Grandma (Loretta) Kleiber almost became a nun as she came from a very religious family. Well one member of her family did become a nun, we just referred to her as “Sister” (actually she was Aunt Cil’s sister which makes her a cousin). She would show up at almost all our family events and was a lot of fun to be around. She always wore her habit, which is Catholic Nun traditional outfit. Nuns, Monks, Religious Sisters and Brothers wear Habits as an outward sign of their devotion to giving their entire life to God and Jesus. Older type habits that covered the head and body were adapted from Medieval dress and clerical and academic attire.

Unfortunately James Dad was in the military at this time so he missed the festivities, however he heard all about the party via letters and such as it was a very big success.

Continue reading “Sister Evarista Retirement Birthday Party 1980” →

James Dad had just started College when he decided to take Halloween decorating to the next level. In the past, the house had always been decorated for Halloween but the decorations amounted to paper decorations hung on doors and windows, nothing really 3 dimensional. This year using whatever items he could find including an old electric weight loss machine and an old adjustable sewing mannequin along with some cheap Halloween masks and made a pretty decent Halloween display at a fraction of the cost for current animatronics. Most of the items moved, including the guitar player, a guy stirring a cauldron made from a laundry basket, Frankenstein arms went up, etc. This was Dads first attempt at a large Halloween display, but it certainly would not be his last.

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James’ Dad graduated high school way back in 1979, he remembers walking almost a mile to class most days until he got his drivers license and car, then his first speeding ticket in that order. In his senior year, James’ Dad would open up “Leo’s Fruit Market” on Van Born road each morning at 6am, then go to gym class which he arranged to be his first class so he could shower after work.

Many great times at this school, working on floats, going to football games (our team was 1-10 senior year or something like that), and of course learning. Dad took his first electricity class while at Annapolis which would end up being his chosen field (sort of, actually electronics engineer but in order to do electronics you have to do electricity first) during the military and civilian life.

Continue reading “Charles J Kleiber (James Dad) Graduates High School” →