It's wierd how the service IS a small world.
Glenn Baker with 2nd ACR helped host a REFORGER I went on. We might have met and never known it.
While at SWC on Bragg I ran into two buddies from 1/4 Cav at Riley: My very first Squad Leader (wearing a green beanie, as a a SSG 18B in 3rd Group - fell in queue behind me at the bank- I recall that 'leg ranger' said he would NEVER jump from a perfectly good airplane) and a guy from our A Troop -who I never really met, but was a neighbor and a familiar face. Also at SWC I ran into the CO of a neighboring Armor Co. Training centers are a sort of funnel though.
Then out swimming/fishing at Nantahala Lake in 94 was talking to some folks who were doing same. One served with 5th Group in Desert Storm, and was in the same Co & knew my good biker buddy Doc M. A few years prior, the guys were throwing me a birthday party up here at the shack. Doc had just got into town from a mission, and arrived late. He apologised for having no present and asked what I needed. I had just bought an AK47 and I said another 30 round magazine if ya come across one would be cool... he grinned, walked out to his truck, and presented me with a full one, with an Iraqi stamping! That he fetched while on a CSAR mission that earned him a Bronze Star! Happy Birthday!
Pride from seeing the old dismay that the recon patrol that went POW in Macedonia was from my old B Troop 1/4 Cav.
Also on BBC TV news I saw our 1st ID 1st BDE staff officers (CPT Bushyhead- who was one of the coolest Officers I have ever served with) over in Macedonia as a 'talking head' for 3rd AD IIRC
And another close biker buddy who went from being an RI at Camp Darby to a team in 7th Group. He was running some Columbians through battle drills, and as the cameraman panned & zoomed onto his face, he wore a look like he wanted to stuff that camera up the BBCs ass and film his head being ripped off. LOL one night after he returned from his first So Am MTT mission (where he got his first body count) he and me killed a bottle of some hideous SoAm white stuff they labeled as Tequilla. He lost his little sister to cocaine, and held a grudge. Famous quote from Dave was "as long as they keep buying me the bullets..." The perfect animal to send down there to help straighten things out.
My old roommate Bill, a SFC who worked for PSYOPS, was in on Blue Spoon with 'the squadron' months before it became Just Cause. His loudspeaker was the one blasting the music at Noriega in the Nuncio. (Welcome to the Jungle) Another biker buddy showed up in an AP photo as they had Noriega on the aircraft that carried him up here for trial. He had a DEA windbreaker on...LMAO at that little bit of 'cross-dressing'
My brother in law bootstrapped from being an E6 crewchief on a CH47 in the 101st Abn to flying Blackhawks for 160th He's a CWO2 (maybe 3 now?) and been with the Nightstalkers for a few years. You all have seen him in the movie "Blackhawk Down" he was the right-seater who waved at the Somali kid (who called in on the cellphone) as the chalk passed over the ridge inbound to the city. Last we heard he was doing fine (he's well east of Iraq) My old roomate Bill was there for the real thing.
It is a small world, and one way or another we're all in it together.
Support our Troops :us:
Woody
