who was the other kid that beat Fletcher was his name Newton or something like that been way to long for me
OT: "Old Guy" stories
- Thread starter AgSurfer
- Start date
My other great uncle had a younger brother that was a cook in the Navy. He remained aboard ship two days before his 22nd birthday as the Normandy invasion was launched. One time either when they had liberty or on discharge, he accepted an invitation to visit his buddy's family and found out his buddy had a sister in a little town called Victor Iowa. They married and when their first of many children was born he left his employment to learn farming, raising corn, soybeans and had a couple hundred head of hogs.
Unfortunately, one day he came home to find my Aunt has perished accidently.. He didn't last much longer.
Visit Andrew Kurovski's memorial page on We Remember
View and share memories about Andrew Kurovski. Help us celebrate Andrew! Please share your stories and photos, and invite others who remember Andrew.
Although I never got to go visit them, several of my cousins headed East to see us. One came by motorcycle.
They are just about all warm and engaging people, but their taste in college wrestling teams is terrible. The year the Lions were last beaten in CHA, I got a picture of the scoreboard with nothing else.
The next time they try to visit, lining the road by your house with IEDs is not illegal. I read your local code.
Unless they start yelling "that's a 665 pound deadlift, baby", it would seem easier to just buy ticket for RH/BJC and the return the favor.
regarding military and wrestling stories ... I was stationed on a sub in the early 90s
Being on a sub you didn't get "live" TV - you barely got a wire update depending on when the sub was able to get a broadcast link. On one of my deployments, we didn't get the super bowl score until 2 weeks after the game?!?!
a couple guys on the sub were "wrestling fans" - not fanatics but knew some stuff. Mail was difficult as well - could take a couple of weeks or more until packages caught up to the sub. I was lucky enough to get a copy of that year's ESPN NCAA final broadcasts sent to me on VHS, as well as the PA finals.
crew's mess had 7 tables for sitting - a hang out spot for off shift sailors, also had the tv and vcr for movies ... the crew found out fast that I got a taped event, tables were packed to watch sports that happened a month earlier when none of us knew the results! Fond memory of mine ...
Being on a sub you didn't get "live" TV - you barely got a wire update depending on when the sub was able to get a broadcast link. On one of my deployments, we didn't get the super bowl score until 2 weeks after the game?!?!
a couple guys on the sub were "wrestling fans" - not fanatics but knew some stuff. Mail was difficult as well - could take a couple of weeks or more until packages caught up to the sub. I was lucky enough to get a copy of that year's ESPN NCAA final broadcasts sent to me on VHS, as well as the PA finals.
crew's mess had 7 tables for sitting - a hang out spot for off shift sailors, also had the tv and vcr for movies ... the crew found out fast that I got a taped event, tables were packed to watch sports that happened a month earlier when none of us knew the results! Fond memory of mine ...
Good for you! If not for vets, who would heal sick animals? 👍
Well if people would stop welding them….
Ive been flip-flopping back and forth as to whether I should reply to your post or not. I'd write a response and then delete it time and time again. So many memories came flooding back to me in reading your post. Please allow me give you a bit of a backstory on my first and only visit to Hue. First of all, most of us didnt know the correct pronunciation of the city. Most of us called it "hugh". It wasnt till after a week or so of combat that we leaned it was pronounced "way". The bridge connecting the south city to the old city was an awful conflict and many a good man lost his life trying to secure it. we were eventually repulsed and the NVA blew up the bridge. So tell me, i assume the bridge was rebuilt but do you know if it was bulit on the same location?? And the Citadel itself, was that ever rebuilt?? Ever since my tour ended I never had any interest in knowing a damn thing about that city. I can guarantee you that you saw more of that town in the short time you were there than I did in the month. In the past I've tried to watch stuff on Youtube to learn more about the city but they show too much combat and I rarely make it thru the first minute or so of them.I went to "nam in 2019 with my brother when he retired. He was stationed in Quang Tri and Khe Sanh in early 1971. We flew into Hanoi and spent two days decompressing (went to Ha Long Bay, which was awesome). We then flew to Da Nang and stayed in a hotel in Hue. We chose that because it has good hotels and restaurants. We hired a driver and visited Quang Tri, went over past "the rockpile" and Khe Sanh. This is a museum and coffee farm now. The museum curator was waiting for us, I don't know how he knew we were coming, and never left my brother's side. My brother told several stories that I'd never heard. The prompting by the curator got him going. He turned to me and said he'd not remembered these things for 40 years. On the road parallel to what was once the DMZ, my brother pointed out a place where two friends were killed trying to repair a broken down tank. We also visit a forward firebase where a friend's father was killed in an ambush when his wife was pregnant with my friend. I took a photo and sent it to him. There was a small area where locals lit incense. We then went over the DMZ and visited the Vinh Moc Tunnels. Amazing.
