Keeping Apace

IN MEMORIAM

Byron D. "Jug" Varner
Commander, U.S. Navy (Retired)
1923-2006

Dear Friends,

Our beloved Byron passed on peacefully on November 17th, 2006. We hope you will join his family in celebrating his life and character, and what he has meant to so many people throughout the years.

Byron's passion was this Web site and the research and writing that provided information and perspectives for military active and retired families.

In his honor we will keep the site active and each day present a random article from the archives.

Bonnie Varner, Vickie Varner Johnson, Roy Varner, and Gary Varner

GITMO: Thirty-One Years Later

The old saying, "you can hardly get there from here," is true of Guantanamo Bay. First of all, one must obtain permission from the Navy Department. That requires time-consuming coordination and approval by various commands. Then, one must go to Norfolk Naval Air Station. "Gitmo," as it is also known, is not a direct flight from most airline terminals.

I served on the Admiral's Staff there from 1963-1965 as Public Affairs Officer, and Officer-in-charge of the Armed Forces Radio and TV Station. My son Roy, who accompanied me on this trip as photographer, graduated high school there the year we left.

Read the full article on a visit to Guantanamo Bay...Thirty-One Years Later...

From the archives:
TROY CLAIMS UNCLE SAM ORIGIN (1994)

Did you ever wonder how the cartoon figure Uncle Sam originated?

Historians at Troy, N.Y., say it all started there and that he was a real person named Sam Wilson. Friends called him Uncle Sam. Troy has erected a large statue of their famous resident near their downtown Riverfront Park.

Local stories vary. Some say he was a butcher who contracted with the government to supply meat to the Army during the War of 1812. Others say he was a government meat inspector. In any case, he stamped the meat with his initials, “U S,” for “Uncle Sam.”

Cartoons depicting Uncle Sam first appeared 1852. Whiskers and stars were added later. During the first World War, Army Recruiters used his likeness on a recruiting poster with the phrase, “I want you” by the famous artist James Montgomery Flag.

Congress declared Uncle Sam Wilson the progenitor of America's national
symbol in 1961.

Wilson died in 1854 and is buried in Troy at the Oakwood Cemetery, but he has posthumously lent his name to a variety of establishments there: a parking garage, a natural foods store and a bowling alley, to name a few.