Blog Posting # 837; Copyright 28 March 2025. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally—regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction), contrasted with traditional stick-built housing (a.k.a. onsite construction). Plus, land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. And, considering various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describes post-production segment of MH.
EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial MH information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (Really should be in every land lease community office nationwide!), and SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production since 1955.
And my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as freelance consulting and authoring of 30 nonfiction texts.
George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large of MHInsider magazine.
CELEBRATE OUR NATION’S RVN VETERANS THIS WEEKEND
The months March, May and November feature occasions when we honor our nation’s military veterans. And this year, during the fall months there’ll be two special military-related 250th anniversaries celebrated in Philadelphia, PA.
This weekend, on 29 March, we celebrate National Vietnam Veterans Day. It’s been 52 years since that decade-long conflict ended in 1973. Some say there’s only one percent of RVN vets alive today! And just like Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, there will be scant coverage of the occasion in our nation’s press. But for those of us who served ‘all those years ago’, memories will indeed return, to remind and be reflected upon once again. Me? Among those recollections I’ll recall my final firefight along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Ashau Valley during February 1969, when we captured Russian artillery and killed Russian advisors firing them. This rarely reported chain of events is vividly described in Ronald Winter’s book Victory Betrayed, pp. 171-174.
Then, on 26 May 2025 we’ll celebrate Memorial Day, the somber day when we remember and honor those who’ve given their lives in defense of our great nation. That includes the father of Carolyn’s childhood and high school friend Billie Ann, who was orphaned when her father was killed during the Battle of the Bulge during WWII, and her mother died shortly thereafter. Billie was raised by her paternal grandparents and honored her father’s memory by serving on our nation’s battlefield preservation commission. And 80 years later, she continues to visit his grave in Europe – one of the many graves of U.S. servicemen lovingly maintained by local families in that area. Who will you remember and celebrate this Memorial Day?
Then, on 11 November 2025, we’ll focus national attention on Veterans Day. This year promises to be an even grander celebration as HOMECOMING 250 will be occur during a weeklong event around that time, celebrating the 250th anniversaries of the births of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps! The majority of the celebratory events will take place in the Philadelphia, PA., area, the common birthplace for both military services. To learn more about this stellar event, visit Homecoming250.org I plan to attend with my brother Mark (USMC & USAF), Spencer Roane (USN) and John Dietz (USMC), who entered the Marine Corps with me in 1964.
A couple years ago I was asked to address a group of men as to what the aforementioned occasions mean to me. Here’re some of the thoughts I shared that day.
On Christmas Eve 2005, in a local pharmacy where I was purchasing last minute gifts, a former Vietnam War protestor asked my forgiveness for her misguided passion and actions while a university student 55 years earlier. “We talked, I cried, she atoned” pretty much sums up that emotional conversation. Today, 20 years later, we continue to be friends, and she’s seen her own son go off to war and return home safely. Read ‘Making Amends’.*1
Two decades after my return from RVN I had a chance occasion, while on active duty in San Diego, CA. to meet and thank the Phantom fighter pilot who provided intense close air support during my last firefight, during Operation Dewey Canyon, in Vietnam. When he’d expended his ordnance, he and his wing mate executed ‘wing waves’ as they departed our hilltop position. Then, 20 years later I unexpectedly met him in person during a welcoming reception at the USN amphibious base (Seal training) in Coronado, CA. Read ‘PUC Beer’.*2 Title combines the initials PUC (Presidential Unit Citation awarded for that firefight), and all the Beer I bought for him that week.
And lately, an even greater awareness of how very much Carolyn’s and daughter Susan’s love meant to me during the 13 months we were separated, is described in the short story ‘Four for Fortitude’.*3 Today, every time our three year old great granddaughter Emmie (Susan’s granddaughter) visits – a couple days each week, I’m reminded how very much I missed of Susan’s life back then when she was close to Emmie’s age.
And there are more tales to tell, but you get the idea. Think of the veterans you know, and make a point of greeting them during one or more of these special days.
End Notes.
- Read this short story in my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, available via www.educatemhc.com
- Ibid
- Ibid
George Allen