We finished back where we started: the JW Marriott in Hanoi. What we didn't know was that the communist party was having a convention at the nearby conversion center. Security was very high. We were scared to death, with my brother being a former Army person who fought them. What happened was the opposite of what we expected. In Hanoi, Hue, Quang Tri and Da Nang people would stop us and ask if they could take a picture with them. People would send over deserts and discount our bill. It was amazing and, I think, cathartic for my brother.
Anyway, thanks for sharing what you did and thanks for indulging this tired old war horse for a minute or two.
PR
First, thank you for your service. It is appreciated by far more people than you expect, including those in Vietnam. Second, thanks for posting. I'll try to give you as much detail as I can remember (but some could be remembered wrong):
- It was 2016, so 8 years ago now (time flies). When we got into Hanoi, I looked up and we saw a Popeye's Chicken at the baggage claim area. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Hanoi and went to Ha Long Bay, which is incredible in case you decide to visit. We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and a soldier kept motioning to my brother. We were nervous. It turned out, he wanted my brother to take his hat off (he had a Duck Dynasty hat as I recall). Funny. When we left, my brother turned to me after seeing Minh's dead body and said "Mission accomplished". Traffic was the worst I've seen in my life and I've been to Singapore, rome, Lisbon, Paris and London. Another observation is we didn't see very many people over the age of 50 FWIW.
- On the morning of our third day, we flew from Hanoi to Da Nang and had a car to Hue. We chose Hue because it had nice hotels and restaurants with one of the largest open markets in the nation.
- IIRC, there was a river separating the downtown area from the market but both sides were busy. We walked over that bridge at least ten times. the market was huge and would be considered a "wet market" but also had goods. I bought two pairs of silk pajamas for my wife and daughter and paid $100 for both after getting them down from $400. The Hotel mger said I could have gotten both for $20. The hotel we stayed at is the Serene Palace with a suite overlooking the river. I think we paid $35 per night. You can find a couple of Michael Bourdain shows in Vietnam, one in the Hue market
- The restaurant area was right around the corner. So we walked there often. There were a lot of shops and places to eat. I quickly realized all you needed to do to open a restaurant is to have a plastic table, four plastic chairs and make a bowl of Pho. It was always good but we couldn't help but wonder if the meat was dog as we'd seen several places grilling a dog. They'd try to hide it when they saw Americans walk up. No inspections or health oversight at all.
- The Citadel was totally redone and spectacular. The only issue is that they had a lot of war equipment from the war against the USA on display at the entrance. I was told that people had been buried under the rebuilt sidewalks of Hue and always wondered about this when we walked along. We also visited a large Buddhist monastery where they had backward swastikas embedded in their buildings and railings. But this was done in like the 12th century so it wasn't anything about Nazis.
- The hotel helped us hire a driver to go to Quang Tri and Khe Sahn. It turns out the driver's father was an ARVN colonel in the war. I think the hotel arranged that without us knowing. His father was sent to a reeducation camp for 18 months after the war. When he got back he told the family it took him that long to be comfortable telling them what they wanted to hear. I mentioned that the curator at Khe Sanh Museum was there to greet us, again arranged by the hotel without us knowing. He didn't leave my brother's side. My bro told the story that was funny. he was a mechanic who worked on tanks and hueys mostly. He was approached by a Colonel who's jeep broke down and he asked if my brother could fix it over the weekend (it was a Friday). My brother said if he can get the parts he can fix it. The Colonel had the parts Saturday morning and the jeep was fixed Sat afternoon. He and a co-worker decided not to tell anyone it was fixed. When the colonel showed up sunday afternoon, they pretended that they worked all weekend without sleep. The Colonel was VERY appreciative and left. A week later they got a box full of T-bone frozen stakes and were the heroes of their group. They also talked about swimming in a local water hole where they'd toss a grenade first to make sure no NVA were in the water waiting to snipe them. They'd also slide a tank down the hill to the watering hole as it was very wet and slippery. they'd take turns sliding the tanks down the hills. My brother bought a hand-carved rosewood Huey replica at Khe Sanh for $15. The Vinh Mock Tunnels were crazy as people lived there for ten years as it was heavily bombed. BTW, we toured it with a Vietnamese drop dead gorgeous young gal who didn't speak English.
