One of the guys I roomed with in college was named Skip Slusher. He was from West Tennessee, McMinn County as I recall. We didn't room together for long because he got drafted (but enlisted just in time) for Vietnam duty. But before he went off to the Far East, he made quite an impression on me.
I was on the college Chess Team and Skip didn't even play the game when he moved in. I taught him in one evening and endured many long evenings thereafter scrabbling with him. He took Karate as a PE class. But that was only the bobber that raised his talent to light. I came in one evening to find Skip drawing something on an art pad. The guy wasn't an art major, just an undergrad, searching for a major. He was drawing a 'motion' depiction of his newly learned karate form ... and it was truly good! It looked for all the world like one of those 'time-lapsed' photographs of a person in a karate outfit, moving throught he air in snippet changes of position, all with just a lead pencil on white paper.
That 'discovered' talent really sticks in my mind because I'm poignantly reminded of all the amazing talents of the guys that went off to Vietnam but never returned, never came back to this nation they served for honor's sake, to use and share their deep and blessed talents with us and family.
I heard that Skip became a chopper pilot. Given the fatality ratio for those brave guys, I fear Skip was in the midst of some urgent action when he was lost to us. I guess, if we keep these guys in our hearts and minds, they're never really completely lost to us. Let's keep these young warriors in the Middle East and around the world fresh in our prayers and paralleled to our memories of the guys who went before, who are still out there somewhere, tryin' to watch over the new batch.
God bless and keep you courageous warriors for freedom. Be as safe and professional as you can ... and bring it home guys, bring back your talents and hard learned lessons of freedoms precious worth. We need you there and here.