Old Friends and Friends I've never met

Well, it's a cool, rainy, kinda gloomy day down in Texas.  You'd think winter was approaching or something.  I'm sitting here pondering, while enjoying the smell of the Carnitas slow roasting in the oven. 

It's hunting season and Mrs Juvat bagged herself a buck last Thursday evening.  

Course, she did it with the front end of her car.  She's fine. Thank you, Lord!  

The car?  Still in the decision process with USAA.  Spoke with the body shop, he hadn't finished inspecting it yet, but it was already north of four grand and that's before I mentioned the radiator leaking coolant and the engine overtemp.  

I think she's a goner. 12 years and 250K behind her... Been a good ride.

Friday, however was a great day.  Earlier in the week I'd gotten a text from a friend I've never met.  He was going to be in town and wondered if I'd like to visit the museum with him.

Having not had a day off in quite a while, I told my boss I was going to be unavailable Friday.  

He said OK.  I guess I've been getting grumpy lately.

So. Friday morning arrives and after a bit of miscommunication about which entrance to the museum we were going to use, I finally get to meet OldNFO face to face.

Well, turns out that he'd coordinated with somebody who'd worked at the Museum and had finagled a VIP tour.  (Given that he's known as OLD NFO, I think he might have mentioned that he's actually taught Admiral Nimitz about submarines.....Or something)

Anyhow, I walked in the door and there he is talking to somebody I'd met when I first moved to town, been friends with he and his wife since.

I think he's pretty loaded, so let's just call him Rich.

Rich is retired Army.  Field Artillery if you must know. 

Cue my second most favorite Army video after "ARRRRMMMMEEE Training Sir!"

I had known that Rich had taken a job at the Museum, but hadn't really known what he did there.  Turns out that he'd been the guy responsible for all the supporting information in the displays.  The Factoids and Pictures, games and such that make the Museum so much more than a store room for old stuff.  

As Sarge will say, when he finally makes it down here, "brings it to life".  For example, in one of the galleries, there's a wall sized picture of an LST.  Folks are disembarking, and there's a group of the ship's company manning the forward AAA battery.  (Kamikazes, doncha know)

Turns out that Rich's Father-in-Law had served on that ship, so he'd printed out a copy of the photo, had it framed and matted and gave it to him for Christmas.  The Father-in-Law is looking at the picture hands it back to Rich and tells him that he's the officer in the picture by the AAA.  That was his Battle Station.  

Cool details like that.

He did mention that visitors to the museum were categorized into two groups, Streakers and Strollers.  Tuna and I when we visited were definitely in the first category.  This visit was the latter.  

Tuna, I told you there was a seaplane there.  We should have turned left at Tarawa, not right.

So, I'm touring this incredible museum with the guy who did the nuts and bolts research on the exhibits, and someone who's got a lot of experience doing a lot of things in the Pacific.  While I give OldNFO a boatload of good natured grief, the guy knows a lot about lot of things. 

Lots of things I didn't know, that I do now.  

Four hours passed in about 15 minutes, and it was time for lunch, so we head for Hilda's, a little Mexican restaurant in town.  A nice relaxing meal (I had the enchilada plate, chicken, thanks for asking.  Excellent as always!) with the inevitable war story exchanges.

Then it's back to the Museum. (One of the nice things about the Nimitz is your ticket is good for two days and it's $10 with a military ID.  Free if you're a WWII vet.  So out and back in is authorized, even expected.) 

This time, however, we're going to the "Pacific Combat Zone", a separate facility about a block away from the Main Building.  This is a living history exhibit and conducts several reenactments a year, with explosions, landing craft, an occasional airplane flyover and finally a flamethrower.  One of these reenactments was scheduled for this past weekend, but not on Friday.

Rich, however, took us on a behind the scenes tour of the facility, which included a look at the maintenance bay.   While there, we rounded out or entourage of military veterans when we made acquaintence with a young Marine.  He'd served on Okinawa recently, then gotten out and was working fixing, when we met him, a Sheridan tank.  He also was a reenactor, so was going to be suiting up for the festivities the next day.  Interesting guy, and fun to talk with.

There are two "hardware" displays in that section of the Museum. 

A TBM.  What a Beast! Thing is Huge!  (or is it "Yuge!" now?)  While ogling this display, we met up with a DD crewman from the Korean War and chatted with him for a while.  

Left this display and went to the other exhibit.

An actual PT boat, and one of very few (three I think) surviving.  Again, something I didn't know, this one had fought in the Mediterranean.  Didn't know PT's had done that, PT-109 and "McHale's Navy" being the source of most all my PT Boat knowledge, prior.  This boat had 3 German ships to her credit.  

So, it's now about 4PM as we exit the Museum.  We're saying our goodbyes as OldNFO has a ways to travel before he retires for the evening.  He leaves us with a bit of good news.  He said he's going to Alpine to do some research for another episode in the Grey Man series.  

Man! I hope that comes to be.

One final observation.  We spoke with quite a few people while in the Museum.  Most of whom were veterans.  There was an organized group (they had nametags) from a Vietnam supply ship association.  There was a young guy with his dad, both vets, he had been a USAF medic, Dad was with the Group.  The Marine we met at the Pacific Combat Zone, another Army guy (Infantry, I'd bet my bottom dollar.)  Every one of them I felt comfortable around, felt I could trust them, could let my guard down a bit. Just Friends I hadn't met yet. That doesn't happen with most people I meet.  Positively refreshing.

So, it was a great weekend, hope your's was also.