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Terrorism Knowledge Base
Army Brats in Germany:
When Terrorism Was 'Just a Nuisance'
By Giles Babb
August 22, 2005
(Updated June 7, 2006)
September, 1970 at "Revolution Airfield" (aka Dawson Field--an abandoned WWII RAF airfield), located in Zarqa, Jordan, birthplace of the LATE Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A Swissair DC-8, also participating in this multiple skyjacking, is sitting just outside the photo and to the right of the TWA Flight 741.
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John Kerry said during the 2004 Presidential Campaign that we need to get back to when terrorism was a nuisance. I'm not exactly sure what period of time or level of terrorism he was referring to whereby it was just "a nuisance." I suppose he meant some "happier" time when life was much more "peaceful" and "simple." International and urban terrorism hadn't really reared its ugly head until about 1968 or so, and things didn't really get cooking in that regard until 1970. Therefore, I suppose the main period of time he was referring to when it was first really noticeable enough to even be a "nuisance" was the 1970's, particularly the early '70's. Let me tell you about three instances in which this "nuisance" visited my neighborhood during that time.
Welcome to USAREUR/Heidelberg
I was 10 years old and my sister was 12 going on 13 in 1970 when my dad and my family went PCS from Fort Sill for a three-year tour with the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, courtesy of the United States Army. My dad preceded my mom, my sister and me to Germany by three months, until housing and a MAC charter assignment from Charleston AFB came open on July 3. We moved into our apartment at 5C Lexington in Patrick Henry Village (PHV) on July 7, and we were there less than half an hour before we were welcomed to the stairwell with a Liter bottle of Coke (those sizes yet to be introduced in CONUS) by Joan Wilcox ** (in giving it to my mom, she jokingly said it may not be champagne but it's the best she could come up with on short notice), who had just moved three (3) weeks earlier from Fort Dix, New Jersey with her family---Walter Sr, little Walter (2 yr), Shannon (5 yr) and Shelley (12 yr). We all hit it off quite well early on, and my mom---an EEG technician stateside that would eventually discover she could cross-train, at least while in Germany, as a PHV Library assistant----babysat for little Walter that first school year there. Just before that school year began, however, Shelley's friend, Ruth Smith from Willingboro, New Jersey (I've often wondered if she knew Carl Lewis growing up) had come over to visit. In those few weeks that she was there that August, my sister and I developed a really good rapport with her as we had with her hosts, and we were truly sorry to know that we'd probably never see her again after she left to go back to CONUS for the start of school.
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** an Elementary School teacher that would begin her career in DODEA-DoDDS----at that time called USDESEA----in Mannheim and end it thirty years later as DODEA Heidelberg District Superintendent before finishing as a Superintendent of Schools in Fairfax County, Virginia |
August 30, 1970: 13th Birthday for my sister Becki. On the left behind her is Shelley, and on the right is Ruth. Almost one week to the hour later, Ruth would be enroute to Revolution Airstrip as part of an extremely complex and rather bizarre international incident
Skyjack Sunday
Labor Day weekend, 1970. Both my family and the Wilcoxes fully intended to take advantage of the opportunities for adventure during our stay in USAREUR, and in those weeks of July and August, indeed, in our own ways, we did. Most of my family's forays were initially just around the Heidelberg area; however, during that three-day weekend, my family made a jaunt down to Baden-Baden on Saturday, while the Wilcoxes and Ruth made a drive into Switzerland before Ruthie was set to fly out of Rhein-Main and back to JFK on TWA Flight 741 on Sunday in order to be back in time for the first day of school that Tuesday (we had already begun classes the week before that). On Sunday, my family drove in convoy with Sgt Whitton and his wife to Erbach, the Wilcoxes were returning back down the Autobahn from Frankfurt after putting Ruth on the plane, but she was instead flying somewhere nearby and overhead. Anyone who knows where Erbach and the Frankfurt-Heidelberg Autobahn are in relation to a flight path to JFK knows how irregular that would be under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, this was not a normal circumstance, and in view of the "nuisance" quality of the frequent unscheduled but relatively brief "visits" to Cuba by domestic American airline passengers throughout the 1960's, not the usual skyjacking. And, approximately 18 hours later while my family was following Sgt Whitton past Worms for a drive up the Rhein River, and after