You Just Never Know
I moved to Delmarva in 2018, fulfilling a life-long dream of living at the beach. At the time, my sister suggested that I join the local VFW. She moved to the Pennsylvania Dutch country a couple of years before, joined her local VFW and never regretted it. Although neither of us served in the military, we are entitled to join the VFW Auxiliary based upon our dad’s service in the Army Air Corps in WWII Europe.
Well, on my 64th birthday (coincidentally) I made application to my local VFW. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done.
“The Post” is the largest in Delaware with over 2,000 members. It’s not the largest in the US, but it is the most beautiful, sitting on the banks of the Indian River Bay, within eyeshot of the beautiful Indian River Bridge:
I must say, The Post changed my life. I made many new friends and found a home that I could visit whenever I wanted. Oh, and they have cheap beer – always an attraction.
I typically visit two or three times a week; often for The Post’s Tuesday night cheesesteaks (the best outside of Philly) and sometimes for the Friday night buffet. Who doesn’t like a buffet? But besides the food I always look forward to seeing my friends.
Since I didn’t know anyone when I joined, I started introducing myself and striking up conversations at the bar. It’s most often the bar where new friends are made by chance. An open bar stool in a crowded bar is a great way to meet someone. I subscribe to “Murray’s Law”, coined by Jim Murray, the former General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. Murray traveled a great deal and met many people. What Murray found was that with every 10 people he met, at least one and often more, had something in common with him: friends, interests, hobbies, etc. That made meeting people interesting to him. Me too.
Last week I met “Bob.” Bob is not his real name, but I didn’t get his permission to write about him so, for right now he’s just “Bob.”
Bob was visiting from Maryland and stopped by The Post. It was a quiet day and there were probably only five or six people at the bar. I was at one end and Bob was four or five seats away, but that was close enough to strike up a conversation. After covering all the prerequisites, where do you live, what do you do, have kids, etc. he mentioned that he knew the family of Brendan Looney, a Navy Seal killed in action in Afghanistan.
Bob told the story of how Brendan and Travis Manion were roommates at Annapolis. They were best friends. After graduation, Travis joined the Marines and Brendan joined the Navy. On April 29, 2007 Travis was killed by sniper fire in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Conshohocken, PA.
The families talked and decided that Travis should be buried next to his roommate and best friend Brendan. Because Brendan was going to be buried at Arlington, it was necessary to have Travis exhumed and Brendan’s burial would occur at the same time as Travis’.
The Seals have a rule that no Seal is left behind and, as a result, Brendan’s body was under guard 24 x 7 by one of his teammates. The problem, Bob said, was where the Seals would stay during this vigil. Bob had a large home near Arlington and, with his wife’s approval, opened their home to the Seals. Suddenly his wife was cooking for nine hungry guys.
It took nine days for Travis’ body to be transported. All the while Brendan’s Seal team was guarding his body and Bob and his wife were (gladly) taking care of the Seals. As you can imagine, the Seals who were not on duty would go into town and blow off steam. Bob’s wife became concerned because the Seals coming in the door in the early hours of the morning weren’t locking the door. A Seal overheard her and said “don’t worry, we got it covered.” It was then she realized she was living in the safest house in town.
Ultimately Brendan and Travis were united in eternity. A book, “Travis Manion and Brendan Looney,” is available for a free download.
I’ll never stop trying to meet new people. They’re so interesting!
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“The people…are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson, in a Letter to James Madison, 1787
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Now That’s a Revoltin’ Development!
Johnny Cash’s hometown, Kingsland, Arkansas, suffered an embarrassing bit of vandalism. Seems that someone with really good aim shot a hole in the town’s water tower, creating an amusing and well-placed leak.
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