Work was more consistent so no RC car this time. My wife was deployed at the same time but in a different area so we never got to see each other. And she was where the Afghans were killing the soldiers after those soldiers trained them. Flag at half staff almost every day and sometimes weeks going by before we could have a spotty at best phone conversation for just a few minutes. Insanely stressful. She was on a blackout FOB meaning when something would happen, nothing in or out to include phone calls and internet. So I never knew if it was her or her friend or anyone else that got got. Many other things added to the terrible here and we were both crazy happy to make it out of that mess. Couple weeks after I got home and I transferred business units in my company so I wouldn’t go to any more war zones. She got out a few years later.
That is an incredible love story my friend. I’m glad only one grandfather deployed. You are obviously younger than me because it was my Dad who was in Korea. Lived a great life but unfortunately Alzheimer’s got him right after retirement. He was the one who showed me how great cars could be. He had some great ones starting with a ‘57 Chevy Bel Air. I wish he could see this one. He would’ve loved the Coyote.Both grand fathers served but only one deployed in Korea. Would have to ask about the other one but he was in army and navy. I was never “in” but have deployed as a civilian contractor to Iraq and Afghanistan. My wife is out now but she’s been to Iraq and Afghanistan and stationed in Korea a few years as a soldier.
Iraq was like a payed vacation for me except we got indirectly shot at with mortars and rockets once or twice a week. Work was busy at the start and end of deployment but super slow in the middle like 7 months. Mostly raced around and broke my RC car and had constant shipments of parts coming in from rcplanet.
Iraq was dirty but Afghanistan totally had Iraq holding its beer. Nasty place! NATO base surrounded the “poo pond”that was the water treatment area, basically a lake of disgusting. And it would rain and flood and get everywhere.
My dad is a retired mechanic and grew up with all the hot rods. He has a Prius soon to be replace with some EV when they decide on one. His other car is a 69 nova with a little 572 in it lol. My brother and I both got new cars in 2019. He got a STI and my dad gives mine all the attention. He’s owned a few mustangs while I was growing up. Both my brother and I do other things but are mechanical in nature and do a lot of things ourselves with our cars.
When I was growing up my dad didn’t get much into hot rods like he used to. His bread-and-butter was a 1977 Oldsmobile Delta 88 baby blue convertible. It was the talk of the town…it was so beautiful… all the kids wanted to ride in it to the ice cream shop after our Little League games whether we won or lost. One day he sold it and I didn’t know why. He bought a 1989 Pontiac GTA right after I bought my first 1988 GT. I think he was competing.
Everyone has their own problems. You're awesome.I have been helping my mother move and I stumbled upon this old photo of my great uncle from my Dads side in a random photo album. Thought I'd share it with you guys. I don't really know much about my dad's side of the family. I'm not on good terms with my father because of reasons I don't want to get into but my parents had an ugly long drawn divorce when I was a kid.
This is my great-great uncle who served in WW1 and was in the 369th Infantry Division, the Harlem Hellfighters. It was a very proud moment when I discovered this, because people like him have paved the way for people like me who wanted to serve.
I remember my father telling me that I decended from a long line of warriors.
My brother and I both joined the Army aftee high school and went into the Infantry, I was in the 101st and he was in the 82nd. Both went to Afghanistan at different times. Sadly, he went during a really bad time and was in a very bad situation. He has irreparably changed and suffers heavily from PTSD and drug abuse. It is a very sad and ugly situation. I've tried my best to help but there's only so much I can do being the younger brother as well as having my own problems.
On my mother's side my great uncle joined the Army and served in Korea. He has a son (which is my cousin?) that also went into the Army and deployed to Afghanistan.
PTSD is real. So sorry for your cousin.
Thanks to your family for your service. Very sorry to hear about your cousin. That's really rough. I lost a brother (very good friend) similarly when he took his life shortly after we got back from Afghanistan as civilian contractors. He was a marine...well he's still a marine wherever he is now right? He always used to tell me through the years of my on again/off again gym phases that he preferred "fit Mark". In 2014 when I summited Pikes Peak on a bicycle, I pulled the phone out and left a pretty emotional selfie video dedicating it to him. It helped the grieving process quite a bit.