it had become abundantly clear that Ruth and her Flight 741 companions weren't the only aeronautical "guests" in the Jordanian Desert at Dawson Field/Revolution Airport----nor the only groups to have had their itineraries and eventually aircraft "transformed"---I would add a new word to my growing vocabularly: HOSTAGE. I'm not going to get into the particulars of this episode which was, even measured by post 9-11 standards, rather bizarre. There are plenty of other history sources for that. What I will say is that the first deadline came and went whereby various Western governments and Israel were to meet certain demands, or else the planes would be blown up with the hostages---the first time, I believe, that this tactic had been used in skyjacking. Although Ruth and the other "women and children" had by then been taken down to Amman, they were still being detained there by the terrorists, their passports confiscated, so I more or less assumed they were also still fair game to get fried. When you're 10 years old, you don't realize---at least yet, anyway---that deadlines can be extended (especially when terrorists act like "politicians"). So there I was, waiting for the next hourly newscast on AFN, wondering if my friend lay blown apart on the desert floor along with a bunch of other people. Indeed, this experience, the remaining 96 hours or so for Ruthie, the "wars and rumors of wars," were real "nuisances." Many people, however, would say it was more than "just a nuisance." It scared the hell out of the Babb, Wilcox and Smith families, and a bunch of kids aged 5-13 in both Heidelberg and Willingboro, New Jersey. Let's just say it left a lasting impression on me, and actually accelerated my already-precocious appreciation for and understanding of geo-political and geo-strategic developments. Some "nuisance."
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"wars and rumors of wars" A Jordanian Civil War between the PLO and the Jordanian Army was being waged in the streets of Amman just outside the hotel that Ruth had been sent to, Nixon dispatched elements of the Sixth Fleet to that area of the Mediterranean, and all forces in the European area had been put on a higher level of alert ever since the TWA captain radioed that "we're being kidnapped," and a USAF plane had been dispatched to fly alongside the 707 as it made its way back over Germany. Given the Soviets' continued relationship at that time with Egypt while Nasser attempted to mediate the Jordanian dispute (his painstaking and exhaustive efforts were at least partially responsible for his heart attack and death at the end of September that subsequently elevated Sadat to the presidency), the possibility of an international conflagration involving the US and Soviets existed just as it did in 1973 when US forces indeed were put on world-wide alert during the Yom-Kippur War. As per standard DOD procedure, all military dependents (at least the immediately responsible adults), upon arrival in Germany, were required to attend what was called a Noncombatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) briefing, in which they would be issued sealed info kits that were to be used---should geo-strategic (meaning primarily US-Soviet) situations warrant it---in an evacuation to elsewhere in Europe or back to CONUS. In the age of apparent detente that was well underway by 1970, no one realistically thought it would ever be necessary to open the NEO kits. Then again, when the Summer of 1970 began, no one realistically thought that simultaneous airline hijackings that would paralyze several world governments and threaten Middle East stability and US-Soviet detente could take place either. |
The "transformation," via terrorist, of the three (3) aircraft on September 12. A Pan Am 747 underwent a similar "transformation" in Cairo the previous Sunday
This is the
Additional pictures of this incident can be found at
http://www.peace-online.org/images/rev-airport/rev-airport-index.htmlNOTE: I am in no way endorsing the perspective of that website---I linked to it only for the pictures
Baader-Meinhof "visits" Heidelberg
After that initial upheaval late in the Summer of 1970, things actually calmed down considerably thereafter for USAREUR and USAFE, and several encouraging developments helped facilitate this: The continued thawing in US-Soviet relations, the Ostpolitik initiated by Willy Brandt, the gradual draw-down in southeast Asia along with Nixon opening up contacts with Communist China. Even the Mideast calmed down somewhat, partially as a result of the deal that Nasser was able to broker in getting the PLO relocated out of Jordan---although of course the solution only deferred for later a further showdown. Somewhat laughable, however, were all the copycat skyjackings that took place in CONUS in which a skyjacker---not necessarily as part of a prospective Cuban itinerary--would hold the passengers hostage and threaten to blow up the plane with the passengers unless some personal demand of some sort be met.
