A compilation of the collective memories of B Co 2/227, Death Dealers. Also known as the Bravo Company BAD BOYS.
The thought here is to compile the activities and antics of the Bad Boy Club for posterity.
29 August 2006
More Pics of the BOYS
What is it with these guys and my breasts?
Dean,
The only thing missing from this picture is Erich. I spoke with him today and man it was good to talk to him. You two guys will always be in my prayers and I feel lucky to have had your lives in my hands for those years of my service. This past weekend is hard to put into words and I am looking forward to next year's reunion. Keep living your dream Dean!
Steve, You said something to me that I have not been able to forget about you were glad to be there if it just meant talking to me and it gave you new perspective. Well I also appreciated seeing you and if there is anything I can ever do for you or if you want to just shoot the bull then I am here. You are looking good and seem to have a grip on were you are headed, don't settle for anything but the best!
DAMN WE LOOK GOOD!!!!
Well I too left a changed man and am happy to have seen all you guys. I would have to say that each one of us probably got something different from this past weekend but I am sure we all had a good time. I can only hope that as the years go by more and more of us get to see each other and go over the same stories again, again and again. I learned something new about every one of you guys and am proud to have been in the company of you all.
P.S. Kristin wants everyone to know she enjoyed meeting you and looks forward to next year.
So you also want to be an audio blogger to this weblog. You can be, just follow the magic instructions!!!!
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The first meeting, reunion, get together, crossing of paths, talkfest marathon... was successfully concluded today!
I say sorry to those who---- could not, would not or just not able to be with us.
It was worth it.
It was a loosely assembled meeting with really only one goal, to be together. This was accomplished.
Many met on Friday. Thankfully Steve had graciously allowed me to clean his plate of quasidilla on my arrival. We migrated to my hotel room for a cool beverage and conversation. See George's picture, and had dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse (Steve, Dean, George, Kristin, Brad, Bryan, Dennis, Brendon,Ron and Wanda). It was delicious, even though many say I am not qualified to judge due to my lack of refined palate and desire to eat anything animal vegetable mineral. I was to the point of actually chewing on Brads honch. Not only was the food good, but the company better. We adjourned that evening and met the next morning.
The strong of heart worked out on Saturday morning. I am glad I was able to awaken successfully. An impromptu lucheon was had across the street at Wendy's. It is funny how no matter where we went, we stayed long talking. Gary Edwards was standing in the lobby as we returned.
We moved en mass to . There were skeptics initially. This all changed the moment play began! Just over an hour later, I was unable to speak in a natural voice and I was soaked in sweat. All I can say is you have to play to understand how fun it is.
We returned to the hotel and who do we see but Dan Craytor, John Roden and Tom Anderson! We spent the remainder of the afternoon in the lobby eating, drinking and talking. We left only because we were not invited to the wedding party!
Then it was off to Benihana's for another delicious meal. Thanks to Stacie the General Manager! George presented us all with a framed picture of the group. It had just been taken mere minutes before. Thank You.
After eating we regrouped at the hotel, those who wanted adjourned to a local club for more conversation over beverages. The establishment was gracious enough to allow cigar smoking. Tom Anderson actually talked until he was unable to speak any more! Steve was unable to talk several times, so moved he was! We left around 0130. Tom left my room at 0300, he had found his voice again!
This morning we met for breakfast and fare wells.
I will say that some things were said this weekend -- that touched my heart. There was was much generosity and love.
I wish we could have all been there. I am glad I was.
Older, fatter, less hair was I.
Happier I am.
Looking forward to the next meeting, I do.
I thank each one of you for coming and for sharing.
Steve sent this to me. I strikes home as to how well I have it! Maybe you can take something from it as well. dean
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''
So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
This is a recent picture of ETony's the Hanau hot spot that most of you passed by at least once each day. I couldn't tell if the two guys that ran the place were still there there but the E-Tony's sign was still there. Best lasagna in country there. The slot machine still has 200 marks of mine.
Several have requested a contact list for everyone out there. I know everyone has one or two addresses of different folks, friends and stick buddies. No one seems to know how to contact all. If everyone wants to email their info to me I will creat a database to share with everyone. We can use it to begin the contact/sign in roster at this years initial reunion. Ideally each susequent annual reunion will get bigger and better with the aid of an active contact list.
All personal info will be treated accordingly( I'll sell it to the first telemarketer that offers me $100) Provide any or all of the following, and I will begin the database. Send it to dealer29@knology.net
The Hotel selection has been made. make your reservations ASAP. Marriott DFW South. Close to the airport. You can get the room paid at the time of booking for $109. Or you can reserve at $119.
Rooms will book fast in this hotel so don't delay. Dean and I are trying to come up with a meeting/activity plan for the 26th so that even if you don't get into this hotel, we'll have an agenda a place to meet. (Dean likes Billy Bobs so bring money)
What is it with these guys and my breasts?
Dean,
Steve,
,
