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Chapter 25: Welcome to the White House Gerald R. Ford, or Charles, Potter, and Mulcahy Return Home From the Vietnam War

It was AUGUST 1974, & with the energy crisis still continuing, well, things did not look too good for the NIXON administration! So PRESIDENT RICHARD M. (MILHOUS) NIXON resigned from office! His new VICE-PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD took over as the new COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF! FORD had originally replaced SPIRO T. (TED) AGNEW as VICE-PRESIDENT when AGNEW resigned due to an audit on his finances from the I.R.S. (INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE) in 1973. Now RADAR starting on his 5TH term as county sheriff he could hardly wait for CHARLES EMERSON WINCHESTER, III., SHERMAN T. POTTER, & JOHN FRANCIS PATRICK MULCAHY to return to ITASCA COUNTY after having spent 1965 to 1975 in VIETNAM. So once AMERICANS everywhere tuned their tv sets on during the evening of APRIL 30TH, 1975 to see the fall of SAIGON, well, most of them were glad that the war was finally gonna end! A few days later at the campus of the UNIVERSITY of MICHIGAN, PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD announced that the war in VIETNAM was officially over! In ITASCA COUNTY meanwhile preparations were underway for the return of CHARLES, POTTER, & MULCAHY to the town of GRAND RAPIDS! PETER JOHN MARSHALL (the son of the writer CATHERINE MARSHALL (whom wrote such great books as "A MAN CALLED PETER" & "CHRISTY") & the late REV. PETER MARSHALL whom was the SCOTTISH born immigrant whom gave only one sermon as chaplain of the UNITED STATES SENATE just one day prior to his death in 1949) was glad to have MULCAHY relieve him at a pulpit which he'd only been at for about six months. POTTER was glad to return to his horse ranch just halfway in between GRAND RAPIDS & FOWLER'S CORNERS! Even FOWLER'S CORNERS' very U.S.A.F. VIETNAM war hero & former NASA astronaut MAJOR ANTHONY "TONY" NELSON returned to ITASCA COUNTY, MINNESOTA with his wife JEANIE whom as turns out is actually a real live popping out of a bottle genie! So they along with their 4yr. old son TONY, JR. settled down town to the peaceful small town life when it was decided to run TONY for Mayor of FOWLER'S CORNERS! Also, in the process FOWLER'S CORNER'S got it's very first police commissioner namely, ROGER HEALY whom was one of TONY'S fellow astronauts at NASA & co-pilot when they were dropping bombs loaded to the hilt with NA PALM on HANOI from 1971 to 1973. Then after two more years in the space program, well, they both got their honorable discharges, & packed up bag & baggage for ITASCA COUNTY! Of course, TONY & ROGER did have one personal loss to both of them namely, COL. ALFRED BELLOWS, whom was an AIR FORCE PSYCHIATRIST while stationed at NASA plus SAIGON during the time they were in VIETNAM. Now DR. BELLOWS as he was most often referred to, well, an N.V.A. (NORTH VIETNAMESE ARMY) infantryman bayonetted him between the eyes during the only official high profile attack on the 4077TH! The same attack also ended with the death U.S. NAVAL CAPTAIN WALLACE BURTON BINGHAMPTON (an arch enemy of LT. COMMANDER QUENTIN McHALE) as well as the crippling of Naval LT. ELROY CARPENTER (BINGHAMPTON's aide) from the shoulders on down! Of course, both BELLOWS and BINGHAMPTON were both idiotic creeps! Even the days of CARPENTER being BINGHAMPTON's very own personal spy were over for good! However, the saddest fatality of that day was that of PLATOON SGT. VINCE CARTER of the U.S.M.C. whom left behind many of his men, including P.F.C. (PRIVATE 1ST CLASS) GOMER PYLE of MAYBERRY, NORTH CAROLINA! Now life in GRAND RAPIDS was beginning to improve a great deal with the additions of some new deputies whom were Vietnam veterans from TULSA, OKLAHOMA. Their names are listed as follows: PONYBOY CURTIS, DARRELL CURTIS, SODAPOP CURTIS, TWO-BIT MATHEWS, TIM SHEPARD, & CURLY SHEPARD.

From LOS ANGELES came LARRY HUBERT & LARRY HARRIS. There were even enough new doctors in GRAND RAPIDS to form a regular hospital now! Those doctors included ERIC CANFORD, JAMES KILDARE, BEN CASEY, & JEROME LITTLEFIELD! Of course, with the return of CHARLES EMERSON WINCHESTER, III. to civilian medical practice as head of thoracic surgery at the new LECH MEMORIAL HOSPITAL in GRAND RAPIDS as well as the brand new county coroner for ITASCA COUNTY because he'd also studied forensics as well as thoracics at HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. So on the night of MAY 17TH, 1975 at the residence of THE ADDAMS FAMILY one of the most wacky welcome home parties, more or less, brought in hilarity of all sorts into the county for the first time since the war itself! But clouds of crimes far more ominous than those of the clouds of war were brewing in the wind as preparations were being made for a series of all out assaults on ITASCA COUNTY through use of both mafia assassins as well as the ghetto youth gangs of ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA!