Single Harness Synopsis First one went down smoothway too smoothand before I could say thatll do it Michael had already done it again for us all. And then Marlboro and DR swiveled around and asked me to stand for the Presentation. I said what presentation, and even Michael asked me to stand for the Presentation. So I stood up and Michael pretty much came to attention behind the bar as hed been in on it from earlier that day. Marlboro pulled out a piece of Delta Airlines stationary on which hed printed block letters by scratching the lines over and over, DR placed a paper bag on the bar, and Marlboro read from the sheet: It is with the highest honor that we hereby present The Inaugural General Spicer Medal For SOA wwwhbddwmg With that, DR pulled a 10 Buck Knife in its leather sheath from the bag and they both presented it to me. The certificate is long gone, but the Buck Knife has been with me for 35 years or so and is in my briefcase as Im writing this. It is and always has beensince that evening at the Bahamianthe most valuable thing I own. And in case you havent figured it out: SOA stood for Saving Our Ass, and the letters below meant: wherein we would have been dead ducks without Millard Gregory. Id had the opportunity a few weeks before and luckily it had gone OK. Those Angels again. Getting to that evening on Key Biscayne was impossible for a kid from rural southern Indianaexcept it happened. It began at 6 years old in a giant State Park managed by my Granddad, to Scouting, to sports, to college, to being paid to skydive, to volunteering for the Army in 66 after my Junior year. And then those Angles took over. Purely by the luck of the draw I met a Master Sergeant and a Captain involved in recruiting 18 men for intensive training aimed at Special Missions, and after spending most of 2 days with them they invited me to consider a different path. Along the way cherry bombs rolled down the aisle of a beatnik joint, a boulder was placed in the top of a tree, indelible impression was made by both Spud and Squid Marlow, and a 63 Wheeler motor yacht was kept together by the worms holding hands. And after all the training and the formation of our Teams and a good number of Missions we learned how, if you were so inclined, to turn a Dove into a Hawk: Show them pictures of what we saw being done in rooms where screams could not be heard, and in rooms where those in power wanted the screams to be heard by others for effect, all around the globe. Theyll get itIve seen it happenand theyll never really sleep again. Ever have the rain end exactly half way back your motorcoach? Or watch a home slide into the Pacific for what seemed to be a good reason in those days? Or break a Team Member out of a jail in Piedras Negras? No? How about having that same Team Member save your life in a dirt alley bar a year or 2 later? Then you may not have learned to ignore most any injury until you get back to secure care. You might not even have had to set your own arm with a rope and a treeand then complete a Mission. If it all sounds dramatic, it wasnt. It was just what we did to have some fun and to keep going back. The focus, for 24 years, was simply the next Mission, and there was always a next one. After hiking so many nights off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Grandfather Mountain area, and spending February weeks up in the Beartooth Wilderness with a horse and a pack horse, and logging 182 jumps with 114 of them at night, the toughest thing Ive done is to be the last of our 18 alive. Good news is that theres a Plan: no grey rooms, no tubes and 24 hour beeps, but instead a fast trip to the Yellowstone Country, and a horse that will find his way back to the barn. A cat caused me to write Single Harness, to surprise my Colonel with some of what we did between Missions (it didnt surprise him), and it is dedicated to the 17 and to all who have served. The complete title is Single Harness, Your neighbors memoiryou just never know.