- Back in Hue for the night, my brother ordered something and the owner came out to talk to him about his time in Vietnam as a soldier. At the end, the guy said he'd make his specialty for my brother for free (I had to pay). It was a fish wrapped in a banana tree leaf and grilled. It was great. We couldn't find Ice Cream for dessert so they directed us to a little shop where a guy had a deep freezer. It was caked with ice over the years in that humidity and the ice cream was crystalized. It was old and had thawed at least once in its life. But the guy was so proud to be able to serve us we acted like it was the best thing we ever tasted. The staff got a photo with us and several people stopped us to ask if we were Americans. When told my brother was vet, they would ask for photos. We also took a boat trip up the river and back. Pho was great and we ate it every day. Great food and people.
- We flew back out of Da Nang on Vietjet. But we found that the times of flights was only a guideline and it was very common, almost probably, that they'd be wrong by hours. But it was only $49 round trip. When we learned our 10am flight was delayed by 8pm, we booked on Vietnam Airlines as we didn't want to be out at night. It was $85 one-way. My point is that it was very inexpensive.
- Back to the JW Marriott. We had a midnight flight out so hung out if the expansive and incredible concierge room until 9:30 and leaving for the airport. Next to us were two guys going over contracts. One was a rep of some kind of casino in Vegas and the other a lawyer. They'd read a paragraph in the contract, review it, talk about other stuff for ten minutes and then read another paragraph to redline. From what we could tell, Marriott was going to build a half dozen resorts in South Vietnam on the coastal waters. The contract was to open casinos that would be controlled by the govt but the Vegas people would run the operations. We spoke to a young lady in the lobby (a beautiful gal) when we were checking out. She was the Asst mgr who asked us how our stay was. When asked about the casinos, she said that she and several others were in training to manage them in the south. She also admitted to eating dog but it took us some time to get her to admit it. She said, as a young gal, this was a weekly dish served by her mom. Yikes. Also, the staff at the JW concierge room and in the lobby both asked for photos. All the time, Communist Party dignitaries were running around at their convention. We flew home and ran into a young kid who saw my PSU tag on my carry-on. He was flying back to the USA as he was attending a small college in Harrisburg (not PSU). Funny.
I hope I didn't bore you!!!
The Citadel
JW Marriott Hanoi
Hue market
Hue Restaurant
Tunnels
when I was in the navy had a guy on my ship saying he was a 2 time champ in Colorado I told him let's have a go I was about 135 then and he was about 150 needless to say I smoked him twice so I don't know if he was truthful or not!
Definitely NOT boring. Thank you for your kind words and sharing this with me. So many memories came flooding back to me. In fact, I had to wait till my eyes dried and I could regain my composure before I could respond. Where to start??First, thank you for your service. It is appreciated by far more people than you expect, including those in Vietnam. Second, thanks for posting. I'll try to give you as much detail as I can remember (but some could be remembered wrong):
I hope you found this interesting. But I do want to say one thing. When asked why they liked Americans, and especially vets, we were told that the US made life easier for them after the fall as the communist party adapted to a less damaging communist system. Secondly, they said that Vietnam was a tactical battle in the worldwide war on communism. While Vietnam eventually fell, it really stopped the spread of communism as the Russians and Chinese exhausted resources there. So their view was that the USA lost the battle there, but won the war.
- It was 2016, so 8 years ago now (time flies). When we got into Hanoi, I looked up and we saw a Popeye's Chicken at the baggage claim area. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Hanoi and went to Ha Long Bay, which is incredible in case you decide to visit. We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and a soldier kept motioning to my brother. We were nervous. It turned out, he wanted my brother to take his hat off (he had a Duck Dynasty hat as I recall). Funny. When we left, my brother turned to me after seeing Minh's dead body and said "Mission accomplished". Traffic was the worst I've seen in my life and I've been to Singapore, rome, Lisbon, Paris and London. Another observation is we didn't see very many people over the age of 50 FWIW.
- On the morning of our third day, we flew from Hanoi to Da Nang and had a car to Hue. We chose Hue because it had nice hotels and restaurants with one of the largest open markets in the nation.
