Pub. 55 2014-2015 Issue 2

23 2014 WINTER PLAYING ARMY. FROM NOW ON, YOU PLAY MARINE”. He kicked the boxes out and drove off. The boxes were full of brand new USMC issue utilities, web gear, canteens, boonie hats, and best of all REAL jungle boots. All of it was the smallest size possible but I can tell you our morale and appearance went through the roof. Colonel Regal and I have been buddies ever since. I was invited to travel with him in April of 2004 to return to Vietnam with 10 guys fromhis company. We launched operations out of Dong Ha and traveled west along the DMZ to all the villages and hamlets. Everyone who was wounded got to go to the approximate site. Many of the villages had not seen anAmerican since the war and they really rolled out the red carpet. At the site of one of their most awful fights we met a villager who had been a North Vietnamese Army squad leader in that battle. He took us around all morning and showed us where the NVAwere dug in as well as the dry creek bed his company used to egress the village once the Marines had cordoned off the vil- lage and were napalming it. I hit it off with a lot of those guys and at- tended a Memorial Day/Company reunion with them in April of 2005 in Raleigh, NC. In November of ’05, John Regal and I had a dozen of them with their wives out to the ranch for a super long weekend. We have done 3 or 4 weekends since then with just guys he served with and often their sons. It has been great for the sons to get to know all the guys their fathers served with and hear the stories about their dads from others who were there. Colonel Regal got to know the current (Fallujah) guys from Kilo company 3rd battalion 1st marine regiment because that is what he does. We sent them tons of care packages (Copenhagen, etc.) all through their Fallujah deployment. I always thought it would be cool to get the warriors from different generations together so we started doing that. The 67-68 model guys are in awe of the current warriors and vice versa. One thing I have found a Marine can do better than anyone else is keep the faith. That Semper Fidelis is not a catch phrase. It is a sacred blood oath that transcends even history. A guy in town found an ad in a hunting magazine and offered to host a turkey hunt near Canadian, TX. It was organized by Paralyzed Veterans of America. That is how we met the Colorado boys (Matt Keil, Nick Orchowski, and Dan Shepherd). We later did a pig hunt at Spring Creek with PVA. We had a promotion at all of our stores following that hunt in July of 2011. AutoInc. raised $19,735.00 for PVA from that promotion. Since then, we have hosted numerous hunts and included new guys we have found. Most of the Marines are from K/3/1 via Colonel Regal as well as the new Marine Gabe Martinez who the Colorado “Army dudes” found. Our Gunfighter rendezvous continues to grow organically but we no  GUN FIGHTERS — CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 Shawn Walton, Army (from Lubbock, TX) Gunfighter Club Training Ground Justin Boswood Squad with Bayonets Matt Boisvert Rides His First Horse