Grabbed a 30ft whale shark and went for a ride. Never felt so small in my life.

Graduated Summa Cum Laude from #1 college program.

Had my picture taken w Vanna White when I was like 20.

Had my picture taken w a sitting President (GWB)

Sired a USMA graduate.

Sired a straight A student at my alma mater.

Daughter is beautiful and smart. Will be as successful as her brothers.

Almost as many heartaches.

Played football for the university of texas
Spent almost 2 years in 04-05 in Iraq
Delivered both of my sons
Fell in love at first sight with my ex-wife

Survived a live round (read my story in team)

Being dad to my crew,

1st helicopter solo

Watched his kids be born.

Hook 'Em

I saw the moon launch on July 16, 1969 (10th birthday). Took pics of TV as Neil stepped onto the moon. I've seen many launches since then from the ground and air.
Went to Los Alamos for vacation, very cool.
Flew at 51,000 feet in a Gulfstream.
Did a roll in a Learjet.
Went to a blow out party/christening at Royal Huisman shipyard in Vollenhove, Netherlands.
Skynyrd played at my high school dance.
Met Itzhak Perlman and his lovely wife. Very nice man.
Danced with Taj Mahal many times over the course of one evening.

That’s all I can think of right now. Those weren’t in chronological order...


ETA. I sat in Santa Margherita dei Cerchi in Florence which dates back to 1032. It is also known as Dante’s Church. Legend has it that it is where Dante first saw and fell in love with Beatrice.

I also stayed at a house on the grounds of castle of Calcione, in Tuscany for a week.

I saw the statue of David in the rotunda at the Accademia Gallery of Florence. I was overwhelmed. Seriously.

I wandered all over old Rome. I walked all over the colosseum and I stood in the senate and walked the Forum.

ETA2 I went to the Reno Air Races on the 50th Anniversary (2013).

just a couple:

worked with and became close friends with Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Albert King, and Freddie King

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Have been able to stroll in A. J. Foyt, Jr.'s shop for the last 30 years.
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My shitty X financially was running our lives into the ground.  

To try and scrounge some cash away I moved out of our high dollar luxury apartment into a somewhat shitty apartment complex to save about $500/month.  I hated it there.

In passing, I met my neighbor who I found out worked for Lamborghini.  He was the lead technician over there.  We use to shoot the shit and drink beer outside our attached garages after work.  Both being auto techs, we'd bounce ideas about problem cars off each other.  He had one that he could not get to run properly.  He told me everything he tried and it had kicked his ass for a week.   I told him it sounded like the cats were clogged up.  He looked at me and said that was the only thing he didn't check for as the car was very low mileage but he would look into that in the morning.

The next day he knocked on my door, told me not only was I dead on with my "diagnosis" he handed me a beer and told me he setup an interview with the service director.  No shit?  The interview was literally a formality.  He had already talked me up to his boss and after a 10 minute chat with the service director and a piss test, I worked for a Lamborghini dealership wrenching on $250,000+ cars over night.  

I ended up hating the dude and I walked out after two years but I sucked up all the knowledge I could while I was there and moved on to independent exotics/euro after that. (Dealership life is shit and that was the only corporate dealer I ever worked at.  The ass kissing, back stabbing, and scum sucking people that choose to be employed at most dealerships is staggering.)

If my X wouldn't have been such a cunt, I would have never moved into that shitty apartment and had the amazing opportunity.

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Top of my list.

Watched the birth of my daughter

Lived in Alaska, experienced cool stuff there.  Been all over the U.S. and got to see some really cool stuff our country has
Watched the last space shuttle launch. That was awesome to see in person

In my jobs, was a Firefighter/paramedic for a long time. Went in a lot of fires, did quite a few vehicle extrications. Went to some aircraft crashes, both civilian and military. Worked hurricanes and other large natural disasters. Trained a bunch of firefighters, EMT’s and Medics. Some went on to be supervisors, etc.
Left fire and became a cop.  Been shot at, was involved in an active shooter, got into an investigation spot and have been involved in some cool cases putting bad people in prison.
All in all I feel like I’ve had a great life and have experienced some awesome stuff, and continue to do so.

Round trip to London thanks to who would had been my FIL. Was in LA working. Future FIL flew my fiancee to LA from Melbourne (was living in Aus at the time). Had an envelope we had to open together. Inside, tickets to NYC with a reservation at the Waldorf Astoria in one of the honeymoon suites. Then 2 days later round trip tickets on the Concorde to London. Was like a kid in a candy store on the Concorde. Literally bouncing in my seat watching the display hitting 1300mph @ 50K.