My family continued to take advantage of the various opportunities for adventure through the Fall and Winter of 1970, all of 1971, and through the early months of 1972. One of these adventures was a Swiss Hotel-Plan bus tour of Holland during the final weekend of April. En route to and from Holland, our group stopped in Frankfurt to pick up and then drop off some additional military families at the IG Farben Building, where V Corps headquarters was located. A little over a week later, the Baader-Meinhof urban terrorist group also visited this area, and left their own calling card that left an Army officer dead from the effects of the bomb blast that also heavily damaged the Officers' Mess. Security was of course increased at key installations, and of course this included Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg, where the 7th Army and USAREUR were headquartered. This lasted just long enough for people to let their guard down. Just long enough for the whole thing to be regarded as a "nuisance," perhaps? R-I-I-I-G-H-T....
May 24, 1972
My sister and her friend Teresa Case, who lived not far from Campbell Barracks in the older American housing area in Heidelberg named Mark Twain Village ('MTV')---both of whom were developing a growing interest in nursing and both of whom would follow this up in a few years with RN-track nursing degrees----were set to participate in a capping ceremony for summer volunteers at the 130th Station Hospital that evening. Just before we were set to leave for the shindig, Teresa's mother called to say something about a bombing at Campbell Barracks. As was usually the case since we left our TV in storage when we came over from CONUS 2 years earlier, we had our Grundig stereo tuned to AFN in the background. No sooner did my sister get off the phone to let us know what she had just been told, and "at the sound of the last tone," it was time for the hourly news:
"It's 7 o'clock in Central Europe: A bomb has exploded at the 7th Army Headquarters at Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg."
When we got the news over the phone, it didn't totally register at first, although my first reaction was a disbelieving "again??" Hearing the headline on AFN, though, sent a chill down my spine and left a sick feeling in my stomach, in reinforcing the seriousness of the situation, and a sense that things were maybe never going to be the same again. The classic loss of innocence (I guess you could say the "nuisance" stage of terrorism lasted a whole year and 8 months). Previously most everyone figured the main and perhaps only threat was the reason we were there, namely, the Soviets. Although the Baader-Meinhof gang had been around since 1968, most of their attacks up to this point were directed mainly toward their fellow Germans. Even more disturbing was to hear shortly thereafter that the Baader-Meinhof Gang had actually taken training from the PFLP----the same folks responsible for Ruth's visit to Jordan.
Of course, the capping ceremony was called off, as were several other functions in the Heidelberg American military community that evening. The next morning, I got to school (I was in the 6th Grade at Heidelberg American Elementary School No.2 as it was called at that time before eventually being renamed PHV Elementary) only to be detained outside with approximately 1000 other kids while virtually all of the faculty and staff were inside for a special meeting pertaining to, as you may well imagine, security and incident response. No one thought of explaining the intent of the meeting to Ms. Riley, the lone PE teacher assigned outside that morning during the meeting. As first five, then ten, then fifteen minutes went past the normal start time without anyone emerging from the meeting to indicate if we were even having class, she then deduced, as did nearly all the kids, that something was up and we were maybe having a bomb threat [the bomb threat being a popular gag beginning in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Heidelberg American High School wasn’t immune and the previous year had about five, and even my Elementary School had the honor of hosting one that cancelled classes for the rest of the day after it was called in during lunch time (the Elementary at that time didn’t have a cafeteria, so everyone was on their own at lunch, and most kids went back to their apartments in PHV, hung around the campus to play basketball, or went to the bowling alley snack bar to eat something)].
So---poor Ms. Riley told everyone to go ahead and leave. No sooner had we started leaving the campus grounds, the meeting adjourned. Just as I and a larger grouping of kids were passing by a side door, Principal William Lutz, fresh from the meeting, emerged and of course his first question was to ask where everyone was going. Several responded at the same time that we were told to leave, and we figured there was a bomb scare or something. With one of those classic "oh, shit" expressions on his face, he said "No! We’re having class. Go tell everyone to come on back here!" So I went and caught up with some kids that were further away than I was to let them know, and then turned around and headed for my class. After about 10 minutes or so we still had less than a quarter of the class present (it’s amazing how fast and far kids can get away from a school when given the opportunity for a class "holiday"---especially an unscheduled one), and we were still set at that point to head out on a field trip to the Gross-Gerau Zoo. The Heidelberg Army Transportation Pool bus was waiting out front, but we first needed to try and round up the majority of the class. Our teacher, Mr. Tomson, then told us to go ahead and get on the bus and we’d then try to go around PHV and round as many kids up as we could in a half hour. We got about 80% of everyone back, and the rest of the field trip was nominal.
