Who have you met?

[ONE-TEN]

Actors, Sports Stars, famous Politicians? Whatever. Who have you met that was worth a handshake?

I’ve met a few. All as an Adult. My career path was Automotive, and my worked for Saturn way, way back. I was an Auto tech for both pre & post OBD2 emissions testing. And every Saturn Tech was sent to Spring Hill, TN, outside of Nashville. But they put us up at the downtown Sheraton in the heart of Nashville, for 2-weeks. At their peak, Saturn Automotive was sending 400 Auto techs each month! They treated us like kings at this Sheraton! The staff was instructed not to mess with the Saturn boys, LOL! Anyway, so anyone who knows Nashville, you know the only thing to do is go to the bars & drink! And we’d be bar hopping every night! One night, we end up at this pretty ritzy strip bar (as gentleman’s clubs go I guess. I left that life behind long ago.) So there are 4 of us at a table drinking, when who should stroll in, but James Gandolfini.. TONY SOPRANO HIMSELF! Well, I went over and told him I was a fan of his work & just wanted to shake hands. He looks up at, and I swear it was Tony himself says back at me, “Yeah… OK.” And with that shakes my hand.

Another was more than a one time meet, and actually sparked several other encounters. For a few years, I was manger of & ran a large indoor shooting range that was part of a popular Gunstore. But one day, they needed my help behind the counter. This particular day, our owner walks in with Philly’s star Pitcher, Cole Hamels. The owner directs Cole over to & introduces me to him, then says “hey David, Cole here is gonna be buying a few of the Colt 6920’s… He’s getting 17 of them. Take care of him, ok.” And so, I did the paperwork & ran PICS check on Cole for 17 brand new Colt 6920, AR15’s! He’s smiling, talking to me. He came back a few weeks or so later for a the biggest Liberty safe we had, and had his infant son with him. Just a regular guy. Again, he came to me for help. From there, he brought several of the 2009 Phillys there to buy guns & shoot. We had Jayson Werth, Ron Howard & Cliff Lee ll in our range. Luckily, we had a large side & a small side (only 4 lanes), in our range. So we’d put the Phillys guys on the small side & close it off because other shooters would constantly be trying to interrupt their shooting for autographs. Then me or of my range guys would nip that in the bud. Tell people not here… leave ‘em alone.

The last one is actually the only one I was kinda “star struck” by, and you’d never guess it. Again, it was at the gun store. This was before I was manager of the range, I worked sakes, behind the counter. So I doubt many(if any) will remember a Saturday morning program called Captain Noah’s Ark. It was an early to mid 80’s program only in our region I believe (Philadelphia tri-county area), but as a younger kid during the 80’s, I watched it. Me and the sales manager, Rob were on the counter when Captain Noah & his wife come in. Both myself, & Rob, being my age, immediately recognized Captain Noah! And BOTH of us were like little kids, smiling with nostalgia! His wife was also on the program, she was the voice for the puppet animals. Anyone else remember? “There’s red & yellow, & pink & green. Purple, & orange & blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow…..”and on and on. LOL!

Below are the two of them on set.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Lou Ferrigno at the Arnold classic in Ohio.

 

[Creeker]

Senator Jennings Randolph, Pastor Boyd Bingham, Elmer Keith, Lee Jurras, Jim Taylor & 2 West Virginia Governors. Not sure the last 2 were worth the handshake. I've known the last 5 county Sheriff's & pretty much had an open door to them. I'm sure there are others which slip my mind but these stand out in memory. I've been blessed to know these guys & a couple who hold a Sliver Star.

 

[ONE-TEN]

Senator Jennings Randolph, Pastor Boyd Bingham, Elmer Keith, Lee Jurras, Jim Taylor & 2 West Virginia Governors. Not sure the last 2 were worth the handshake. I've known the last 5 county Sheriff's & pretty much had an open door to them. I'm sure there are others which slip my mind but these stand out in memory. I've been blessed to know these guys & a couple who hold a Sliver Star.

Elmer Keith There’s someone I’d a had a Bourbon with! Unfortunately, he passed before I was even 10yo.

 

[Creeker]

He was a very interesting man. I was at his home on 3 occasions. His wife was a great host.

 

[Fjold]

I grew up in southern/central California where a lot of the old TV/Movie stars had properties and met a lot of them.

James Arness was a neighbor when I worked for the Cojo Ranch, you couldn't meet a nicer guy. Ronald Reagan was a neighbor when I cowboyed for the Alisal ranch. James Gardner had a horse ranch near there also. One of my Mom's best friends was Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster). Roy Rogers had a cattle feedlot near Palmdale and he was one of the meanest, nastiest people that I ever met. One of my good friends grew up next door to Richard Dawson. Met Elizabeth Taylor in the mid 70's at the Danish Inn in Solvang (where my Mom worked). There's probably 20 or so more of those 1960-1970 celebrities that I met.

 

[Charlie98]

I've met a few people... 2 of which are my heroes.

I've met the late COL David Hackworth (RET) at a book signing in Dallas many years ago. There's very few people who strike me speechless... he was one of them. Trying to talk to him, briefly, he probably thought I was some sort of cretin, the way I was mumbling. I regret I had no way to take a picture with me, back then.

I've met the late GEN Chuck Yeager (RET) at a gathering at the American Airlines Museum, south of DFW, years ago. He was up in age back then, and I had already heard a lot of his stories... but it was nice to set there and listen to him.

Yes, I look like a deer in the headlights...

I've met the late WEB Griffin, author of many books, including The Brotherhood of War series, and The Corps series of books, at a book signing.