Someone once asked me what I had done with my life.
I sat down and made up a list of the things I have done that had some importance to me (besides the wife/kids stuff):

I have lived in three different countries, taking my family with me, and dropping off kids in each as we moved (England, France, USA).
I have learned French. (I learned American too, but most people don’t understand the distinction).
I have surveyed Paris from the top of the Eiffel tower.
I have stood on a bridge over the Seine, which was vibrating to the loud music played celebrating Bastille Day, having my teeth rattled by the explosions of the best fireworks display I have ever seen.
I have stood on the top of a mountain in Switzerland after midnight, seeing the entire mountain range lit by starlight, and the glow of the village thousands of feet below.
I have sledged down the above mountain, to the village with only stars to light my way.
I have crossed the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound.
I have been in a 747 as an engine blew up.
I have flown in a hot air balloon.
I have fired a machine gun.
I have walked on the deck and ridden on the lift of an aircraft carrier.
I have eaten BBQed sardines in Portugal.
I have visited the catacombs in Paris.
I have seen the Coliseum, and walked the same streets as Cesar.
I have explored lava tubes.
I have learned to dive.
I have seen “walking stick” eels 300' down.
I have seen a 15' white tipped shark cruise by me.
I have heard the whales sing.
I have had a giant sea turtle swim beside me.
I have seen a Moray eel too close for comfort.
I have walked on the black sands beach in Hawaii.
I have looked down into an erupting volcano from a helicopter.
I have walked on still hot lava, and stood as close as heat permits to flowing lava.
I have experienced a -40°C Calgary winter.
I have experienced a 2 hour long day, with the Sun just kissing the horizon.
I have seen England change until it is no longer the country I grew up in.
I have stood at the base of the New York Twin Towers, looking up and wondering how much of a mess it would make if one fell down.
I have walked part-way down into the Grand Canyon (past the notice that says “Do not proceed beyond this point unless you have food and at least two gallons of water per person” — who would not, upon encountering such a sign?)
I have experienced the heat of the Arizona desert.
I have experienced being in a car in the Arizona desert, miles from a main road, with its wheels sunk into soft sand (I was not driving).
I have experienced the desolation of the Eastern Oregon high desert lava plains.
I have seen the desolation caused by the explosion of Mt. St. Helens.
I have been in a large earthquake in San Francisco.
I have seen the giant Redwood Trees.
I have been to a Beach Boys concert in California.
I have watched an auction where several billion dollars changed hands.
I have eaten live shellfish in Malta.
I have flown more than one million (physical) miles.
I have been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
I have held a (baby) alligator in the Everglades.
I have experienced Independence Day celebrations in Boston.

Giving gheys BJs?  Ewwwwww.

Aside from my kids, I’d have to say fishing kachemak bay for halibut on the morale boat with two of the greatest guys I’ll ever know.

Jumping into combat

For 2 years I got the opportunity to work on a NHRA nitro funny car team.

I was the left side clutch guy and got to drive the golf car with the batteries for the starter motor when we went up to the line.

Standing 20 feet behind a nitro car leaving never got old. It's total sensory overload.

I shot a coyote in my friends field and it ran to someone else’s. I didn’t think much and went across the tree line. I shot the dog again killing it and some one off a deck yelled fuck you, and let the gun rip.

I've done a few cool things.

Besides all the incredible stuff that comes with being a father, I've:

Hunted on the King Ranch a few times
Caught multiple 30lb+ salmon, the biggest at 38lb, on barbless hooks with 20lb mono, using old-school knucklebuster reels (no clutch), on downriggers with the salmon starting with 200' of line already out, off the West Coast of Vancouver Island
Slept in a snow shelter (quinzee) I built myself for a weekend
Competed at the national level swimming 5k open-water races

Survived standing very very close to the crash of a highly modified P51 Mustang.

And... That's about it.

I've lived a very boring life where things happened to me. I never really made anything happen, beyond basic day to day survival.

It's hard to choose, I got to fly in the Goodyear blimp one time, I've taken my own airplane around the Statue of Liberty up the East River and across the LaGuardia airport to fly over my College ,  Fort Schuyler.
And coming around Cape of Good Hope and sailing up through the South Atlantic to the US was pretty special too.

Sorry man, that has to be, at best, a tie. I mean, anyone can have kids but almost no one gets to fuck shit up with a tank.

I've been inside the Forbidden City, walked on the Great Wall, gazed upon and entered the Great Monastary in Llasha, been to Macchu Pichu and looked down upon it from Wanna Pichu, been to the Mayan Pyramids, been to Circe's Cave, wandered around Petra, been to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea as well as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Wailing Wall, the Holy Selpuchre, Garden of Gesemane, Mt. of Olives, sailed the Nile, been to Luxor, gazed upon the face of the Sphinx and inside the Great Pyramid, did research at the National Archives and Library of Congress, been published internationally, been to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Malta, Italy, most of Central America.