Not so nominal, however, was the upheaval this second bombing in two weeks sent the entire American military community in Europe into. Campbell Barracks was declared a permanently "closed" facility that could be accessed only by presenting proper ID’s at what would be a newly-constructed security building similar to what has become common at nearly all military installations of ANY kind now---even ones that were "open" previously. In the case of Campbell Barracks, everything was so casual, for the most part, that people almost forgot how critical the facility really was to the entire US operation in Europe. Previously, the facility was accessible to everyone—military and German civilian alike---and was (still is, actually) a truly attractive facility that was previously used by the German military during WWII. The facility known as "The Casino" had an EES cafeteria and a movie theater that was organized in a large meeting room that doubled as a snack bar so that people could watch the movie and have burgers and fries while they sat at tables. Nice and laid back in other words. Indeed, many of the people---military and dependents alike---that sustained minor injuries were lining up for a movie when the blast occurred in the parking lot out front. Previously, I had been on the Campbell Barracks compound for any number of reasons practically 2-3 times a week. At this point we still had 10 months to go in our stay in Germany, and we still had places to go and things to see. Nevertheless, with the increase in security and the pain it was to get inside, I can count on one hand how many times I visited Campbell Barracks after the explosion, and it was virtually impossible to be there those few times in those final 10 months without thinking of what happened in that same parking lot that we had parked numerous times. The last time I was there about three weeks before we left, I finally got to see the sign that’s pictured below---a perpetual and grim reminder.
Like I said, the classic loss of innocence. Nevertheless, I suppose most of the after-effects could be put in the "nuisance" category. On the other hand, it’s amazing how "nuisances" can sometimes keep people on edge, so others can then take advantage of it. Two nights later, the MP’s were called to the apartment across from us to check out suspicious noises (as in someone being there that shouldn’t) in the attic area connecting the stairwells (anyone familiar with the layout of the apartments over there knows how easy it would be for someone to get up there and then stay for who knows how long). Well aware that PHV, like most of the American housing areas in USAFE and USAREUR, were "open," and in view of a stated promise from Baader-Meinhof that they intended to hit again in a few days and that they didn’t care who gets caught in the melee, people were a lot more cognizant of their surroundings for some time to come, and of course were encouraged to keep an eye out for and report any suspicious people, activity, vehicles or objects. Then again, this was the perfect opportunity for cranks to take advantage of the situation and to call in bomb scares, as happened in the week that followed at the PHV theater.
Following that second blast, the
Stars & Stripes stepped up its coverage of the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the efforts to capture them and their cohorts. They posted a front page picture display of about thirty Baader-Meinhof fugitives, including Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, with the headline "Germany’s Most Wanted." I kept that edition of the Stars & Stripes, and over the next month, I was able to cross off approximately two thirds of those pictured. This included the two namesakes. On June 1, Baader was caught in Frankfurt a few blocks from the main AFN studios, after he was shot in the butt by Polizei. Let’s just say that the nature of his injury amused me and my fellow classmates to no end and, in view of our recent experiences, pleased us immensely. Ulrike was caught in Hannover (just a day before Frank Wills also "caught" some people in Larry O’Brien’s DNC office), looking like an ugly crone in the below image in comparison with her earlier appearance when she was featured along with pictures of her accomplices in the Stars & Stripes. Things calmed down after that. Baader-Meinhof didn’t set off another incident as they promised (at least during our stay. They and their closely-related cohorts---the Red Army Faction---continued to be a problem all the way through the 1980’s and this included another "visit" to Heidelberg to do a number on General Kroesen’s car, although he and his wife escaped serious injury).Additional info can be found at this website:
This is Baader-Meinhof
Munich
In spite of the "nuisance" quality of the added security as a result of the recent episodes, the US military and the Polizei seemed to have things well in hand. It was time for the Happy Olympics that had been promised for Munich. And, it further promised to be exciting because the
The final series of excursions for my family outside of Germany took place in August. We began the month by driving to London, where we spent two days in North Clapton with the family of a British buddy that my dad met while stationed in London from 1962-64. We then moved into the Douglas House, a guest house for the American military located a few blocks north of Hyde Park (the Bayswater station that we used extensively while we were there to catch a ride on the Underground was the next stop from one of the stations to get hit on July 7), and the next day we picked up my grandparents at Gatwick, where they had flown in from JFK after connecting from Stapleton onto a Davis Agency World Airways charter for their second visit (they took the Davis Agency into Rhein-Main in June, 1971 for a similar visit and joint adventure). After another week in London, we ended up back in Heidelberg by August 15, and from there we took a series of day excursions, one of which was to view the Maginot Line outside Wissembourg, France. The final week of their stay, in the week leading up to the start of the Olympics, we headed on down to Berchtesgaden, where the Munich "chapter" of this story really begins.
