Eric’s Story Book

I was digging into some old photos the other day and found this gem.

So these guys are some of my best friends I have ever had.  A little history on them and myself is we were all in the Marines together.  Tim (the big guy on the right side of photo) and I were stationed together at Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station (K-Bay from here on out) in B Company 7th Comm (Bravo Company).  I didn’t know Tim when he first reached the island he was in our Information Services Platoon (ISP before the Internet) and I was in our Radio Platoon.  I was just a field radio operator but a pretty good one and Tim had already been through one duty station at Camp Pendleton CA and was on top of his game in the messaging field.

We Tim got to Hawaii I was supposed to have been taking off to Somalia about that time but broke my collar bone while fighting with a bunch of the Senior guys in the platoon.  I missed my trip to Somalia and Tim ended up getting shipped out there.  After that trip was done I was healed up and Tim got back to K-Bay. We still didn’t really know each other or hang out together.

So back in 1993 before Kim Il-sung the leader of North Korea died things were getting kind of strange up there with the people starving and needing food.  Tim and I got selected by our command to take a trip to Seoul, South Korea.  We were to provide Communications Support for the G Shops Staff of Camp HM Smith Hawaii.  This was a great trip they needed us to get to Korea as quick as we could and they tossed us in Business Class Seats on KoreanAir with about 20 embark boxes that Tim and I had to take care of ourselves (well us and Top J).  So this was the first real time that Tim and I got to meet each other and hang out.

Tim and I are still really good friends when he got out of the Corps he moved to San Diego with his wife Nichole and I ended up back in San Bernardino when I got out.  That was some good times and just about every weekend I was in San Diego to watch the Chargers play (screw that team go RAIDERS).  Tim has moved to Virgina these days after a stint in Texas with  his wife and kids.   But we still stay in touch pretty much weekly.

Now on around the table we have Ted Baker…. Man I could say a million things about Ted I will save most of them for a later post.  I put it this way Tim got me into computers and into electronic messaging but Ted… Ted got me into the Internet TCP/IP and networking.  He was way ahead of the rest of the Marine Corps when it came to Network Computing and is one of the main reasons I have the job I do these days.

Setting next to Ted back in the back with his big head popping out is Jeff Spaeth (eno live).  Jeff and I went through boot camp at just about the same time and ended up in Comm School together.  We knew of each other before we got to Hawaii but didn’t really get to be good friends until we got to KBay.  We used to drive my GMC pickup around the island on an empty tank of gas and do stupid things like crawling out of the windows on the Likelike Highway.   The stories I have of Jeff are long, gruesome, and probably some of the most enjoyable ever.  I will fill people in more on him later.

Alright last but definitely not least on the table is Gerald Wisnar or as we like to call him just “Wiz”.  Wiz is the cherry on top of this ice cream sundae of madness.  He for sure has tossed out more women’s phone numbers than most man will ever receive in a normal life time.  But all in all a great guy and will be there for you no matter what.  Hell he will even make other people be there for you or he will black list them.  Being on his black list isn’t a pleasant thing either it takes you years to get off.  Oh one last thing I hear he has quit playing Spades recently.

That’s all for now but I will surely post more about all of my friends later.