Best thing ever?  When God spoke.

This is kinda what I was hoping for when I started my thread.

Thanks!

Herc Stuff

My son being born is the most special.

Riding a little bird into active gunfights are the coolest

Besides 3 incredible sons.

Hitting a 140’ triple on my KX 450 and winning the race at 41 years old.  

Also, getting holeshot at Kawasaki race of champions the same year.  Did not win race.  But hitting that turn first out of 45 riders was exhilarating!

For sheer exhilaration having an ied go off a few feet in front of our truck, then later we find out 2 additional ieds didn't go off and they would have been right under our unarmored truck.

Getting back and just having dinner with the boys with no one getting hurt felt good.

Private is always nice and flying in the Grand Canyon is cool. But I actually took  helicopter  from Las Vegas and landed in the Grand Canyon and had lunch before flying back. You really get to see it that way!

Having 2 kids and 3 grand kids is the number one accomplishment.
1000 hours as a Huey crew chief with 340 under goggles
32 years as a LEO
24 years active Army and National guard.
married to the same person for 38 years
(I'm not sure if that is good or bad but it's cheaper to keep her)
Most of all I shouldn't starve to death in my old age
kwg

Nice! My first ever type rating was the JetStar, done in the actual airplane by the only guy left in the FAA qualified to give checkrides in it, in an airplane whose first owner was none other than Howard Hughes.

Best handling, smoothest riding jet ever, and the only Skunk Works plane to enter civilian hands. Kelly Johnson was, is and always will be, the Man. I fly a Falcon 900 currently, and though it's bigger, its nothing compared to the JetStar. The quality level and flying qualities aren't even in the same league as Lockheed. You were really lucky to even get a ride in one, there are damn few people left who can say that. The jump seat sucked though, but at least you had a cool view! Still miss those old planes, probably always will.

February, 1991.

I was 20 years old.

Driving a fully loaded M1A1 across an open desert.

To my left, as far as I could see on the flat desert, were tanks.  Every 100 yards, another tank.

To my right, it was the same thing.

A tank, every 100 yards, to my right and left, in line formation, rolling across an open desert.

Everything in front of us was the enemy.  Weapons were free.  

It was the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Too many to list.

Most wouldn't believe them so I will just smile and be content in the experience.

I’ve had some awesome Gunship missions. Max rate of fire on the 105mm to level a house full of bad dudes on Christmas Eve one year was pretty sweet.

Name 1.

I’ll believe it.

I'm concerned that your first instinct is to think about homosexual fellatio.

Agree brother! Watching my 3 children come into this world, nothing will top that.

So far....
Opened up for Charlie Daniels in front of about 60K people.
Or got to play at CMA fest in Nashville

Only 42 so things may change .

Squatted and deadlifted with all my plates. Admittedly not enough, but it was still all my plates.

Hired a homeless man to weed my garden. Paid him $120, spent the afternoon weeding with him. One of the foundational moments of my adult life.

My 1911 going click on a live round above my ear, TWICE.

Hiking the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Driving through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.

Snowstorm at the Wild Turkey distillery.

13 rounds in my weight class in an elimination match at my old BJJ school.

###

Life is beautiful.

Shared a bong with The Ultimate Warrior.

Touched a boob

Business meeting and lunch with Ric Flair in the late 90's..

This:


But also:
Scuba diving on a WW2 wreck
Going to Europe
Running with the bulls in Pamplona
Having sex with a Spanish girl in a castle in Toledo
Meeting my wife
Having kids
Hunting with family

becoming a US Citizen was a pretty cool thing

I have lived and worked in 6 different Countries and 7 different States (one twice)

- Seeing my 3 children being born
- Getting engaged to their wonderful mother on top of Mt. Katahdin which I can see from my deck
- I’ve seen many beautiful sunrises and sunsets while hunting and fishing the northwoods
- Spent my late teens and early 20’s fly fishing almost everyday
- Ive seen the northern lights several times in my own backyard
- I’ve acquired quite a militaria collection from my Great Grandfather’s WWI unit
- I’ve put some bad MFers in prison and had the wit to solve some unique cases

In before the brownnecks.

Birth of children for sure.

Catching a 11’ gator in a 12’ canoe with fishing poles and hand lines at 3AM.

Boob

Pulling triggers for the first time on a Abrams is pretty cool.  Fucking your wife on one is cool as well.  Now I fucking hate tanks, but still love my wife.

Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane