And here is our wonderful star studded DVD of the title song of my alter ego

DICK FLOOD'S album

"The Way It Used To Be"

        PRESENTING "A YOUNG SOLDIER'S DREAM"

Excerpt from my alter ego Mr. Dick Flood's autobiography

"My Walk Among the Stars"

"Sub titled;  "Rubbing Shoulders with Country Giants"

 In Dick's own words;  "It was 1952. I had purposely flunked my senior year in high school just to play one more fall season of football for my school.  But early that fall my plans for playing football abruptly changed.  Because Something else was in the wind.  This was during the Korean conflict.  I was now 19 years old and by now too many of my close friends had been horribly wounded. over there.  Some had even sadly lost their lives in battle in a far off place that most Americans including me had never even heard of before. 

I felt a strong urge to join up and do my part to help get the durn thing over with. So unbeknownst to my parents I joined the army. In October of 1952 I was sworn in and I was assigned to what was then known as the ASA.  They sent me to Camp Breckenridge Kentucky for basic training with the 101 Airborne Division. Upon completion of basic I was deployed to South Korea. I know that it about broke my poor Mom and Dad's hearts but deep in my own heart I knew I had to do it. And I did" 

 Later in Dick's story;  "I remember sometimes walking guard duty late at night trudging through a foot or more of snow at our base camp in South Korea and hearing  someone's portable radio somewhere quietly playing the latest stateside country songs.  I'd hear;  Faron Young's "Goin' Steady", Ernest Tubb singing "Walkin' the Floor" or Hank Snow's "Movin' On", or pretty Miss Kitty wells singing "It Wasn't God Who Made Honkytonk Angels".  And oh how I was wishing I could go stateside and rub shoulders with those people and sing their songs with them up on a stage somewhere.  It would be a soldier's dream come true!"

After an eight month stint in South Korea with the U.S. Army Dick was re-assigned and sent for a time to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippine Islands. Here at The Silver Wing Service Club during his off time he organized his first country music band ever.

"We called ourselves ‘THE LUZON VALLEY BOYS’. Our group was made up of several young hopefuls like myself. As leader of the group most of the time I was the one to talk over the mike and introduce my different friends. I played rhythm guitar and sang.  By that time I had mastered most of the open chords on a six string guitar, but I kept my old beat up four string harmony around just in case I might need it  Sometimes I doubled on the steel guitar.  I had purchased an old single neck National steel guitar and I had been teaching myself how to play it.  I wasn't very good but I played "The Steel Guitar Rag", The Pan Handle Rag" and I did quite a lot of  back up on some of the country love ballads.  I still have some old old  recordings of my playing and singing back then.  Over the years I have stayed in touch with a few of my old Luzon Valley Buddies but time has a habit of changing everything, and as of 2020 all of them but me have met their maker.  God rest their souls."

Later, upon leaving the army in December 1955 Dick helped create a Country group of Philadelphia boys known as ‘The Four Denims’. Dick had begun writing songs in the army and the group was practicing some of them, along with the current Country hits. The group did not get very far. Things just did not ‘click’.  And after several weeks of trying, Dick left the group.   

 In mid February of 1956 he teamed up with with his old army buddy Billy Graves. This association would ‘click’, and big things were about to happen. Almost immediately the duo signed a management contract with the Connie B. Gay Agency in Arlington, Virginia, and became forever known as ‘THE COUNTRY LADS’.   

For the next several months the two were booked in the night spots in and around Washington DC.  Everybody in town was loving this new country music duo and their fan base was growing rapidly. Then in mid September the by now well polished Country Lads were booked on a three month USO of Europe and Africa!   

In mid November of 1956 the Country lads were appearing nightly at a military base in Wiesbaden Germany.  The duo was called back to Washington to become regulars on a brand new CBS Network Television Show. It would be called of course "THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW’.  It originated out of Washington DC and it aired for an hour on CBS each weekday morning. The show was an instant hit! The Country Lads began to receive mail from all over the world.  Especially from young and sometimes very attractive young ladies.  In early 1957 a contract with Columbia Records was signed and two singles, "Alone In Love", and "I Won’t Beg Your Pardon" were released.  

So; In less than a year after he left the service Mr. Dick Flood had become a world traveler, he was appearing on network television every weekday morning, he was making records with a major label, he was being paid a great salary, and to top it all off over the next year he and the entire cast of the 'Dean show' would be rubbing shoulders with such special guest personalities as;  Ella Fitzgerald, Vaughn Monroe,  Andy Williams, Wanda Jackson, Webb Pierce, Johnny Cash, Homer and Jethro, Ferlin Husky, Carl Smith, Hank Thompson and dozens more!   Wow!   Out of the army for less than a year and all those great and wonderful things were happening in Dick Flood's young and somewhat reckless life.  Gosh!  Talk about a "Thank you for your service".  This was so much more than just a 'thank you'.  This was most assuredly this 'Young soldier's dream' coming true!   

Like to know what happened next in this  

young warrior's show biz life?  

Scroll down a little way and find

Dick Flood's 250 Page Moving and Inspiring Autobiography  

"MY WALK AMONG THE STARS"  

Subtitle;  

"Rubbing Shoulders with Country Giants"  

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