LARRY TWEEDIE REMEMBERED
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I wanted to ask if you would post on your tribute page the following;
Larry Asa Tweedie--Pilot
Tomahawk 19- 128th AHC
2/69-5/70 Phu Loi RVN
10/27/50--5/26/99
Survived by his daughter Bridget and his son Ross
Thanks Bill and God Bless,
Doug Ward
Bill, regarding Larry Tweedie, he was living in England when he passed
away, and there is a very interesting story about something that happened to
him there involving his Viet Nam service, and a chat group, and a school
teacher who put her job on hold when he went to the hospital, and stayed
there with him until he passed. (remarks below)
Doug
From Irene living in the UK befriended our guys and was with Larry in our
absence during his illness and at his passing...here is her story...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When my son was doing a project on the Vietnam war and made enquiries via
the Internet, little did I then realize how it would affect me. Ron
Timberlake replied and what he told my son was so interesting that I joined
in the correspondence. I didn't know much about that war even though I was
living in New Zealand when it started and in Australia when it was winding
down. Ron told me about the war and referred me to the Heli Vets web site,
where I read lots of the stories written by you some were sad, some were
funny but all were interesting.
Ron continued to write regularly and frequently. He enlightened me about
events subsequent to the war. He told me about his trips in his airplane
and his holidays. He always ended his messages with "Happy trails".
When Larry had a heart attack over a year ago, Ron asked me to telephone the
hospital and chat to Larry. This I did and that started another net
friendship. In the course of conversation with Larry, he asked me what
plans I was making for Y2K and the millennium bug. I had to admit I hadn't
given it much thought so he invited me to join his Y2K group. There I found
new friends, with more joining later. Eventually, there were 9 of us in the
Y2K group and very stimulating it was too. We didn't stick to discussing
Y2K though but moved on to current news, Mr Clinton, favorite films and,
latterly, the war in Kosovo. Larry was our leader and posted a daily
newsletter which he edited from his findings on the web. Larry loved a good
argument and had strong views on most topics. Within the group, we didn't
always agree but that made our discussions all the more interesting. Larry
even suggested that we all meet up in 2000 and go on a canal barge holiday
together. He said he had it all planned out in his mind.
I never met Larry before his final day but I enjoyed many long, interesting
telephone conversations with him. I regarded him as my friend. When he
went into hospital for his bypass operation, he asked me to be his contact
person for the hospital. He told me he'd be fit and well after the
operation. He said that after 48 hours, he'd be on an exercise bicycle and
within a week, he'd be back home. He asked me to telephone the hospital on
the Tuesday evening, after the afternoon operation. When I did, the news
wasn't good but I fully expected things to improve. For the first few days
I telephoned the hospital three times a day, then twice a day. You all know
how things progressed during the next three weeks from the reports I sent to
you. You also know that I went up to see Larry when the doctors told me
there was little hope. I met him at 0300 hours. He'd expected to talk with
me just hours after his operation, yet here we were, three weeks later and
he'd been asleep nearly all that time. He couldn't move and he couldn't
speak but he opened his eyes really wide and he knew who I was. Before he
died at 1700 hours, I had plenty of time to talk to him and he understood
what I was saying. I talked about his pals in Heli-Vets and the many
messages of goodwill which I'd received for him.
When Larry finally left us, he was not alone. He had greetings cards and
emails around him, a present from Rick Bailey at the head of his bed, the
carving from "Weird" Stanley on the bed and I held him as the
representative
of all Heli-Vets. The last words he heard were about his friends in Y2K and
Heli-Vets. I'm sure that if he'd been able to speak, he would have said
"thanks guys".
My very best wishes to you all
Irene
Stinger At Eternal Peace we shall remember him
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