USA70PP, a life well lived (1940-2022)

The Dock

Persona Non Grata
I noticed a while back that @USA70PP hadn’t posted for a minute. Went back to a thread he posted in, found these tidbits.




USA70PP said:
20 September 1940

USA70PP said:
Spent 26 plus years with various intel agencies, None Such Agency, Christians In Action as well as USAFSS. All over the world, at one time fluent in two languages and half way in 9 others. To be anyway close in foreign languages you must understand what it is you are talking about in English. If you don't understand how something is done in English, it makes it very difficult to understand it in another language.

With a ‘last online’ date of February 12, 2022, I perused the memoriam section of the Marion Star. Right at the very end of the reverse-chronological perusing is a mid-February obit for an 81-year old man named Charles Long. The submission had little information, however a Google search of “Charles Long Marion Ohio” returned the following Legacy.com obituary.

Charles 'Charlie' was born 20 September, 1940 in Radnor, Delaware County, Ohio to Milton and Mary Jeanice (Harper) Long. Upon graduation in 1958 from Edison High in Morrow County, Ohio, Charlie spent a brief time at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, until seeking greener pastures in the United States Air Force in January, 1962. Upon completion of Russian language training at the Defense Language Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, Charlie underwent subsequent intelligence training at Goodfellow Air Force Base, San Angelo, Texas. His tours of duty included a year and a half in Pakistan, three years in Hof, West Germany, twelve years in Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, three years at the National Security Agency (NSA), and two tours in Japan.
Charlie valued most his assignment as an analyst at the 6912th Electronic Security Group (ESG) strategically placed 110 miles within the Soviet Zone of East Germany in the divided city of Berlin (1973-1981 and 1984-1988). Recognized throughout the security service for his unparalleled knowledge of Soviet military forces posing a threat to the nation during the Cold War, he played a key role in the unit's acquisition of the coveted Travis Trophy in 1986, was not only selected as the unit's representative during the Polish crisis in December, 1980 coordinating with the AWACs mission in Ramstein AFB, he was handpicked to fill a 6912th command billet at Tempelhof Central Airport (TCA) until well after his retirement in early 1988. Credited with numerous Air Force commendations, Charlie was the sole recipient of the flag of the United States flown in his honor over all three duty sites in Berlin: Teufelsberg Operations, Marienfelde Operations, and TCA.
Upon his wife, Christine's retirement from the Air Force in 1993, Charlie and she returned to Ohio. Treating his settlement in Marion County as a final assignment, Charlie jumped into local affairs. About a decade as Director of Mobile Meals of the county, he initially limited his participation to the Green Camp Lions (Melvin Jones Award), the Kennel Club of Marion County, and Safety City, all the while an avid supporter of the local United Way and Goodwill. Recognizing his part in the greater community, Charlie subsequently created an annual scholarship to reward the most valuable football players at Mt. Gilead and Cardington Lincoln high schools in Morrow County. All would agree that Charlie leaves the world, including his final home, much improved by his presence.
Charles' first marriage was to Mary Akron of Morrow County, Ohio. He married second Christine Bauman at the Zehlendorf Standesamt in Berlin in December, 1976. During their first tour of duty at the 6912th, the couple were members of the British Berlin Saddle Club. In this behalf, Charlie extended countless volunteer hours in behalf of the organization and the animals he loved. Their second tour of duty found them involved with the local community. Playing on the British-German Rugby team at Berlin's famed Olympic Stadium, on the German net he was appreciated as an active participant in Berlin's Schlittschuh Klub supporting the professional "Ice Hockey Preussen" team and their games at the Deutchlandhalle.
Charlie's children – all from the first wife: Scott Long and Leslie Marie (Long) Artz, both of Cardington, Ohio. Grandchildren: Bryan Donahue of Marion, Skylar Long of Pembroke, North Carolina, Paige Artz of Cardington (Andrew Cochran), Madison Long of Marysville, Ohio, and Emalee Artz of Cardington. Preceded in death by son Robert Long of Cardington and great-grandson, Mylo Long of Pembroke, Charlie was blessed with three surviving great-grandchildren: Adam, Luke, and Grace Donahue of Elyria, OH. Surviving sisters: Mary Beth (Long) Bowers (Dan) of Cardington and Nancy (Long) Hubbart (David) of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Calling hours will be held at the Boyd Born Funeral Home of Marion on 21st February, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. A service will immediately follow. A celebration luncheon in Charlie's honor will occur on 12th March, 2022 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Marion Country Club. Memorial contributions may be made in Charlie's name at 1) Tiger Haven, 237 Harvey Rd, Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-4100, and at 2) Pilot Dogs, 625 W. Town St., Columbus, Ohio 43215 (614) 221-6367.
To send flowers to Charles' family, please visit our floral store.


