Melbourne was the setting last weekend for the Florida Air Show, billed as an Armed Forces Day event and featuring the Navy s famed Blue Angels.
A small party from Lake County had the privilege of enjoying the show a day early, sans traffic, in the company of a Blue Angel alumnus, retired Cmdr. Wayne Molnar (the SALUTE page s Veteran Profile in the Daily Commercial s March 7 edition).
Col. Riccoh Player, a former Pentagon public affairs officer, said that Armed Forces Day was created in 1949 to replace separate Service celebrations. And major venues across the nation, and smaller communities as well, have injected their own local and regional color and tradition in some very creative ways over the years, he said.
LAKE SENECA – He s a throwback.
The son of a career Army infantry officer, Albert James Jim Diehl III graduated high school in Germany; played Rugby and started jumping out of airplanes while a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy; and has set his muddy boots in 78 countries.
Recently retired and approaching his 69th birthday, two-thirds of Jim s 51 years in military and federal service were spent in and around the special operations environment and those ubiquitous three-letter agencies, where his jersey number was often called for the thorniest of missions.
And the decorated Marine is staying aboard – as a volunteer chaplain in a new program designed to offer spiritual succor to those serving in the intelligence field.