Feliz Navidad   y   

 Happy New Year  2016!

From:  Erasmo "Doc" Riojas,  Lourdes Tolentino,  and Damien Rio Vasquez

                     
As we get older we realize it becomes less important
to have a ton of friends, and more important to have real loving ones.

                 
Lourdes Tolentino                             Damiet Rio Vasquez

Dearest Friends,

I am saving the price of  first class mail stamps being now $0.49.
I am taking full advantage of electronic email, my web site,
to send out this years season’s greetings.  

JUST Arrived !   What a pleasant surprise !

Merry Christmas:  Todd, Julie, Halle, Talan, and Lola !         From Doc Rioja & LouLu & Lil Rio

Thank you Halle for remembering this old 84 year old Fossil SEAL.  Of course I remembe remember you and your lovely parents and siblings!   Mr. Raleigh Kraft continues to be one of my best friends in Virginia and we hope to visit him again in the near future.  Accelaerated Math ! What we have here?  A future Astronaut?  A future Lady President, We hope !  

 Halle, at your age you have two important jobs:  Study and Play, give each equal amount of time as you see fit.   Give credit to your parents, teachers and everyone in your circle that is a positive influence in your life.  Christmas !  It is about Christ, pray that he continues to guide you into a beautiful woman that will make all of us proud of you.  

Our sincerest best wishes and love always,  Anything I can do for you, please ask.    Tu Amigo,   Erasmo Elijah Riojas and my Commanding Officer:  Lourdes Tolentino  RN (BSN) and our grandson: Damian Rio Vasquez (14 years old future Pathologist?)

                                                         
                                                                        Doc RIO is a CHEAP SKATE!

Lourdes, my wife, and I find ourselves facing the fact that another Christmas is approaching.  As we mellow in our senior years we don’t get as commercially excited about Christmas as we used to when we were first married about 30 years ago.  Such a festival takes place in you when you interpret correctly  the message of our Christmas faith.  

Ephesians 5:2
and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 I am going to write Santa Claus to bring me a bionic back, left hip,
  left knee and both feet.   
At my age of  84 y.o., I should be thankful hat I am still around to complain.

  LouLou wants only to get rid of her recently acquired skin condition, psoriasis,
which is hers to keep for the rest of her life.  
Perhaps science will find a better way to stay in remission of the skin rash.  
I pray that she and all other persons that have that disease go into remission.  

"The Only Easy Day was Yesterday !"

LouLou’s most significant event of this year was her trip to the Eastern Europe with Caroline and Lil Rio.  They visited Germany Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary.

Auschwitz  

 This, they said was the highlight of their trip.  They took very few pictures.  I quit being a Tourist as there is always a 24 hours rush, a lot of walking, and standing.  

While in Austria, they attened a show being put on by a clown.  The Clown walked into the gathering crowd and picked Lil Rio to come up to the stage. Lourdes and Caroline we surprised that he did not refuse and did quite well being the Clown's assistant in some funny presentations.  The crowd all applauded and Rio's "Day was made!"          "Hoo Yah! "

Rio told me that the best Lasagna he ever ate was in Europe.  I wish i could have been there for that meal.   LouLu said that some lady renamed her "Joe" because she could not pronounce her name: Lourdes.

 One my most memorable event of 2015 was a trip to visit with Roy Dean Matthews and Glen Grinage , Asamisan at his daugher's, Nina Cowen,  home in Los Gatos CA.  It was Kim Matthews, Lourdes, Lil Rio.  We took a side trip up north to San Francisco overnight and stayed at the USMC hotel downtown.      The next day we toured Alcatraz Prison.

Chris and Nina Cowen also drove us to a winery up in one of the mountains.  A great time was had by all.  We did a lot of visiting, chatting, eating, drinking and having fun together.  The boys, Carson, Chase, and Tyler took us to watch them fish.  About four days later, i developed poison ivy in my arms.    Los Gatos, CA.  We flew into San Jose and they picked us up. we drove to San Francisco and returned via Train to San Jose CA but the Cowen's had to drive their two autos and the kids home.     

Glen Grinnage, our STAB boat driver in Vietnam in 1967.  He found me through Harry Constance's book:  "GOOD TO GO" and we have been like brothers ever since.  LouLu and I visited him and AKiko, his 1st wife who passed on due to cancer, and now with his 2nd wife Asami, whom i married her to Glen.  Yeah, no kidding, Nina, their daughter got me a license as a preacher in California for $34.00 bucks and i even got free parking at the court house.   Glen is at   email:   grgrinage   [at]   yahoo.com  he lives in Gunnma Japan and is an English teacher a their college.   Please email him and go visit him he has a big house and plenty of room for guests.  Roy Dean Matthews and I go way back from SEAL Team Two.  We two are brothers.   They both are my traveling brothers forever.

Nina Grinnage and her Mother Akiko Grinage this picture was taken when Glen was working in New Zealand.

Glen, Riojas, Roy Dean Matthews in Japan  2008                                                   Carson Cowen, Glen' oldest Grand kid      

                                                                              Glen                      Tio  Rio                         Roy

                       Captain Larry Bailey emailed me that he has eaten one of these Baluts & the natives loved him for it!
My second memorable event is making my family puke when i ate this balut.                                       Doc Riojas eating a BALLUT !     Salamat Po !

Dec 2015 Gulfcoast SEALs Christmas Party in Pearland Texas 
and: YES! that is Richard "Mack" Mackowitz in the center !    HooYah!

                                                                 Life for me continues to be like a penis; when it is soft you can’t beat it; when it is hard you get screwed!                  The worst news is that Muhammad Obama the evil, commie,  unAmerican agendas has set back the USA for many years to come.  We pray for peace and our country to find a way out of our present mess.  Who ever inherits ZERObama's "kaka" got an extremely hard road ahead.  

God Bless the USA !

     Mele Kalikimaka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou    

Damien Rio Vasquew and  visiting David PaAaina in Hilo Hawaii

 and all the great Cyberspace Christmas Cards too many to list ,  yes they count a lot too !   EVEN Tommy Cox's                                                         

Long Time Special Ops SEAL Admiral  McRaven Has Concerns About Women in the SEALS
                                                              
                                              Hook 'em Horns !

Semper Fi!