Good morning everyone,

 Hope you all are well because I'm not. My vertigo is acting up plus I have what I think is the beginning of a cold. As soon as I get through with this I'm going to take some medicine and lay down.

 Back in 1999 I was asked to help produce a Baker tribute video for the BUMS 2000 reunion. I was supposed to assist a good friend of mine but unfortunately he had to drop out of the project before we got it started. Those of you that attended the reunion saw the video. While researching materail for the video this is where I came up with most of these interesting little tidbits I've been passing along to you.

 Back in the day when negotiations were going on between the Muscogee County School District and the federal government to get the funding to build Baker the government the added a stipulation to the contract stating that in order for the school district to get the money to build Baker something had to be done to benefit the war effort. To make a long story short, a canning factory was built in the basement of the wing that ran paralel to what is now Victory Drive. President Roosevelt had asked Americans to start Victory Gardens and grow vegetables and have them canned  to help out with food shortages caused by the war. So the people who started the Victroy Gardens would bring their grown vegetables to the canning factory at Baker High School and have them canned there. The canning factory was only ran at night so it would not disrupt classes. Everyone from my era ( 1967- 1970 ) and before and some after probably knew of or has heard of Mrs. Louise Griner. Mrs. Grinner taught home economics at Baker at the time the canning factory was built. Not only did she teach att Baker High School during the day but also ran the canning factory at night. End of story.

 Hope everyone has a great day. I'm going to go back to bed and see if I can get this vertigo to go away. Y'all take care and I hope you have a blessed day. John

Good morning,

   Here is a kinda sorta Paul Harvey rest of the story for you all. I hope you enjoy it.

Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for action in Vietnam. The Medal of Honor is awarded by the President, in the name of the Congress. It is the highest award for valor a soldier can receive.

Here is the official military record:

Johnston, Donald Ray
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company D, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.
Place and date: Tay Ninh Province, Republic of Vietnam, 21 March 1969.
Entered service at: Columbus, Ga.
Born: 19 November 1947, Columbus, Ga.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.

 Sp4c. Johnston distinguished himself while serving as a mortarman with Company D, at a fire support base in Tay Ninh Province. Sp4c. Johnston's company was in defensive positions when it came under a devastating rocket and mortar attack. Under cover of the bombardment, enemy sappers broke through the defensive perimeter and began hurling explosive charges into the main defensive bunkers. Sp4c. Johnston and 6 of his comrades had moved from their exposed positions to 1 of the bunkers to continue their fight against the enemy attackers. As they were firing from the bunker, an enemy soldier threw 3 explosive charges into their position. Sensing the danger to his comrades, Sp4c. Johnston, with complete disregard for his safety, hurled himself onto the explosive charges, smothering the detonations with his body and shielding his fellow soldiers from the blast. His heroic action saved the lives of 6 of his comrades. Sp4c. Johnston's concern for his fellow men at the cost of his life were in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

 I never knew Donald Johnston. I only became aware of him about 10 years ago when I was on the old @Baker website and I  was looking on the class list for the class of 1966 when I accidently came across his page and read the information above. I have since spoken to several people about Donald and they all said that he was totaly against going into the army. I am assuming he was drafted because of what I have been told about him it was very unlikely he would have volunteered. As you can see from the citation Donald saved the lives of 6 of his fellow soldiers when he threw himself on a satchel charge to smother the blast, thus sacrificing his life for the lives of his fellow comrades. In my mind Donald is a true American Hero.

 Being that Donald was a native of Columbus I assumed that he was buried at the Main Post cemetery on Ft. Benning and I made up my mind that I was going to go by his grave and say a prayer one day. However as things sometimes go I never did. Now for the rest of the story.

 When I was working for a contractor at Ft. Benning I was working at the water plant. Now how the powers that be decided it was the water plants resonsibility to open and close the cemetary and raise and lower the flag I don't know. However I didn't mind. My parents are buried there and when it was my turn to go to the water plant and open it or close it I would always take a minute to go by my parents grave and see if the flowers needed changing out or just to take a moment to reflect on how much I loved and missed them.

