August 1965, on our way to Vietnam

Here is a picture of, from left to right, Rick Salazar, myself, Stan Perry and Vince Carta after sneaking away for a weekend at home before going to Vietnam. We were in Oakland California waiting for our final departure and decided the hell with it and went home for the week-end. Never were missed and got on a plane sometime the following week bound for the 173rd Airborne who had just landed in Vietnam. These were all friends from California along with Pat Noonan and Jim Howe who I forged a permanate bond with over all these years. Stan Perry and Jim Howe both passed away from accidents after we got back home and out of the service. Stan in a motorcycle racing accident out in the desert and Jim, still being a hero as a LA firefighter, dying in a fire while saving lives. True friends and still missed today by the rest of us that survived Vietnam.

I'll post more pictures as I figure out how to download them.

wearing one of our shirts

Another long hard day in tee-shirt land. I was on a project making some pallets for one of our tee-shirt automatic machines and had to go to Home Depot to buy and have some particle board cut. One of the guys there was helping me and we started talking finding out we were both vets. He served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corp. Super nice kid and he really helped me out so when I was leaving I told him I was bringing him a couple of shirts back. When I did he just about broke down and cried. He couldn't believe that I would actually do that. I now have a new best friend at Home Depot helping me whenever I need anything done. Goes to show you that it pays to wear one of our military tee-shirts because you'll never know who you will meet, especially at Home Depot.

Again, check out our website www.coldforgedusa.com along with our foundation that sends care packages to deployed troops, www.rearareasupport.com I will never forget how it made me feel whenever I returned to a fairly safe rear area and had a care package from home waiting for me.

Cold Forged USA

Hi everyone,

My kids have set me up with my own blog, now I'm learning what a blog is all about. This will have to serve as my introduction because old Airborne soldiers are hard headed when it comes to learning something new. I'd like to take this oppurtunity to invite you'all to visit our website http://www.coldforgedusa.com/ and check out all our really cool shirts.