We stayed at the McNair Hotel, which was one of the several hotels operated under the American Forces Recreation Center (AFRC) system in Berchtesgaden, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and other locations in Europe at that time. A neighboring AFRC hotel had a dining room that we frequented for both breakfast and supper during our four-day stay in Berchtesgaden. We went on several of the AFRC-sponsored bus tours during our stay, one of which took us to Hitler's Eagle's Nest vacation home. On our last full day in Berchtesgaden, we took a tour of Salzburg, and got to see the final preps for the welcoming ceremony for the Olympic flame, en route to Munich from Mt. Olympus, which would be spending the night in Salzburg before making the final trip up the Autobahn, with now less than 72 hours to go before the Opening Ceremonies. All during our stay, we had noticed flyers that had been posted at the McNair announcing that the Olympic Flame run relay and accompanying motorcade could be seen later in the evening of our final day as it made its way to Salzburg. Obviously not wanting to pass up this opportunity to see "Living History," we indeed did get to see it, which heightened our sense of excitement since we would be heading through Munich on our way back to Heidelberg. Indeed, bright and early the next morning, we headed toward Munich and a side-trip visit to Dachau to visit the infamous Death Camp. In doing so we got to drive past the Olympic Village, at which every intersection we passed through there were what were obviously athletes of various nationalities on the corners waiting to cross the neat, freshly-paved boulevards.
The Dachau site pretty much spoke for itself, and it's unfortunate more people don't have the opportunity to visit such locations. We noticed that some seating, scaffolding and audio equipment was being set up near the Dachau memorial sculpture. We found out the next day in the
Stars & Stripes that it was for a special ceremony to acknowledge what had happened in Germany since the last time an Olympics was held in Germany (both the Winter and Summer games in 1936), and to more or less bring reconciliation and closure in the lead-up to what was to be the Happy Olympics.|
My sister got this picture of the Olympic flame relay---flanked by kids about my age---outside the McNair Hotel at dusk. My dad got a really great 35mm shot |
Views of some Olympics paraphernalia we saw at an Autobahn rest stop southeast of Munich |
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Well, you know what happened next. It truly hurt personally---both Germans and American military alike---in view of the gallant efforts the German people made to put their best foot forward in putting the past behind them, only to have Jews murdered in Munich----the "birthplace in a sense of the Nazi movement---as a result of external forces. And, of course the coverage in the Stars & Stripes and on AFN---as it was throughout the Olympics----was as if it were a local story, which it was. After this third visit of terrorism to our neck of the woods I realized once and for all that the world indeed is a mean place at times. I lost a larger part of my illusions beginning then. A further insult for everyone a few weeks later, of course, was seeing the Lufthansa flight hijacked, with one of the demands being the release of the terrorists who survived the conflagration at Furstenfeldbruck, which was followed up by their release for a trip down to Libya where Ghadafi gave them a heroes' welcome. Six months later, on the day we were set to fly out of Rhein-Main for Charleston AFB---my dad and family on PCS to Fort Sam Houston---I opened up my "going-away" issue of the Stars & Stripes while eating breakfast at the EES cafeteria on the top floor of the Rhein-Main Aerial Port Hotel to a headline about Libyan jets firing at a C-130 over the Mediterranean, which gave me a growing sense that the "nuisance" of terrorism and the states supporting it in any way weren't just coming after other countries. No. They were coming after US.
