Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 05/23/2005

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
I recently read your column requesting dignity for my uncle, Ted Williams.

I’m afraid the time for outrage has long since past.

Ted’s eldest daughter, Bobby-Jo, waged a long, expensive battle at great personal expense with the estate to have her father’s wishes followed as outlined in his will. Presidents and Senators, Ted’s friends, didn’t say a word.

My brother and I succeeded in gaining access to the paperwork from Alcor, the cryogenics facility where Ted (and now, John-Henry as well) is interned. Our intention was to discover the truth of how he arrived at such a place against his will.

As anticipated, a majority of Ted’s children (John-Henry and Claudia), signed him up to his final resting place. Legally that is their right, as it was their right to go against his will. I don’t believe there is much left to say on the issue.

Although Ted himself told John-Henry he was friggin crazy when the idea first came up, there Ted is, frozen at Alcor.

Interestingly enough, now at Alcor, TW is no longer Ted Williams, the great ballplayer, Marine hero, champion for the health of children, family member, and individual. He is a number, a specimen, stored tissue; an experiment. He has lost his identity as a real American Hero and has become simply a donation to science: a lab sample property.

More disturbing is the thought of him being resurrected in one or two hundred years.

At Alcor, they remove the head because they believe it gives them a better freezing process for the most important tissue, the brain. I have to listen to all the Ted Williams jokes whenever I mention my name, because I was named after him.

I finally started responding that, if you buy into the science fiction (fiction, because it has not been proven yet) that people will be brought back to life, science could certainly put your head back on. That would seem fairly routine after giving life back.

Cryonogists are imagining an age of atomic sized, nanotech robot machines, thousands and thousands of them rebuilding the cells of a frozen body over the course of a year or two.

With millions of people without adequate health coverage today, it’s hard for me to imagine an altruistic society of the future that would willing finance the reanimation of frozen corpses. And assuming they do come back, who will house them, feed them, or provide the ongoing health care that is bound to be required. Friends and known family members will be long gone.

What happens to the botched reanimations? Assuming it’s not going to go perfectly from the start, like any untried procedure. How will it be decided who will be experimented on? Cryonogists are already claiming many of the early frozen bodies to be inadequately preserved.

Who knows, maybe it will work.

Hopefully, Ted will come back and kick John-Henry’s butt for disobeying his final wishes. Maybe he’ll come back as The Kid, nineteen years old and tearing up the majors with his talent and playfulness. Maybe he’ll be the last hitter to bat over .400 twice in a lifetime.

But for now, unless Claudia chooses to release him, his frozen internment is permanent.

No amount of legal hairsplitting will change that. His kids got what they wanted. Sadly, he did not.

Ted Williams, nephew
California

Dear Ted
Sorry to hear that your Uncle, a Marine hero and baseball hall of famer remains hanging upside down and headless in a dark and dreary frozen chamber. This great American should be laid to rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington national Cemetery.

Shaft Notes
The Sarge is looking forward to joining the Blinded American Veterans Foundation (BAVF), Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) and their guests at the 20th annual congressional awards reception on Tuesday, June 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Room 334 of the Cannon House Office Building. The annual event, held in conjunction with the Foundation's Flag Day observance, honors members of Congress, the media, and volunteers.

The recipients of the 2005 George "Buck" Gillispie Congressional Award for Meritorious Service are Rep. Ron Simmons (R-CT) and Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-MD). The award is named in honor of the late "Buck" Gillispie, a blinded World War II veteran who devoted more than 40 years of service toward efforts to aid in rehabilitation of visually impaired veterans.

The Carlton Sherwood Media Award, named in honor of the Pulitzer and Peabody Award-winning journalist and highly decorated USMC Vietnam veteran, will be presented to Bob Madigan, WTOP-AM radio’s “Man About Town” and Greg Pierce, columnist for the Washington Times. This year's recipients of the George Alexander Memorial Award for Volunteer Service are Stephen Miyagawa and Jim “The Milk Shake Man” Mayer. The BAVF's Corporate Award will be presented to Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steak House.

The George Alexander Volunteer Service Award was created in memorial of a great friend of American veterans". A Joint Armed Forces Color Guard will set the stage for the awards ceremony and the Marine Corps' Brass Quintet will entertain guests with a medley of patriotic music.

The congressional reception follows the BAVF Flag Week picnic on Sunday, June 12, in Silver Spring. This year’s picnic will honor the wounded and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Bethesda Naval Hospital. As usual, the gregarious Chef Lakis will be preparing his famous hot dogs. Picnickers will be serenaded with live music by the Hula Monsters.

For additional information call the BAVF at (202) 462 4430.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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