I am writing this near midnight on April 29, a date that always brings nostalgic thoughts to Brad – and I hear lots of stories of his youth. 59 years ago on this date he left his parents’ home in the little town of Connersville, Indiana, and boarded a train to begin his new life in the Air Force. He had wanted to join the military since he was a little boy and played for hours with metal toy soldiers in his sandbox. So now at 17, he was able to start living his dream, and even the rough basic training in the Texas heat of Lackland Air Force Base didn’t dim it.

After basic training, he was on to Vance AF Base in Enid, Oklahoma, not an exciting place by any stretch. So after a few months, when he heard that there was free beer in Korea, he volunteered to go there. When he wrote to his mother about his new exciting assignment, she wrote back and asked, “Do you know there is a war going on in Korea?” This small fact had not yet penetrated his 17-year-old mind – it was just too full of thoughts of adventure.

He boarded a troop ship in L.A for the 12-day trip to Korea – or that was where he figured it was going. But to his surprise, it stopped first in Japan, where the few Air Force guys were told to get off and the Army infantry soldiers and Navy sailors would continue to Korea. Talk about luck.    Brad would spend the rest of his 30-month enlistment time, not in a war zone, but in a plum job as a warehouse supervisor who had a whole crew of Japanese workers to do all the work. This left him plenty of time to pursue the pleasures of youth – and there’s a whole book there, some of it X-rated!

April 29 also has great significance for Brad for another reason – and for me too because I shared that momentous day with him 19 years ago, when he retired from federal civilian employment at Naval Avionics in Indianapolis, Indiana. Now our stays in Vegas could be more than just short vacation visits.

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