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3. My top nine blogs over the last 28 days:

4. Last month’s health, family, and WWII blogs

Last month’s family blogs

• • My ministry to health professionals started humbly over 4 decades ago and has spread around the world
  • Looking for a Daily Bible Reading Plan?
  • In honor of our National Sanctity of Human Life Day
  • Our Amazing 2024 in Review
  • Walt and Barb’s Family Update — January 2025
  • Honoring my father on his 100th birthday on January 4
  • My father was chosen for the 2025 Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame
  • Signed 1st edition copies of “At First Light” available

Last month’s health blogs

• • Healthy nutrition resolutions for the New Year
  • How to finally have successful New Year’s Resolutions – Part 1 – Why do so many fail?
  • How to finally have successful New Year’s Resolutions – Part 2 – How can you succeed this year?
  • How to finally have successful New Year’s Resolutions – Part 3 – How to help your kids and grands succeed!
  • Healthy nutrition resolutions for the New Year starting on this 12th day of Christmas
  • Making and keeping spiritual resolutions for 2025 and eternity
  • What works best for toenail fungal infections?
  • “Vaccine News You Can Use” for Family Physicians — Winter 2025 — Part 1
  • “Vaccine News You Can Use” for Family Physicians — Winter 2025 — Part 2 (details below)

Last month’s WWII blogs

I’m continuing a blog on most days following my father’s exploits and adventures during WWII. Each blog will represent what he and the men with whom he was fighting were doing 80 years ago on the exact day of the blog. Here are last month’s blogs:

• • Honoring my father on his 100th birthday
  • My father was chosen for the 2025 Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame
  • Signed 1st edition copies of “At First Light” available
  • December 30, 1944 — New Year Eve’s Eve was a cakewalk in the Civil War compared to Europe in WWII
  • December 31, 1944 — My Dad’s memorable New Year’s Eve’s
  • December 31, 1944 — New Year’s Eve memorable for many GIs and Germans
  • January 1, 1945 — The last year of World War II begins
  • January 2, 1945 — In Europe the winter fighting conditions were so terrible they can only be marveled at not really imagined
  • January 3, 1945 — The return of a leader and welcome additions for the 30th Regiment
  • January 4, 1945 — Phil’s celebrates his 20th birthday on the front In Europe
  • January 5, 1945 — The GI’s favorite cigarettes
  • January 7, 1945 — Phil teaches his men an easy way to dig a foxhole in frozen ground and how to prevent trench foot
  • January 8-9, 1944 — It was hellacious winter fighting at its worst
  • January 10, 1944 — It was even more hellacious for the German fools broadcasting treasonous propaganda
  • January 11, 1944 — Finally some good news, comfort, and a bit of chicken humor on the winter front
  • January 12, 1944 — Preventing frostbite, trench foot, and gangrene in the front-line foxholes
  • January 13, 1944 — “As long as there’s a war and as long as there is a 3rd Infantry Division, the 3rd Division will be in that war”
  • January 16, 1944 — A surprising but warm and wonderful stew on the frozen battlefield
  • January 17, 1944 — The nearly miraculous warming and drying tents
  • January 18, 1944 — Morale was raised another notch with the far-overdue arrival of winter clothes
  • January 19, 1944 — Morale soared as the GIs cleaned up, saw a couple of movies, wrote letters home, and got their mail
  • January 20, 1944 — Phil is awarded his second Purple Heart during a blinding snowstorm
  • January 21, 1944 — Phil and his men are livid as one of FDR’s cabinet members is actually motivating the Nazis
  • January 22, 1944 — A frozen hell would begin at midnight
  • January 23, 1944, Part 1 — Angels, doughnuts, and a mistake that led to a colossal loss of GIs
  • January 23, 1944, Part 2 — The cost of the mistake was only beginning to dawn on Phil and his men
  • January 23, 1944, Part 3 — Phil knew his best friend and all of his men were dead
  • January 24, 1944 — 36 hours of fighting left Phil and his men exhausted and hanging on by their fingernails
  • January 25, 1944 — The 30th Regiment survivors were dazed, angry, and embarrassed but with a spirit of revenge
  • January 26, 1944 — Phil and Audie Murphy meet again the day Murphy earns the Medal of Honor
  • January 27-30, 1944 — Phil and his men reclaimed the momentum from the Germans
  • January 28, 1944 — Audie Murphy and Stephen Ambrose write about the hell of Colmar
  • January 30-31, 1944 — Finally, light at the end of the Colmar Pocket tunnel

PAST WWII BLOG LISTS

• • December 1944
  • November 1944
  • October 1944
  • September 1944
  • August 1944
  • July 1944
  • June 1944
  • May 1944
  • April 1944
  • March 1944
  • February 1944
  • January 1944

If you want to sign up to receive an email about each blog when it’s posted, sign up for free here.

5. “Vaccine News You Can Use” column in Colorado Family Physician journal

I ’ve been honored to write a quarterly column, “Vaccine News You Can Use” for the Colorado Family Physician journal for several years. The vaccine updates that are listed below were contained in the Fall 2024 edition on pages 26-28 and can be found here:

• Childhood vaccines prevented over one million deaths and for every $1 spent, saved $11
• CDC expands COVID vaccine recommendations for elderly and immunocompromised
• CDC backs wider pneumococcal vaccine use
  • 50 and older IRRESPECTIVE OF RISK FACTORS
  • 19–49-year-olds with RISK FACTORS
• RSV vaccine between 75% and 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations
• One in 20 adults with RSV hospitalized

6. Last Month’s Happenings

• We were home a second month in a row. It was wonderful!
• We pray you and yours had a safe and happy New Year’s Day celebration.
• Jan 6 – Barb and I celebrated her birthday at a marvelous new restaurant in town, Pamela’s at the Polaris Hotel. We had a delightful and delicious evening together.
• Jan 15 – Barb and I began our 10^th semester of directing the ReEngage Marriage Enrichment Ministry at Academy Christian Church with 5 leader couples and 13 new attendee couples. This will be a major ministry and time focus for us for the next 18 weeks. Prayers appreciated.
• Jan 28 – Barb and I drove about an hour to Pueblo, CO, to meet with a documentary producer, Brad Padula, best known for his PBS documentary, “Beyond the Medal of Honor,” about four Medal of Honor recipients. He wanted to discuss the possibility of producing a documentary based upon my book, At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse.
• Jan 30 – I had the privilege of addressing our local Colorado Springs chapter of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) on the topic of “Lessons on Resilience, Stress, and Burnout from 80 years ago,” or also titled, “At First Light, What Can a Teenage WWII Hero Teach Health Professionals About Resilience?” It was well attended and the talk well received. I had a chance to do a book signing and spend some time with many old friends. It was a delightful evening.