 Late one summer evening in 2006 I pulled into the cemetary and did my usual routine. I closed the main gate and locked it. Then I went to the office area and closed and locked the gate over there. Then I pulled my truck up to the flag pole and got out to lower the flag. When I undid the lanyards and began lowering the flag a swarm of bees evidently had been on the back side of the pole or in the vicinity anyway because the next thing I knew I was being attacked by some very angry yellowjackets. The first thing I did was secure the lanyard back to the pole and take a couple of steps backward. I don't know what I stepped on but I tripped and began to fall. As I fell I reached behind me and felt a tombstone and I was able to steady myself before I hit the ground. I righted myself and made a hasty retreat to my truck where I waited a few minutes to make sure the bees were gone. After about 5 minutes I got out of the truck and walked back to the flag pole and after making sure the bees were gone I lowered and folded the flag. Then I thought to myself, " I wonder who the person was whose headstone I grabbed that broke my fall ". I walked around to the front of it and you can imagine my amazement when I read the name. Donald R Johnston. Even in death Donald had saved someone from possibly getting seriously hurt. So now you know the rest of the story.

Okay, kids, here's the story. I was the annual literary advisor for the '69, '70, and '71 Baker annuals. While working on the '69 edition, the question came up as to why the annual was called the Arrowhead when the mascot was a lion. We did some research, most of which I've forgotten, but the gist of which was this: The original Baker mascot was an Indian, so the annual was logically named the "Arrowhead." I think the athletic teams were called the Cherokees, but it may have been some other tribe. At some point prior to 1958, perhaps in a precognizant fit of political correctness (In Georgia in the 1950's? Get real!), the mascot had been changed to a lion and the newspaper was the "Lion's Roar." For some reason, however, the name of the annual had never been changed. We decided to make it consistent, and a vote by the student body was held to pick one of several proposed names. Someone on the annual staff (possibly me, but I couldn't swear to it) had proposed "Lion's Pride" as an intentional pun. The vote, with a little politicking, but, as I recall, no outright fraud, went to "Lion's Pride," which appeared on the '70 edition. And that's the way it happened.

Glenn Wells, '60 and faculty

I know that what I'm about to tell you is correct  but I can't remember my source. ( You know getting old is hell ). What Glenn said is true. All annuals from 1945 until 1969 were named the Arrowhead in honor of the Muscogee Indians who once lived on the land where Baker was built. Then in 1970, my senior year, the name was changed to Lions Pride. As for the athletic teams I had heard a rumor that the sports teams were called the Cherokees but have not been able to confirm it. However I do know that for several years the athletic teams were know as the Blue Jackets before taking on the nickname of Lions. I discovered this one afternoon at the Baker archive at Columbus State University when Susan Headley, BHS 69 and I were researching photos to use at the BUMS 2000 reunion.

18 Dec 2010

Just wanted to thank everybody who turned out tonight for the candlelight vigil on the front lawn of Baker. We had a very nice turn out and I feel that we would have had more there if it had not been for the weather. SOOO here's what we're gonna do. The weather is supposed to be much nicer tomorrow evening so we are going to do it again tomorrow.  Anybody that is interested in coming please be there about 530pm, (  I'll probably be there at 5pm ). Everybody please bring your own candle, flashlight or glow stick. We will do a short ceremony begining at 6pm at which time we will light our candles. I will address those in attendance shortly after that. Then we will sing our favorite two songs, The Baker Fight Song ( Beer Beer ) and our alma mater. There might even be an impromptu musical selection or two from a couple of Baker grads. So please if you did not come tonight because of the weather feel free to come tomorrow night. We will be there. Take care, John   

