Another friend that Ken got really close to was Rhon Iverson.  They were together in a number of squadrons.  This friendship came later in their careers.  They were both family men, and got to know each other when they got transferred overseas.  Neither of them were drinkers, so when the other guys hit the bars, Ken and Rhon used their R&R to explore the countryside, bringing back pictures of the places they had been and people they had met.  Both of them enjoyed Japanese drama productions and I think they saw them all.  

Ken wrote me a letter telling something Rhon's wife had shared.  Seems their kids had bunnies.  Rhon's wife heard a terrible screeching, and went outside to see what it was.  Their two boys were bathing the bunnies and hanging them on the clothes line to dry.  By their ears.  (If you are young, you probably won't know what a clothes line is.  It's an external couple of poles with wire strung pole to pole.  Wind is the dryer.  Clothes pins hold the clothes on the wire.  Everything comes in the house wrinkled when it is dry.  White rectangles were cloth diapers that had to be folded.  Over and over again.  Nobody I knew had ever heard of disposable diapers and if they had, they wouldn't have paid for them.)

Anyway, the last time Ken and Rhon were returned stateside, Ken went to Quantico, and Rhon went TAD to the Air Force, teaching them air to air combat, which the Marines were known for and the AF wasn't.  The services traded skilled pilots back then to cross train.  AF pilots weren't used to quick jinks I don't guess, because one of them hit Rhon in a close air maneuver.  A midair.  Ken was the body escort and it almost undid him.  I think that was the death that broke Ken's heart.  There were so many.  But some were harder because you had taken a chance and become a close friend.  Rhon kept his robe and horseshoes at our house for when he flew cross country.  He and Ken would play cribbage for hours.  They were the two finest examples of Marine Corps pilots I knew.  Now gone.  God Bless America.  God bless the Marines.