- IIRC, there was a river separating the downtown area from the market but both sides were busy. We walked over that bridge at least ten times. the market was huge and would be considered a "wet market" but also had goods. I bought two pairs of silk pajamas for my wife and daughter and paid $100 for both after getting them down from $400. The Hotel mger said I could have gotten both for $20. The hotel we stayed at is the Serene Palace with a suite overlooking the river. I think we paid $35 per night. You can find a couple of Michael Bourdain shows in Vietnam, one in the Hue market
- The restaurant area was right around the corner. So we walked there often. There were a lot of shops and places to eat. I quickly realized all you needed to do to open a restaurant is to have a plastic table, four plastic chairs and make a bowl of Pho. It was always good but we couldn't help but wonder if the meat was dog as we'd seen several places grilling a dog. They'd try to hide it when they saw Americans walk up. No inspections or health oversight at all.
- The Citadel was totally redone and spectacular. The only issue is that they had a lot of war equipment from the war against the USA on display at the entrance. I was told that people had been buried under the rebuilt sidewalks of Hue and always wondered about this when we walked along. We also visited a large Buddhist monastery where they had backward swastikas embedded in their buildings and railings. But this was done in like the 12th century so it wasn't anything about Nazis.
- The hotel helped us hire a driver to go to Quang Tri and Khe Sahn. It turns out the driver's father was an ARVN colonel in the war. I think the hotel arranged that without us knowing. His father was sent to a reeducation camp for 18 months after the war. When he got back he told the family it took him that long to be comfortable telling them what they wanted to hear. I mentioned that the curator at Khe Sanh Museum was there to greet us, again arranged by the hotel without us knowing. He didn't leave my brother's side. My bro told the story that was funny. he was a mechanic who worked on tanks and hueys mostly. He was approached by a Colonel who's jeep broke down and he asked if my brother could fix it over the weekend (it was a Friday). My brother said if he can get the parts he can fix it. The Colonel had the parts Saturday morning and the jeep was fixed Sat afternoon. He and a co-worker decided not to tell anyone it was fixed. When the colonel showed up sunday afternoon, they pretended that they worked all weekend without sleep. The Colonel was VERY appreciative and left. A week later they got a box full of T-bone frozen stakes and were the heroes of their group. They also talked about swimming in a local water hole where they'd toss a grenade first to make sure no NVA were in the water waiting to snipe them. They'd also slide a tank down the hill to the watering hole as it was very wet and slippery. they'd take turns sliding the tanks down the hills. My brother bought a hand-carved rosewood Huey replica at Khe Sanh for $15. The Vinh Mock Tunnels were crazy as people lived there for ten years as it was heavily bombed. BTW, we toured it with a Vietnamese drop dead gorgeous young gal who didn't speak English.
- Back in Hue for the night, my brother ordered something and the owner came out to talk to him about his time in Vietnam as a soldier. At the end, the guy said he'd make his specialty for my brother for free (I had to pay). It was a fish wrapped in a banana tree leaf and grilled. It was great. We couldn't find Ice Cream for dessert so they directed us to a little shop where a guy had a deep freezer. It was caked with ice over the years in that humidity and the ice cream was crystalized. It was old and had thawed at least once in its life. But the guy was so proud to be able to serve us we acted like it was the best thing we ever tasted. The staff got a photo with us and several people stopped us to ask if we were Americans. When told my brother was vet, they would ask for photos. We also took a boat trip up the river and back. Pho was great and we ate it every day. Great food and people.
- We flew back out of Da Nang on Vietjet. But we found that the times of flights was only a guideline and it was very common, almost probably, that they'd be wrong by hours. But it was only $49 round trip. When we learned our 10am flight was delayed by 8pm, we booked on Vietnam Airlines as we didn't want to be out at night. It was $85 one-way. My point is that it was very inexpensive.
- Back to the JW Marriott. We had a midnight flight out so hung out if the expansive and incredible concierge room until 9:30 and leaving for the airport. Next to us were two guys going over contracts. One was a rep of some kind of casino in Vegas and the other a lawyer. They'd read a paragraph in the contract, review it, talk about other stuff for ten minutes and then read another paragraph to redline. From what we could tell, Marriott was going to build a half dozen resorts in South Vietnam on the coastal waters. The contract was to open casinos that would be controlled by the govt but the Vegas people would run the operations. We spoke to a young lady in the lobby (a beautiful gal) when we were checking out. She was the Asst mgr who asked us how our stay was. When asked about the casinos, she said that she and several others were in training to manage them in the south. She also admitted to eating dog but it took us some time to get her to admit it. She said, as a young gal, this was a weekly dish served by her mom. Yikes. Also, the staff at the JW concierge room and in the lobby both asked for photos. All the time, Communist Party dignitaries were running around at their convention. We flew home and ran into a young kid who saw my PSU tag on my carry-on. He was flying back to the USA as he was attending a small college in Harrisburg (not PSU). Funny.
