INDIANA PARLEY

The Journal-Gazette published a letter this morning from a Richard Loney from Fort Wayne under the heading "My Friend:Richard Blaich". The last part of the published letter follows. You can read the full letter here.

5. With the knowledge that he would soon die he decided to retire in the warm and arid climate of Nevada. He is the type that would never play to your sympathy by saying “I came here to die.”

6. He found an excellent growth investment in Nevada and bought the home purchasing it for the Schwab Foundation. It is in the name of the foundation and should prove to be a wise investment as it grows in value.

7. Why all the board changes? I don't know, but I'd guess he had the guts to do what many of us have a longing to do when serving on ineffective boards of directors. Perhaps he made changes that were long overdue. Don't forget, this foundation was still giving grants, so it is hard to guess about that, and Rick never explained why he made those changes.

Anyway, in the past few years Rick's service to his country caught up with him and as I see it he simply made an outstanding investment for the foundation and then planned to live out the rest of his very short life living in and managing that investment. Not a crime of the magnitude that incomplete reporting would leave you to believe.

I spoke with Rick just a few days ago and even then he was plowing ahead without complaint knowing that hospice was looming in a very short time. I'll miss one of our nation's heroes.

Richard Loney
Fort Wayne

A reader of IP noted the link to another letter reputedly published in the Journal-Gazette August 1, 2003 under the name of Richard Loney of Fort Wayne. You can find that link here. The text of the letter as shown on that link is as follows:

Deployed troops getting squeezed

Our president, the Department of Defense and Congress have been making back-slapping speeches about our military forces while at the same time trying to hit their pocketbooks.

The White House wants to rollback modest increases our military is getting for imminent danger pay and family separation allowance. I realize these roll backs aren't much more than golf fees for those seeking the reduction but it can mean a week's worth of groceries for the spouse of one of our soldiers.

Recently, Congress proposed to double the $6,800 gratuity paid to families of anyone who dies on active duty; however, the people heading up Defense say "No way."

The recent tax bill again failed to include the long-sought tax breaks for military families who frequently move and pay capital gains on their homes; for expenses incurred by reservists who travel hundreds of miles each month for special training and for parents with special expenses while deployed.

I fail to understand why my son-in-law couldn't claim mileage to go to military training when I could deduct such expenses on my "wimpy" civilian job.

The very latest thing that whole tribe of millionaires is trying to do is to put a cap on pay raises for privates, privates first class and their officer equivalents, the second and first lieutenants.

Have the news media questioned any of this? Of course not! Their mentality is to question whether Kobe Bryant's sex is consensual or rape. That's their view of news of national importance and investigative reporting.

Finally, the media like to point out how our warriors are upsetting the civilians in Iraq. Well, unless trained otherwise, it is hard for a warrior to become a peacemaker and nation builder. Well, forget such training, for Rumsfeld has just denied that opportunity by closing the only military peacekeeping school. It was located at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.

Richard Loney -Fort Wayne