I made a trip to the Windy City a few weeks ago. This was a long planned trip to visit my long time friend Jeff Bantz and spend three days at the Mecca of Baseball – Wrigley Field.

Jeff and I have been friends since 1980 when we were in the Air Force together in Panama. I try to go visit every year or so to experience big city life and get my fill of Chicago Cubs baseball.

More often than not, I go when the Braves are in town and kill two birds with one stone. It’s a lot easier being a Braves fan now. I claimed the Braves as my team in the late1970s when I lived in Alabama.

Over the years, I’ve sat just about everywhere in Wrigley. I’ve even been on the rooftops you see outside the park in right field, the bleachers, all over the field and upper levels.

My favorite seats are the upper level behind home plate. Not only do you get an excellent perspective on the game, but also the vista of the bleachers, scoreboard, rooftops and skyline are excellent.

Besides that, there is a bodacious beverage and brat patio right behind your seats. And as I’ve gotten older, the exponentially more important restroom is also nearby. You’re always in the shade and there is always a breeze blowing at you.

The game is not the main event for me. The main event is the characters at the game. Everybody is jovial and talkative. The Midwesterners are very friendly. Not Southern friendly, but friendly all the same. There’s nothing like it.

•••••

While in Chicago, Jeff, Northern Arizona-based longtime friend retired Army Master Sergeant Pete Durban and I stopped at a

Former great military minds Jeff Bantz and Pete Durban

grocery store to pick up some steaks to grill after the game. We’re standing in the checkout line and Pete reached out and picked up a Newsweek and it fell open to an article entitled “The General Nobody Knows.”

I said to my buddies, “Hey, I know him!” It was Air Force Gen. Ed Eberhart who many Clarendon County Chamber members met a couple of years ago at the Chamber Pinehurst, N.C., retreat.

Retired Air Force Col. George Summers, (Clarendon County’s Master of Murals) had arranged for then Air Force Space Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Commander Eberhart to talk at the Chamber retreat. He was an awesome speaker.

Dr. Scott Brown and I experienced a sound thrashing on the Pinehurst #3 golf course while there. Not only did the course whip us, the General and Scott’s dad, Tom Brown, taught us a lesson on the links.

I was so impressed by this man and knew he was something special. This golf game was in January 2002, several months after the 9-11 terrorist strike on our homeland. The general talked about that day and where he was and what he was doing.

September 11, 2001, was an especially memorable day for Eberhart. He was one of four people who could order a civilian aircraft to be shot down. He talked about how they were tracking the flight that ended up crashing in Pennsylvania and how it could have been a tough choice to make if things had not turned out as they did. Although he did say, if it came down to it, there would be no choice.

Gen. Ralph “Ed” Eberhart

Now, two years later, there’s a nice picture of the general and a story in Newsweek. The story is about the new job the general has and how he is the military commander of the Northern Command and responsible for our homeland security.

After reading the story, I thought, “what a good choice for someone to take on this difficult job.” The general starting a new command is not an easy job.

My last assignment in the Air Force was in 1984 at the new Colorado Springs-based Space Command that Eberhart later commanded. The politics and jockeying for position that went on everyday was incredible.

I was the editor of the newspaper and every general, colonel and captain wanted their story told, in their own way. It was quite a learning experience. As I look back on it, the experience certainly prepared me well for Clarendon County politics.