User:Dwight Burdette

Dwight Douglas Burdette

Here are my biographical milestones:

November 21, 1951: Born at Tinker AFB base hospital

1955: Dad (Clyde) is sent overseas to La Martinerie AFB, Châteauroux, Indre, France and family joins him. I attend a French public school instead of the on-base school for children of servicemen. We live in Buzançais, west of Chateauroux. My mother competes in at least one English Channel swim race. I believe she did not complete the race. There are pictures of my father feeding my mother during the race with a bowl at the end of a long pole.

1958: My parents divorce. My mother (née Florence Louise Winchester) is given custody of me and my older brother by a French court. We remain in France when my father returns to the U.S. We move to Clion, west of Buzançais. I attend a French parochial school.

1960: We move to Chateauroux. I attend École Léon XIII. My mother marries a Frenchman, Réné Guenier who would later die in a motorcycle accident.

1961: It is decided that my older brother should return to live with Dad in Amarillo, Texas, after which I followed in June.

1962: While on summer vaction in Elyria, Ohio, it is decided I should live with my uncle Steve and aunt Sarah until my father retires from the Air Force at the end of the year and moves to Ohio to live near his siblings who had migrated from South Carolina as part of the post-World War II Southern migration north. Dad had served in the Marines in the Pacific during WWII and while stationed in Panama in the Air Force saved a drowning woman's life, as reported in a Canal Zone newspaper.

1963: We move to Cleveland.

1965: We move to Pittsfield, Massachusetts and move back to Cleveland before the end of the school year.

1968: Ran track at West Technical High School. Assassination of Martin Luther King becomes a turning point in my life. We move to Dearborn Heights, Michigan and move back to Cleveland at the end of the school year.

1969: Started working at the Cleveland Press cafeteria in the summer as a dishwasher and then on Saturdays and holidays during the following school year.

1970. Graduated from West Technical High School, Cleveland, which at the time was the largest high school in Ohio, but which has since closed. Went on cross-country hitchhiking trip. Entered United States Army in fall. Draft lottery number was 38. Basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. AIT (Intelligence Analyst, 96B) Fort Holabird, Maryland.

1971: Sent to Vietnam. Assigned to HHB, 23rd Atillery Group, II Field Force Plantation Post, MR III. Worked in the Fire Support Element in the II Field Force/MR III TOCs. Participated in operation to support ARVN incursion into Cambodia. I was informed I was to receive the Vietnamese 'Cross of Gallantry' for participation in incursion, but unit disbanded before award could be made. This would have been an automatic award to all participants in the incursion and I did nothing to merit an individual medal.

1972: Stationed at Continental Command Intelligence Center (CONTIC), Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

1973: Honorably discharged from Army. Attended two semesters at Oakland Community College.

1974. Transfered to Oakland University. Had a Theater class taught by Al Ruscio. Graduated in 1976 with BA degree, with major in Linguistics and cognate in Philosophy.

1976: Worked at Montgomery Ward store in Warren, Michigan, then at Invo Spline, also in Warren. Was very active in a successful organizing drive to certify the United Automobile Workers union as the bargaining agent for Invo Spline workers.

1980: Married Christine, "Chris" Louise Hauser. Moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan after being accepted into University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration MBA program. Completed one semester.

1983: Worked at University of Michigan Hospital and other area hospitals as patient attendant until 1991. My letter to the editor is published in the New York Times.

1984: Amicably divorced.

1991: Worked at Supply Tech, first in tech support then as a trainer until 2000. Traveled to UK, Canada and Mexico on business and France, Ireland, Holland, Vietnam and Hong Kong for Leisure during tenure there.

2000: Worked at Arbortext, first as a trainer then tech support until 2007. Traveled to UK on business during tenure there.

2005: Chris dies of a drug overdose. Obituarys

2008: Blogged on the Barrack Obama campaign website. Began contributing edits, articles and photographs to Wikipedia.

2011: Published Cleveland Homecoming online at: http://dburdette.com/Cleveland%20Homecoming/Cleveland%20Homecoming.pdf By Googling my name I find several sites that have reused my Wiki pictures. My photo of a flagger for the 'Traffic guard' Wiki article is used by the CBC to illustrate an article:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/03/bc-flagger-killed-sentence.html My photo of the Borders HQ building is used by the Saigon Echo to illustrate an article: http://saigonecho.com/main/tintuc/74/24621.html June 9, 2011: I photograph a campaign appearance by Mitt Romney in Livonia and a picture I submitted to annarbor.com is used by it to illustrate the story: http://www.annarbor.com/news/winds-leave-60000-without-power-embryonic-stem-cells-still-critical-for-research/ I was also able to use a photo to illustrate a Wiki article on Romney's campaign.

August 8, 2011. Compiled a list of over 100 web pages which have reused some of my uploaded Wikipedia/Wikimedia photographs.

September 19, 2011. Created web page with list of web pages I've found which have reused photos I've uploaded to Wikipedia or Wikimedia to illustrate Wikipedia articles: http://dburdette.com/WikiPhotos/

October 12, 2011. My photograph of the Lenawee County Courthouse was selected as a Wikimedia "Quality Image." Two more were later selected.

October 26, 2011. Found that Encyclopedia Brittanica Online reused my photo of Herrick Chapel on the Adrian College campus which I had added to the Wiki article on Adrian College. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/161058/Herrick-Chapel-Adrian-College-Adrian-Michigan

On January 28, 2013, the TV One network program "Find Our Missing" used my photo of the entrance to the General Motors Romulus Engine Plant in an episode about a woman from Romulus who was missing. Here's a link to my Facebook post about this: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=591705744176654&set=pb.100000117000227.-2207520000.1374965935.&type=3&theater Here's a link to the photo that was used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:General_Motors_Romulus_Engine_plant_entrance.JPG

On July 10, 2013, the QVC program "In the Kitchen with David" announced that my nomination of Haab's Restaurant in Ypsilanti, Michigan as my favorite restaurant was one of five finalists in the program's "David's Road Trip" contest. On June 14 it was announced that I was the winner. The contest prize is having dinner with the show's host David Venable and his producer Mary. Here's the annarbor.com story on Haab's being named a finalist: http://www.annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/historic-haabs-named-1-of-5-restaurant-finalists-in-in-the-kitchen-with-david-competition/ . Here's a link to the annarbor.com story about the announcement that my nomination of Haab's was the winner.: http://annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/haabs-announced-winner-of-qvcs-in-the-kitchen-with-david-june-road-trip-contest/

15 July, 2013. I have, to date, found over 700 web pages which have used photos I uploaded either to Wikimedia or Google Earth/Panoramio.

25 July, 2013 Here's a link to a photo of my meeting with David Venable and Mary: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=687867631227131&l=64e0ddd743

Here's a link to the AnnArbor.com story about my lunch with David Venable. http://www.annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/ypsilantis-historic-restaurant-featured-on-qvcs-in-the-kitchen-with-david/

Here's a link to the video of the announcement on "In the Kitchen with David" that the program would be coming to Ypsilanti to do a remote broadcast on August 25: http://www.frequency.com/video/qvc-visit-haabs-restaurant-in-ypsilanti/110165428/-/5-9612179

1 September, 2013. Panoramio/Google Earth reports that my photo uploads have exceeded a half-million views. http://www.panoramio.com/user/1847501

October 10, 2013 I have, to date, found over 800 web pages which have used photos I uploaded either to Wikimedia or Google Earth/Panoramio.

February 14, 2014. I now have found over 900 web pages which use a photo that I uploaded either to Wikipedia/Wikimedia or Panoramio/Google Earth.

March 26, 2014. My photo of the Michaels Arts and Crafts store in Canton, Michigan, which I had uploaded to Google Earth, was used in a skit on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on the Comedy Central network. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=839051989442027&set=pcb.839052222775337&type=1&theater http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/cw5nio/march-26--2014---jude-law

May 25, 2014. I have now found over a thousand web pages and other media that have used a photo I uploaded to either Wikipedia/Wikimedia or Panoramio/Google Earth. This does not count photos I contributed to Wikipedia articles.