By all means a rich, fulfilling life of supreme intrigue and experience our friend lived.
 
 
Very sad. One of the flaws on a site like this where people are mostly anonymous is people pass away and we never hear about it.
 
Very sad. One of the flaws on a site like this where people are mostly anonymous is people pass away and we never hear about it.
When people stop showing up on here do you ever look up to see if they have passed? If so, you sharing would not be so bad right? I've been on here long enough that I forget if we agreed to some anonymous clause.

I remember USA70PP. He was a good one and obviously lived an impressive life. Going through the thread Dock posted from 2019 someone brought up Belly. Anyone ever figure out what happened to him? He was another goody.
 
When people stop showing up on here do you ever look up to see if they have passed? If so, you sharing would not be so bad right? I've been on here long enough that I forget if we agreed to some anonymous clause.
No real way to find out unless it is specific like USA70PP. Way too many anonymous emails and people don't leave enough of a trail to find out who they are. It is still a gut punch when these type of posts come up because even though we never met (or probably never met) they still feel like friends and neighbors.
 
USA70PP, even without his posts in that thread, was unusually candid about his life over the years on here (and Huddle.) That's not a criticism and shouldn't be construed as such -- it just speaks to the point that Yappi is alluding to. Most posters just are not that descriptive of their life away from the keyboard -- and that's fine. USA's posts in the thread were pretty useful in helping reach the 'closure' as to what happened to him, for the simple sake that 25 minutes of perusing the memoriam page for the Star was made possible by him actually stating his date of birth (so I know that I'm looking for an 81-year old gentleman) and the fact he mentioned he lived in Marion. Had it not been known his actual age, it probably would've taken hours to comb through all the obituary pages of gentleman 75+ who lived in Marion that also had a special connection to the Cardington and Mt. Gilead football programs (which he talked about before on forums.) Had we not known he lived in Marion, even, then we probably would not have known.
 
Two diverging comments, spontaneous thoughts...

1) USA's passing, especially learning about when he did pass: is on Yappi one day, and passes away suddenly the next day. To an extent, it puts some things in perspective. We all think (I presume) that we have "more time." It serves as a lesson to me to see each day of existence as a gift.

2) regarding IB's and Yappi's point about knowing/posting -- at the risk of sounding needlessly crude, I think the sector of posters that are most likely to have their deaths be known are the ones that regularly post in their respective sports forums. Ever seen the wrestling forum? I would also apply some of this same thinking of 'by contrast' with the football forum in the same vein as wrestling forum. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I would stand by my reasoning anyways:

a) I presume that the general makeup of the posters who almost exclusively post in the Debate and General Forums, due to the nature of how... uh... 'tenacious' yet devout those posting spheres can be, are not a demographic of internet users that are inclined to reveal much if anything about themselves to people they primarily know through Yappi.com;

b) in the football forum, because it is a seasonal and very ritualistic activity to the extreme of being it a pastime, there is a greater proclivity among more users (not to mention there are just more users on the football forum than on this side of the site to begin with) to wanting to try and make real-life connections with people you post with over the years. Many people want to break bread. Especially if it can be done with people who live in your nearby area that you've had a pleasure of talking to for years.

c) Sponging off of 'b', not only is there a pretty generally-desired "want" to connect, because Talking Football online consistently over a period of time invariably ties you to a specific school with a specific level of expertise on an area/school/conference, at some point or another you get your real-life identity inferred upon (and therefore made out) by other people who read your posts either through you personally revealing "too much" about yourself or just simple coincidence that you talk so much about area football with real life peers/strangers who happen to also read the site.

d) Sponging off of 'c', so, uh, I actually went through this bout of personal conflict with myself over the last week. It became apparent in recent months that people I knew in real life and initial strangers I happened to talk to fully knew who I was on here. It's one thing to hear from a friend that you never discussed Yappi.com previously with "hey I saw your post" (has happened to me) to which I reply "oh, haha, yeah that is me, you caught me" to -- after 10 minutes of conversation with initial strangers (future friends) -- hear "Oh, I know who you (me) are." I ended up tallying the list of people in real-life who I know know who I am from here (and thus know who I am on here) and people I don't personally know that might know who I am, and that number ended up being in the ballpark of 35-40 people who read my posts at some point or another. At that point, it hit me: I'm not just posting online with my online persona reputation, but I (unwittingly) had been posting with my own personal reputation also at stake -- and I hadn't realized as such until then. (And no, it's not as if I wear a sandwich board to games that says "yes I am The Dock from Yappi.com" or blabber on about posts I make to random people. Just a general combination of circumstances where people either know about the site from the days of their own message board savvy, coming across the site via Google keyword searches of their school and sport, or what gets circulated around via social media/group texts, that spans years -- with said people reading the posts asking themselves "do I know this poster? Maybe I do. Hmmm!")[/I]
 
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