06-01-2014, 09:27 PM
I'm sorry for your loss. Too many, too young.
eustacetilley wrote:
There was this kid- his father and I sailed a lot together, but the kid was all into climbing. When nothing else would do, he climbed masts. When asked about his girlfriends, he really blushed quite well, and admitted nothing.
He got it in Iraq 1. A roadside accident. He never even made it to his nineteenth birthday. I spent the evening with his father when he got the news, but there was absolutely nothing that I could say.
The Kid... one night we were all anchored out in Horseshoe Bay; I was all for a night sail down to Santa Cruz, but I was wisely told to stuff it.
The next morning, just after the crack of dawn, the kid clambered down the companionway of my old Contest with a climbing magazine in hand, quite waking me up. Yes, look in those drawers over there, you might make something that works.
A couple of hours later he assaulted and conquered what remained of the old Nike Missile Base.
Charles McCabe called Rainier Ale the "Green Death". It certainly contributed to his own demise. But he was very old at the time, just a little older than I am right now.
The Kid? He preferred my Orange Crush. There is always a 12-pack of it aboard to this day, just in case.
Eustace