When I was driving OTR, which I did steady for 10 years, and part-time for another 10, audio books are what kept me sane. I used to listen to the full-length versions of those book series, among others. I can quote many parts of those nearly verbatim.

 

[Frontiersman]

I met Medowlark Lemon when I was a kid. What a talent he was.

 

[MS50]

Mid 90s, I rode my bike into DC on Memorial Day weekend. After delivering a message at the Vietnam memorial, Pat Boone left the crowd, and walked up the hill to the grove of trees I was standing in. I rang up my mother on my mobile. He talked to her for a while, she was delighted. I asked him where he was going. He was headed to a parking lot somewhere for his car.

 

[CFJunkie]

At a National Science Foundation summer program for HS students in 1960, I met Dr. Edward Teller, a PHD in theoretical Physics, who was known as the Father of the Hydrogen bomb. He was a very imposing person, especially for a young kid who was trying to figure out what to pursue in college.
He was surprisingly humble but incredibly smart.
That meeting probably influenced me to get my undergraduate degree in Physics, but by my junior year, I realized that my personality was just not attuned to working for 50 years before any theory that I might have come up with could be proven to be right or wrong. In the 1960s, it was impossible to build experiments that could ever prove what physicists were theorizing. That still remains an problem today.
So after graduating with my physics degree, I went into engineering so I could see if things I worked on actually worked.
Turned out to the perfect fit for my psyche.

 

[american_fusilier]

I have met a couple famous musicians, Joe Bonamassa and Greg Koch.

We met comedian Brian Regan.

And I met the former WI politician Scott Walker when he was the guv.

 

[mattri]

Never met him in person but I spoke with Ed Iskenderian on the phone re a cam. Very nice guy.

 

[mdharris68]

Well I didn’t get to meet him in person, but back when Phil Robertson started his call business in his garage, I called him and spoke with him at length and made a large order of his calls and he also threw in a instructional cassette tape. Would have like to have met him in his early beginings.

 

[Creeker]

Never met him in person but I spoke with Ed Iskenderian on the phone re a cam. Very nice guy.

He was the man. Died this year at 104.

 

[mattri]

Yeah hell of a life.
Cam in question was for a 300 six I was building for an old bronco. This would have been around 30 years ago and I knew even less then than I do now so had a number of basic questions. Don't remember specifically what they were but was very impressed at how gracious he was with a dumb kid on his first real build.

 

[Hatch in LA]

Col George Miller, co-founder of The Snowbirds, and Al Pietsch, also co-founder of The Snowbirds (the Royal Canadian Air Force demonstration team). Al also owned Pietsch Flying Service and he and his sons Warren and Kent performed air shows all over the northern tier and Canada. I learned to fly at Pietsch, bought 8144U from them, and did the videography for their shows until i got transferred to Germany in 1988.

 

[MountainRider]

In my civilian life, a couple, Greg Biffle and his family used to rent an RV from the dealership I worked at, sad to hear of their passing, that was a true tragedy. I'm not sure this counts, but I met Gary Sinise' dad who was a television and film editor. He brought his car into the Sears Automotive Center and I changed his oil.

Now in the military there were a few. I met General DePuy. He was responsible for revamping training for the Army based on lessons learned in Viet Nam. I also met General "Stormin Norman" Schwarzkopf when he was still a Colonel in Alaska, interesting guy. I met General Patton, not his dad, while at Ft. Hood with 2nd Armored Division when I was there 77-79. I also met General Colin Powell when he was at Ft. Lewis as the I Corp Commander. That man was a true credit to his profession.

 

[Alan]

I heard Gary Sinise's a nice guy. Too bad he had to step out of acting.

 

[MountainRider]

I heard Gary Sinise's a nice guy. Too bad he had to step out of acting.

Yeah, but what he's done for our veteran's far outweighs anything he did on the big screen. There's a special place in heaven for him.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

I drank a couple beers with Art Donovan (Baltimore Colts) and Cal Ripken Jr (Baltimore Orioles). Met a ton of Colts and Orioles. I lived around them and went to school with their kids. Used to go to Dick Szymanski's house after school. Knew Brooks Robinson's Son also. Shook hands with Johnny Unitas almost every Sunday at church. Did executive protection for Ken Harvey and other Redskins. Did executive protection for Bobby Brown also...meh.

Met Gary Player. I was working as a Bell Hop....had to go to his room and lift him onto a bar.....it was the gravity boot exercise boom.

Met Forrest Tucker. I was a Bus Boy at a dinner theater he was performing at.

Cheryl Ladd was at Corporate meeting event. She was very nice.

Met Ted Nugent and the rest of the Damn Yankees back stage.

Spilled a beer on Sam Donaldson in an airport bar. Oops.

For you predator hunters I met Mike Dillon, Abner Druckenmiller, and Al Morris of FoxPro fame.

But the one I am most proud of is CJ "Heater" Heatley III......many don't know that name. But if you saw the movie Top Gun it's because of him. He wrote a book called "The Cutting Edge". Because of that book the original Top Gun was born. He's in several scenes. He was also my Executive Officer when I was assigned to VF21 at NAS Miramar. In fact, not only did I get to see a lot of the filming, I helped put together a way to hang the camera pod you see in some shots on the belly of an F14. Also painted the F5 Launchers black (the "migs"). During filming I was assigned to AIMD Armament Division. Heater Heatley was a fantastic XO, and an even greater human being I owe a lot to......in fact I have been invited onto a F14 Podcast tomorrow night that he will be on as a surprise guest and speak about our first meeting in Thailand, his incredible leadership, and what he did for my my Navy career. Really looking forward to it.