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!)
Keep your eye on the news about this so you can find out about the service if possible. Good luck finding Alan's son and Tonya.
I'm sorry to hear about this. It sounds like he lived a full life while he was here.
Reminds me of some of the stupid things I did with friends in cars in my teenage years... In a similar contraption flying through a plowed field the battery fell into the engine fan... It “the car” had no hood or windshield… The acid spray went in our faces… We bailed out an ran for water… We had red faces for awhile…
What would life be without those experiences? ;-)
And what would we do now if we saw our kids doing similar things???