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ODT Gun Show & Swap Meet - May 6, 2023 - Cobb County Civic Center

BDR1 said:
I WANTA GIVE HUGE THANK YOU TO K Klif .. for a hellofadeal on some 40 cal ammo.. he and his wife are too folks to me.. I could sit and talk with them for days
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You are one of the good ones. We always enjoy talking to you and a whole lot of the rest of the crew. I wouldn't say we know a lot, it's more like we know different. I grew up in Atlanta and Mableton and then one day I was yanked out of all I knew and sent off to strange places to learn unusual skills.

I had never been on a plane but was taken to the airport and put on one that flew me to San Antonio where I was met by a man in a smokey the bear hat who met us yelling and continued to do so for the duration of basic training. The on a bus to Biloxi, Mississippi (funny think was I was working for Southern Bell when Hurricane Camile his Biloxi and I got sent there to put up phone lines and restore service so people could order pizza and stuff. Now I rode in a bus and it didn't look all that much better than the year before.

Finished training there and got on a plane to Alaska, then the war got hot so they sent me to the Phillipines. Some days I sat position and told the folks guiding the B52s where the ground radar sites were and they could go and bomb the crap out of them. Some days I put on my flight suit, flew into this or that place in the jungles and did close up radio interecept on the bad guys. It was always a volunteer thing and I didn't mind volunteering. Last trip in I copied the message and went oh crap, they are coming for us. They handed me an M16 with a 20 round mag and said careful with your ammo. Guys were coming over the wire and those rounds lasted through exactly one pull of the trigger. Then it was empty rifle against the bad guys empty rifle. I had a knife, he had a bayonet. Through the mercy of God, he died that day. I didn't. When it was over I got the heck out of there back to the Philippines.

After that I got to spend some years in England and then Maryland and then a few years in Crete and then San Antonio and then my last 6 years in Japan. After I retired I forgot all I knew and got a job at Toys-R-Us. Started as cashier, 6 months later was store manager. Then worked at a Deaf Service Center and then for a Sign Lanugage interpreting agency.

I met Carol again about 12 years ago. We had dated in high school and when I went off to the service she met someone, married, divorced, married again, divorced, I found her and now she is married again for her last time. In the interim I was married, one daughter, and now an ex who is not a really nice person but that doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that CArol and I are together and will be until the day we die.

All this to say, I learned a lot of different things. Met a lot of strange and unusual people and found that given time you can get along with anyone. All the skills I learned, radio theory, copying high speed Morse Code, learning how to break codes and decipher messages, how to fight, how to plan, how to manage and take care of other people are all nice things, most of which I'll never use again except for taking care of people. I can run a morgue, set up and run a shelter feed a lot of people, staff any of the jbos but hope to heck I don't have to do it anymore.

The sheer pleasure of meeting folks and talking to folks like yourself and Alleycat and his Mrs., Biker13 and all the rest of the crew rally made our day.

Can't wait to do it again and if you slow down I'll probably tell you more stories and if it is late in the evening and beer and cigars are involved I'll tell you some I can't tell when the ladies are around.

Have a good evening and I look forward to the next show and getting to see you fine folks again.
 
Klif said:
You are one of the good ones. We always enjoy talking to you and a whole lot of the rest of the crew. I wouldn't say we know a lot, it's more like we know different. I grew up in Atlanta and Mableton and then one day I was yanked out of all I knew and sent off to strange places to learn unusual skills.

I had never been on a plane but was taken to the airport and put on one that flew me to San Antonio where I was met by a man in a smokey the bear hat who met us yelling and continued to do so for the duration of basic training. The on a bus to Biloxi, Mississippi (funny think was I was working for Southern Bell when Hurricane Camile his Biloxi and I got sent there to put up phone lines and restore service so people could order pizza and stuff. Now I rode in a bus and it didn't look all that much better than the year before.

Finished training there and got on a plane to Alaska, then the war got hot so they sent me to the Phillipines. Some days I sat position and told the folks guiding the B52s where the ground radar sites were and they could go and bomb the crap out of them. Some days I put on my flight suit, flew into this or that place in the jungles and did close up radio interecept on the bad guys. It was always a volunteer thing and I didn't mind volunteering. Last trip in I copied the message and went oh crap, they are coming for us. They handed me an M16 with a 20 round mag and said careful with your ammo. Guys were coming over the wire and those rounds lasted through exactly one pull of the trigger. Then it was empty rifle against the bad guys empty rifle. I had a knife, he had a bayonet. Through the mercy of God, he died that day. I didn't. When it was over I got the heck out of there back to the Philippines.

After that I got to spend some years in England and then Maryland and then a few years in Crete and then San Antonio and then my last 6 years in Japan. After I retired I forgot all I knew and got a job at Toys-R-Us. Started as cashier, 6 months later was store manager. Then worked at a Deaf Service Center and then for a Sign Lanugage interpreting agency.

I met Carol again about 12 years ago. We had dated in high school and when I went off to the service she met someone, married, divorced, married again, divorced, I found her and now she is married again for her last time. In the interim I was married, one daughter, and now an ex who is not a really nice person but that doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that CArol and I are together and will be until the day we die.

All this to say, I learned a lot of different things. Met a lot of strange and unusual people and found that given time you can get along with anyone. All the skills I learned, radio theory, copying high speed Morse Code, learning how to break codes and decipher messages, how to fight, how to plan, how to manage and take care of other people are all nice things, most of which I'll never use again except for taking care of people. I can run a morgue, set up and run a shelter feed a lot of people, staff any of the jbos but hope to heck I don't have to do it anymore.

The sheer pleasure of meeting folks and talking to folks like yourself and Alleycat and his Mrs., Biker13 and all the rest of the crew rally made our day.

Can't wait to do it again and if you slow down I'll probably tell you more stories and if it is late in the evening and beer and cigars are involved I'll tell you some I can't tell when the ladies are around.

Have a good evening and I look forward to the next show and getting to see you fine folks again.
Click to expand...
I worked with someone like that. He married raised the kids and divorced. She had never married and was living in the UK. They found each other again on the net, got married and moved back to the U.S.
 
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