[snippy_about_it]

I'm not sure why I am crying so much over this...

I imagine bringing Robert home finally brings home the reality to you again, no matter how many years have past. I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you can go to the memorial and locate his wife.

[snopercod]

We're trying to locate Tonya via his son Tad. Tad's stationed over in Okinawa or Korea we think. The military is very cautious about releasing personal information (Linda Tripp excepted).

Alan (nobody ever called him Robert) built this "dune buggy" thing out of a stripped down Buick or Oldsmobile or something - just a frame with a powertrain. V-8 with straight stacks, and loud as hell. Really cool.

We used to drive that thing all over the dunes at Hazard Beach, just South of Morro Bay. It had no brakes in reverse, as we learned when we couldn't make it up "suicide hill" and had to careen back down at 30 MPH backwards. Thought we were gonna' die on that one...just missed a huge rock at the bottom.

He was one of those serious students - always studying so he could make something of himself.

Last Navy plane to be shot down in the Viet Nam war. What a waste of a good life. (Somebody stop me before my anti-war sentiments from the 60s reassert themselves!)