Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi and H.E. Francois de l'Estang, Ambassador of France, announced on 1/26/01 that the French Government will present certificates to World War II veterans to thank them for their participation in the liberation of France.

"This honor is further evidence that the contributions of our World War II veterans will be remembered by this nation and by our allies around the world whom they helped to free," said Principi.

To be eligible, a veteran must have served on French territory, in French territorial waters or in French airspace between June 6, 1944 and May 8, 1945. The certificate will not be issued posthumously. Presentation of the certificates is expected to begin later this year.

The ten Consuls of France in the United States will work with state veterans affairs offices, veterans service organizations and other veterans groups to identify eligible people and to organize ceremonies to present the certificates.

The application form is available from Department Headquarters and on a special Internet site maintained by the French government: http://www.info-france-usa.org/news/statmnts/ww2/index.htm.

CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR HARD DRIVE

In past Newsletters we have attempted to identify and define the components of your PC and their rudimentary functions - - strictly beginners stuff. We assume that by now you have unpacked your new computer , plugged it into the electric outlet, connected your modem, somehow got online and randomly surfed the net.

You're feeling confident for a while then suddenly strange things happen. Your computer functions slow down to a mind-numbing crawl. Hunks of memory begin to disappear. Sometimes you can't even get online and alarm patterns light up your monitor. You read the manual that came with your PC, and it begins to dawn on you - - you have mistreated your hard drive.

For answers to this dilemma we turn to the "How To" columns written by a real know-it-all expert, Sandy Berger, for AARP. We're informed that when you shut down your computer properly by clicking the "Start" button and choosing "Shut down", your computer goes through a formal "shut down" process - - files are closed, unnecessary files are deleted, and copies of important files such as the system registry files are written to the hard drive and addresses of all files and clusters (pieces of files) are noted in the FAT (File Allocation Table which is an index of all files on the hard drive).

Now, if the power goes off, a program crashes, or you simply turn the computer off without going through the proper shut down procedure, the FAT may be damaged. Files may become crossed-linked, or clusters may be lost in that their addresses are not recorded properly. If this happens, you have to fix these files and their addresses.

Other things can happen, too, like the surface of the hard drive is scratched, contaminated, or demagnetized.

When any of the above situations happen, an operation called "ScanDisk" comes into play.

Late versions of Windows 95 and 98 run the "ScanDisk" operation automatically, and all you have to do is wait until it finishes and the computer proceeds with its normal boot-up sequence.

But, you don't have to wait until your hard drive gets crazy. It's a good idea to initiate "ScanDisk" yourself to keep your hard drive healthy.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open the "My Computer" icon
2. Right click drive "C".
3. Choose "Properties" from the short cut menu. (You will see the Drive "C" Properties dialog box).
4. Click the "tools" tab to ensure that panel is brought forward.