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My grandparents were set to to return to CONUS from Rhein-Main on the Davis Agency Chartered Overseas National Airways (ONA) at nearly the same hour that the Opening Ceremonies down in Munich were set to begin. As was normally the case in European airports, the chartered flights were located in some remote location away from the main terminal. That day being no different, we said our good-byes about two hours before flight time and then left, while they then went to wait in the international departures holding lounge before being bussed out to the plane. Just as we were leaving, I noticed down on the tarmac some German armored personnel carriers that hadn’t been there earlier. We thought it was kind of odd, but figured they were maybe getting ready to ship out for a joint NATO exercise of some sort. To this day we still don’t know if there was any connection or not, but, given that this was the opening day of the Olympics, given the reported intentions by Baader-Meinhof to target charter flights, and also given the fact that it was later reported that Interpol was working on uncorroborated leads on what was being planned for Munich, it is interesting to note that my grandparents’ flight got off 2 hours late because German security suddenly and inexplicably ordered a strip search of the passengers. |
Also increasingly apparent is that you couldn't necessarily depend on the UN to do anything about it, either. Below is the Oliphant cartoon that appeared in the December 1, 1972, issue of the
Stars & Stripes, which could have just as easily appeared in the 2000's. Here we have the UN showing its "softer" side in waging a "sensitive" war on terror. "Mr. Terrorism" looks real impressed with this approach, doesn't he?September 11, 2001: LTC Karen Wagner
Of course, they now most certainly are coming after US. And, it just so turns out that the largest age group that they came after on 9-11 is the one born between 1958 and 1968: What has in some quarters been called the "Baby Bust" age group. The largest age group to die on 9-11 was this group that all those kids you see in the various pictures at this page belong to. The group that grew up in the 1970's while this new form of madness began to descend upon the world. Indeed, that's precisely where my only personal---albeit loose---connection to September 11 plays out.
Kirby Jr. High Student Council Homeroom Reps: 1973-74
LTC Karen Wagner, likewise a fellow military brat as was the case for nearly 60% of the Judson student body at that time, graduated from Judson High School---home of the Judson Rockets: judsonrocketball.com in Converse, Texas and located in a District situated between Fort Sam Houston on the west and Randolph AFB on the east---a year behind me in 1979. Although we didn't know each other real well, we did know each other while at Judson, and we both served on Student Council while at Kirby Jr. High and subsequently at Judson. An accomplished scholar and athlete, she also distinguished herself in Judson High School's 91st AFJROTC Squadron. She attended UNLV, and thereafter followed in the footsteps of her father---Staff Sgt. William E. Wagner--with a career in the US Army. She was in the Pentagon, in the service of her country, when Flight 77, "piloted" by terrorists, slammed into the building on September 11. She was given full military burial honors at Fort Sam Houston nearly a month later after rescue crews finally were able to locate, retrieve and identify the dead.
Article and picture from the October 6, 2001, San Antonio
".....nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to......where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."
On the date of this article (August 22, 2005), the new LTC Karen Wagner High School---home of the Thunderbirds----opens its doors as the Judson ISD's second High School. Terrorists have attempted to silence the disciples of freedom. But this building is as good as any proof that they do so, and the stones will cry out instead (cf
Luke 19:40). I can only imagine how many other facilities since September 11 now carry the names of those that dared to simply do their job on behalf of others. Terrorists have many ideologies, but the one thing they all have in common is a fear of peace, and they will go to whatever extremes necessary to ensure that misery is spread equally in disturbing that peace and in promoting fear and hatred, which indeed is the only thing we have to fear (1 John 4:18). This is why they attempt to disrupt infrastructure and commerce and other civil human interactions, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, or New York City, for it's true that authentic human development and the development of an ownership society is the new name for peace (cf Populorum Progressio, element 76; Genesis 13:8-19; Summa theolgiae II-II, q.66, a.2; Towards a Better Distribution of Land, by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, element 29) and that's one thing they simply cannot stand for. This just as certainly as they also attack the seats of Peace, Law and Justice, and the strength that advances it and guarantees it, be it in London or Washington DC. And, that's why the "nuisance" of terrorism was and always will be a threat at any time and in any place that can never be ignored or dealt with "sensitively". Love conquers all and indeed is gentle, long-suffering and patient (cf 1 Corinthians 13:1-13), but so too it must at times be tough (cf Hebrews 12:7-8; Genesis 6:7-22). Love is not for the faint-hearted (1 John 4:18; John 12:24-25).May the Lord guard, guide, and protect all who enter the grounds of both Wagner High School, Judson High School, and all other present or future Judson ISD facilities.
And may the Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you
And give you peace
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