Good morning everybody, I hope this finds you all doing well.
  Yesterday I spent about an hour and a half typing the behind the scenes story of the Baker High School Tribute video that I wrote, produced, directed etc... for the BUMS 2000 reunion. After I typed it and went back and proof read it and fine tuned it, I hit the wrong button when I went to post it and lost it in cyber space. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. So instead of trying to duplicate it today I'm going to give you a little bit of historical information on a different subject. Oh by the way you can see the Tribute Video on the lionspride website. It's in the forum section under Baker History. Once you pull it up it is the first of several videos in that section.
  Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about the 1964-65 school year at Baker High School. There are several things about that year that stand out. First and foremost was the fact that Baker became the first school in Columbus to integrate. I'll do something on this at a later date. Secondly Baker High School was the largest high school in the state of Georgia with a student body of over 2800. I obtained this information from a book at the Columbus Library dealing with the history of the Muscogee County School district. With the war in Viet Nam escalalting troops were coming to Ft. Benning by the thousands. With the troops came their families and of course school age children. Being that Baker was the " military school " Bakers student population exploded.
  Recently I spoke with a dear friend of mine and former Baker teacher, Mr. Robert Liebendorfer who taught at Baker from 1961-1991, about what it was like in those days. He explained to me that Baker was so overcrowded that the students had to go to school in shifts. The first shift reported for homeroom at 740am and began classes at 8am. The second shift reported for homeroom at 840am and began classes at 9am. The last shift reported for homeroom at 940am and began classes at 10am. The first shift got out at 230pm, second shift at 330pm and the third at 430pm. He also said that nobody complained, we just did what we had to do.
  The following is from the Baker lionspride web site. It is the recollections of a former Baker teacher who taught there from 1964 -1966, Mrs. Wilma Council Teague.
   I taught at Baker during 1964-66. It was my first full time teaching assignment after gruadating from The University of Texas. I thought that having 53 students in a math classroom was nothing unusual--and teaching 6 periods in 7 different rooms helped build stamina--and having the school run out of duplicating paper in Novenber was nothing out of the ordinary. Baker had wonderful students and a strong (in many ways!) faculty.
  My years teaching at Baker were during the Viet Nam build up and I was married to a 1st. Lt. who was stationed at Ft. Benning. Baker was literally bursting at the seams! We had classes being taught in the stairwells and in the faculty men's restroom. My friend who had the Latin class in the faculty men's restroom had a headache when the ball of the wrecking crane crashed through the wall during class one day.
  It would be very interesting to see what the student population of Baker was compared to the other schools during that era. I'll have to go back to the library and see if I can find that information. If I find it I'll post it. I hope each and everyone of you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Take care , John Good morning everybody, I hope this finds you all doing well

Good morning everyone!! Hope everyone is doing well. I recieved emails from Mike Olemanuk and Mel Curtis in reponse to the post I sent out yesterday so I thought I would share them with you.Some very interesting reading to say the least.

John,

Here is a little more about what was going on behind the scene in 64-65 while we were going to school in shifts.  The early shift was in the wing that paralleled Victory Drive.  As it turned out, many of the students that started later had lockers in that hall and when they came in to get stuff out of/put stuff in their lockers it got so noisy that classes were disrupted.  The second week of school Mr. Boyles called me into his office.  I was a senior and was honored to be the Cadet Commander of the ROTC Battalion at Baker.  He asked me to if I could get cadets to volunteer to man the doors and keep students out of the hall while classes were in session.  I got with the company commanders and we came up with enough ‘volunteers’ to get the job done and the halls quieted down again.  Of course there are always exceptions to every rule.  When a student had an emergency we would let a few at a time go to their lockers.  The way it worked was they would come to me and I would write them a pass that my guards would accept.  The passes became so accepted that teachers started honoring them when we needed to get someone out of class.  I remember one warm spring afternoon our teacher had run out of things to keep us busy.  We had 20 minutes to go to the bell and she gave us a reading assignment.  I couldn’t stay awake so I wrote a pass saying I was needed in the ROTC office, signed it with my own name and she let me out of class!

Baker’s graduating class the spring of 65 was the largest in Georgia!

 Mel Curtis

Hi John -

Have enjoyed your Baker history. I was there from Oct 1962 'til graduating in 1964 - started during the Cuban Missel Crises.

Here are a few more factoids.

1) The over crowded classes mentioned by Mrs. Teague -

a) My home room was three rows of the bleachers in back of the gym/auditorium - one of many all crowded together.

b) My sister started her freshman year in 1963 at the "freshman annex" located busing distance from the main building.

c) The lunch room was so crowded that I think they pretty much gave up on trying to keep us from leaving campus to eat. I certainly had no trouble.

2) I was told that we were the largest HS in Georgia for my two years attending as well.

3) During those two academic years (and maybe later years as well), Georgia started (continued????) a state-wide literary academic competition in which high schools sent teams to contests in debate, declamation, essay writing, and similar activities at a series of universities/colleges around the state. They were conducted much like track meets, with teams accumulating points for placing in the various events. I remember debating at Georgia State, Emory and the UGA. The important part of this memory, is that Baker won this academic competition both years I was there, and by a margin so big that we had many more points than the next 3 or 4 schools combined.

I was trying to confirm the latter and came across this site that says we won in '63 '65 & '66. http://classicschools.com/Georgia/Columbus/Baker_High_School/ Other tidbits are here as well.

Keep up the good work.

Mike Omelanuk '64

Ok I checked this out and there is not multiple copies of this message. Hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  Take care, John