I hope I didn't bore you!!!
The Citadel
JW Marriott Hanoi
Hue market
Hue Restaurant
Tunnels
I've never been in one of those tunnels and I'm certain we were close to them but never knew one way or the other. I've talked to guys that did and the stories they told are horrific.
Good looking Vietnamese Woman?? Never knew they existed. My memories of the women were old biddies that constantly chewed those damn betel nuts that stained their teeth and made them high.
The stories about the sidewalks having citizens buried under them are no doubt true. The snipers would pick off any man women or child that strayed out on the streets and then would wait until family members would try to retrieve the bodies and shoot them as well.
Your first picture brought back a flood of memories. There were snipers in stratigically placed in both of those towers and they waited until we were midway across it before they's open fire on us. We were caught in a crossfire and that's when and where I earned my first purple heart. Our Lt ordered us forward and I told him that was suicide and we'd be going into a trap. I refused to move forward and was told I'd be facing a court martial when the battle was over. He and 5 other guys went forward and were immediately cut down by VC hiding in the arch on the far left of your picture. Those 5 brave men that went forward probably saved the lives of the rest of us. When they were being fired upon that allowed the rest of us to retreat and set up behind that low wall in the front of that picture. However, one of our squad, one of my very best friends during and after the war, jumped over into the moat and took up shelter in the flow-thru that you see pictured. He was trapped in there. When the snipers realized that he was in there they continued to fire towards the openings using rocket mortars and everything they had, on each side hoping a ricochet would hit him. We were trapped and he was trapped until nightfall, but he was also hit. Once nightfall came, I jumped the wall and went after him(I always told him I had to cause he had all the good C-rations). With our Lt KIA and our Gunny injured, I was third in command and in charge. We moved silently along the base of the bridge till we reached the far bank, climbed the bank and skirted the front wall and took cover behind the wall on the far right and that was our position. Thru the night and into the morning. Reinforcements came up and took their position at the same wall on the nearside of the creek that we had vacated. That entire battle was a living hell but just one of many we fought taking the city. Incidentally, I was actually reported for disobeying an order and busted back down to a Corporal. I cant say that for the longest time I felt strong animosity toward our Lt but finally came to realize that he was a kid just like me who probably didnt want to be there any more than me and paid the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.
Your last paragraph brings peace and honestly a sense of closure to me. I often wondered why we were there. Now I finally know and understand. God bless you and thank you for making my day.
You guys just wrote two of the most awesome posts I’ve ever read on this forum. Nothing about wrestling either, but so what. Like I said in my other post, making new friends and learning about them is the greatest thing I’ve ever gotten from wrestling.
Being from Lickdale PA, and you from Harrisburg, I thought I would post this. My dad was in from the end of WW2 to 1976. Was in all the wars from WW2 to 1976. Started in recon taking pictures from the bubble on lower deck of plane, civil engineer and navigator from 2-seater jets to bombers, carriers and radar planes.
Here is a little video the Patriot News did with him. He did not say much about what all he did. I know he received two distinguished flying crosses because I read the packets that came with the medals going thru his things after he passed. I learned things watching this video.
Last edited:
Best off season thread ever. Thank you all for your service!
The "off season" qualifier was not needed.
I try to thank veterans for their service and their families for their sacrifices. I do manage sometimes. However, it is very hard for me to say anything because I feel so much less than all of them. I could live 100 years and not do anything as great as what those men and women did in months.
If you are a veteran and read this. Thank you.
I've just finished going through this thread and have enjoyed the war stories immensely.
My late father was a huge PSU sports fan, mainly football and wrestling. We went to quite a few matches together, but unfortunately he passed away of mesothelioma in Jan of 2005. I wished he could see our wrestling team today, because he would love it.
