A sad return to my collection

[CalifEd]

I am sorry to hear about your friend.

I had a real good friend whose husband died of Cancer. He felt it was a result of his time in Viet Nam and his contact with Agent Orange.

The VA reached out to her, a real big surprise, and after reviewing his Service Record, determined his death was in fact service related.
The VA, on their own initiative, actually provided some real assistance to her with dealing with his death.

It might be worth having someone in the family make a call to the VA just to check what, if anything, is available since Agent Orange was involved.

 

[Narragansett]

Very sorry for your loss. I lost a friend to brain cancer and agent orange

 

[Yendor357]

Vietnam was such a horrible mistake on so many levels. Those poor guys weren’t much more than kids. Sent to die for no reason. So sad. I’m glad your buddy lived as long as he did. He sounds like a great guy.

 

[jdlii]

A terrible loss but, a firearm to remember your good friend by until time runneth not. One of my very best friends and I had known each other from elementary school, played football together in high school and went to college together. I played football there and he was smart enough avoid that opportunity.

We talked once a week, if not more and laughed at each other jokes and stories like morons. He confided in me that he had been diagnosed with bone cancer and asked me to liquidate his firearm collection. I willingly did as he asked and went to visit him to turn over the proceeds.

We both knew it was going to be our last visit. Before the visit, he told me that he had purchased a gift for me, an Ed Brown Executive Elite. He had always wanted a target rifle and without him knowing it, I bought him a Remington Mod. 700 Police Tacital rifle with a Leupold Vari X II 6x18 scope and 200 hundred rounds of my hand loaded match ammo.

Every time I look at or shoot the Ed Brown, the memories come flooding back of all the fun and good times we shared. I am still sad for his untimely loss but, so much richer for the relationship. The pistol, like him, is a classic, accurate and unfailing.

Thank you George. I'll see you, when I see you.

 

[lkabug]

My condolences to you for the loss of your friend.
May your memory of him warm your heart and make you smile.
And for a brother, a slow hand salute.

 

[biku324]

I'm sorry you've lost such a good friend.

Both a good friend in contracting and my BIL were in Vietnam during the height of the Agent Orange defoliant campaign; both had AO-specific prostate cancer caught aby the VA at age 68/69. My BIL summed up his feeling by suggesting he would rather have treatable prostate cancer at 69 than to have been dead in dense jungle at 18.

 

[pasound]

Follow up on my friend, Bill, and the efforts of friends to get his affairs settled. The 10-22 TD will arrive at my home tomorrow at 6:00 PM, along with his old laptop. Hoping I can back up old documents and pictures he saved. Most of his music equipment went to a local live audio company, who didn't buy the custom cabinets, but did buy the speakers (all were top shelf name brand), and his amplifiers and outboard gear. His power tools (large scale woodworking - he could cut new lumber from logs) went to local woodworkers. A lot of furniture makers in his area.

My good friend Bob has been here since last weekend, and his wife flies in tomorrow to help them drive back to Oregon with the Ford Edge which he inherited, and a trailer full of WV cut maple, oak, and walnut boards, and small items which no one wanted.

Bill shopped for 45 years at one store - the Nottingham Store, in Duck, WV. He had a tab there all those years. Sale of his items paid his tab, and the store owners (fifth generation family) set up a Bill's Tab fund, which has a $1,000 credit in it, for the owners to enable people to receive payment toward their debts to help them out. Bill used to do that all his life. A donation site for his memory is being set up, but there are no details yet.