My goodness, what a change ...

Veteran's Day was earlier this week, and a lot of the Veterans I know had a photo or two posted on Facebook showing the Soldier in their younger days.  

This brought a couple of things to my attention -- most of us looked much better (you know, the lean, mean, fighting machine picture) back then, and most of the pictures were taken many, many moons ago (most of us had hair and it wasn't gray).

Well, I came across these two pictures of 1SG Dave and 2LT me.  The first one was taken shortly after I got my commission to 2LT and we were deployed to do the Cubans at Ft. Chaffee.  This would have been the second time we were assigned to that mission.  Notice how slim and trim both of us are.  Those were the days.

The second picture is many years later, and was taken at a Battalion Dining Out.  Not sure of the year, but it was somewhere between 1994-98 as those were the years I was the battalion commander (all four years as a major). One other thing worth noting -- look at all of those service stripes on the CSM's sleeve.  He used to say he was a senior bus driver with all of those things.  Dave was pretty close to the end of his career; I still served for at least 10 to 14 more years.  I sure owe a lot to Dave's guidance and leadership over all those years and assignments.  I think most of the lost hair in the second picture was the result of raising a fresh 2LT and mentoring him all those years ... no easy task.

So those are my Veteran's Day remembrances for this year.  Sure had lots more pictures to look at and LOTS more memories, but these two just happened to be first ones in the folder I was looking through at the time.  Maybe more some other post.

A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you to become who you should be. (Anon.)

Hooah