My name is Alvan I. Shane but most of my friends/associates call me Al.
I was born in Los Angeles, Calif on May 7, 1946. I grew up in a modest lower- class suburb called El Sereno and attended Woodrow Wilson High from 1957-1963.
I did the academic disciplines in preparation for college, turned 17 in May, graduated in June and, due to home circumstances, joined the Marines in August for a 4yr enlistment.
I went to navy avionics school in Memphis after boot camp, and became part of Marine Corps Aviation in the fall of 1964, working in MOS job class #6613 – fire control tech.
My first assignment was to MAS Cherry Point, NC, becoming part of a Marine Air Group.
My fighter squadron flew Phantom F4B’s and fire controllers worked on the electronics that steered the sparrow & sidewinder missiles to their targets.
We were deployed to Japan in late summer of 1965, then immediately to Viet Nam and stationed at Danang. After 9mo we returned to Okinawa, went for a brief tour in Taiwan, then returned stateside in fall, 1966. I served the remainder of duty at El Toro Air Base in Calif and took an early out in June’67 to attend Cal State UniversityLA.
I was initially an Electrical Engineering major, but changed to Business/Accounting after 2yrs and finished the accounting major while simultaneously taking a job with the Panasonic Company as their assistant warehouse manager in Vernon, Calif. I also married Barbara Adams, recently arrived from the UK, and we had a son, Ian Michael.
I worked at Panasonic for 10yrs, rising to General Mgr, Operations. Barb worked as a bookkeeper and started helping some small contractors on the side with their books and tax. In 1979 Panasonic asked me to relocate to New Jersey. Being a California boy, and Barb now fairly established with a new but growing accounting practice, I passed. It was a tough choice, but I decided I could join Barb and help with her business, and we’d grow it together. I began acquiring the necessary credentials for performing the accounting & tax services we offered, and sat down to work as her “Jr Bkpr” in July, 1980.
Today we employee a staff of 10 and serve over 300 small businesses with their accounting and tax needs. We also prepare over 2500 tax returns, individual & business, and prepare live payrolls for 140+ companies. Our business has been at the same La Verne, Calif location since 1987 and in the late 1990’s we added insurance, retirement planning and wealth management to our mix. I get a lot of satisfaction helping long time clients transition into retirement, helping them with their 401K’s, IRA’s and so on.
Today, in 2012, I am 66yrs old with no plan to retire. My health continues strong (except for a mild level of Type II diabetes) and Barb’s does too. We sadly and tragically lost Ian in 1989 to a variety of illnesses. In 1992 we adopted our current son, Matthew Christopher, who is now 20 and attending a local technical school for computer graphics & design, which he seems to like. We built out a storage loft over the garage of about 600ft, and made it into a bachelor pad for him, with sun deck & carport underneath. We get to keep our eye on him this way . . .
I guess I’ve been conservative/libertarian all my life, but didn’t become really engaged until the Clinton years, when I became astounded at the antics and goings on in Washington. The whole thing seemed so unbelievable I can’t even describe my feelings, except to say I knew there must be a better way to run our country. I began writing my thoughts and submitting them as Op-Eds to local papers, but found most being rejected due to my strong conservative attitudes and principles. There wasn’t much I could offer in the way of political correctness. But a few actually got published, and I got a variety of feedback from neighbors and friends concerning my position on things, and how they comported with their own. Lo & behold, most of us were on the same page.
That’s it. Barb is very similar to me in her politics and thinking, and we both believe there are
plans afoot (conspiracies?) to move the world in a certain direction, ultimately leading to what George Bush Senior referred to as The New World Order. We are very alarmed at this possibility, and at any suggestion that national sovereignty is a temporary and redundant condition, soon to be given up for the good of the world. We strongly disagree. We also feel there have been many un- explained occurrences/tragedies over the years which were never fully explained or investigated, including the assassinations of both Kennedy’s & Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Dr David Kelly of Great Britain, the downing of the KAL flight by Russia, the attack on the USS Liberty by Israel, the bombing of the federal bldg in Oklahoma, the mysterious crash of the New York-to-Paris flight off New York City’s coastline, the Ruby Ridge & Waco incidents and, of course, the tragedy of 9/11.
Those listening to me or reading my opinions/views should also know I wrote a book titled The Day Liberty Wept , which is a layman’s dismantling and deconstruction of the various acts, events and occurrences surrounding and leading up to that fateful, terrible day. In particular, I ask 1) why did Bldg7 collapse, later that day? 2) why weren’t there clear, crisp pictures of the plane crashing into the pentagon? 3) why did anyone die in that building, when there was ample time to evacuate? 4) why was there a complete and total disintegration of the plane that crashed in the field in Pennsylvania and 5) why hasn’t there been a reconstruction of this last event using derelict airplane and crash dummies to prove once and for all that, given a certain weight, speed and angle of entry/collision with that particular ground, a similar plane will behave exactly the same way, and completely disintegrate into unidentifiable pieces the size of popcorn – all on camera.
If you would like to learn more about 9/11 (from a layman’s point of view) request a copy of my book. If nothing else, it will remind you of the many strange and unexplained things that happened that day, and how our country was caught literally with its pants down. No one was held accountable. No one lost their job or was demoted. No one was charged with criminal negligence or dereliction of duty. No one believes, in the slightest way, we got all the facts & truths behind 9/11. The families and loved ones of those lost still await justice and closure. May such event never happen again, in these United States of America.
Alvan I. Shane
September 23, 2012
La Verne, California