My father was a WW2 vet in the 284th field artillery battalion. He fought under Gen Patton in the Battle of the Bulge, and was a Staff Sargent in charge of 8 men and several 105 mm howitzers. I was able to attend one of his reunions in Montoursville, Pa, and could have listened to my Dad and his army buddies stories all day. Below is my favorite story.
The 284th rolled into Santeiul, France on Aug 20th, 1944, and the towns people were going ballistic in celebration. Soon they got word that they were 35 miles behind enemy line. My Dad's commanding officer had the whole battalion retreat, but left my Dad there with a few other guys and a couple of howitzers to hold off the German tanks if they showed up. Thankfully for my Dad, the other few guys and me they didn't or you'd never hear this story.
My Dad had an army friend named Edger Roe from Junction, IL, who named his son Don after my Dad. That always made me realize how special my Father was, to not only me, but so many others.
Last edited:
Die or be demoted. Sophie’s choice.
It would be a difficult visit but if you can, you should go. I think you’d be shocked but it would also bring back some bad memories. if I get some time, I’ll post some personal photos. Let me know how I can help.
I usually go back there 2-3 times a week when I sleep and then i'm awakened by my wife's elbow in my ribs!!! But seriously, I could never go back there. Too much pain and too many experiences. We literally fought street by street and house by house. We had to take what was then the treasury building and then fight our way thru the streets to the hospital and fought to take control of that.
Thanks for all you've done and thanks to everyone for their kind words and support. One last thing; what we did in Hue pales in comparison to what the brave boys did on Normandy Beach. That certainly was the greatest generation.
PR
You vets who have been in real life combat are such a testimony to the mental toughness that some people have.
I watched the HBO series The Pacific and later read Eugene Sledge’s book With the Old Breed. Both the HBO series and the book got me really choked up inside. I can’t begin to imagine the horror that those guys experienced, yet they managed to pull it together and lead normal lives after the war was over.
I know a lot of guys were dealing with what we now know as PTSD. It wasn’t understood back then, but there were so many vets that just shook it off and got on with their lives. My prayers go out to anyone who had to go through those experiences, and I pray that the remainder of your life will be filled with peace and joy.
I appreciate you. And I would say, anyone who gives the full measure or even puts their lives on the line are just the same as those brave soldiers who stormed Normandy. Normandy, Tarawa, Iwo, Gettysburgh, Hue, Khe Sanh, Wilderness, Inchon, etc are all just theaters.
BTW - Dick Winters who was one of the main characters profiled in Band of Brothers was a wrestler. I know he wrestled in high school and he later attended college at Franklin & Marshall. I don't know if he competed while in college. Dick lived out his later years on a farm just outside of Hummelstown which is only about 7 miles from where I used to live. Of course I never met him, but it's still cool to know that a real life hero lived so close to where I grew up.
Ag, I had 3 uncles that all fought in WW2 also. My uncle George, who we called Poose, was captured by the Germans. He was being questioned by a German officer about where he was from. He said, Trout Run, Pa. The German officer in his best English says, Trot Run where's dat? It was near the end of the war, and one day he woke up and the Germans were gone. God was definitely looking out for him. He never talked much about the war, but told that story.
That same Uncle had a son, my cousin Jimmy, who was a Dustoff on a Medivac chopper in the Vietnam War. I know that he saw a lot of horrific things. I remember an article in the Wmspt paper about him receiving a medal for rescuing wounded soldiers, while taking on heavy fire. He also doesn't talk about the War, but has my utmost respect for all he did.
Dick Winters' grandson once asked him if he was a hero. His reply was "No but I served with a company of heroes".
This is a pretty tough week for myself and Pitteefool. In fact, to escape the Memorial Day crowds, he and i and our wives will head up to camp and spend a quiet weekend away from it all. Please take time to reflect on and pay tribute to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. Some years ago I posted something similar on a different forum and got absolutely eviscerated for even mentioning it. Someone had asked what members had served and when i responded that I had someone asked if I had served with someone they knew who had just passed away. Anyway, we had a conversation back and forth and someone took offense that we were discussing war stories on a football forum. Honestly, I was shocked by the negative feedback we received. I'm glad you guys arent like that. You're all class in my book and can sit by my fire anytime you wish.
You're dismissed.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.
Did PR break forum rules by not posting a picture of his wife??
Yeah, this weekend is a laid back affair for us. We do some fishing (and hope the fish leave us alone), sitting on the porch bullshitting and just hanging out.
On Memorial day there's no drinking but only a somber reflection on our comrades in arms that never made it home.
