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Rick Watson - Chiemsee summer '78
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I remember Rick well,... funny guy. Sorry to hear he passed. Do you know where in Arlington he will be buried? I assume Arlington you mean the National Cemetery? And why will it have to wait until November?
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yes, Arlington National. Unfortunately, there are so many members of WWII (still), Korea & Viet Nam era vets and now Iraq soldiers passing that there is a waiting list. (as difficult as it may be to comprehend that there could be that many heroes in the country when one watches the news at night)and the details are still to come as to where he will be buried.
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No its not hard at all to understand. One, since I used to work at the Pentagon and go by Ft. Meier often I've been told they are having record burials since 2001, mostly WWII vets, but as you noted there are lots of others. I live about 45 min away. So we see it often. On top of that I am still in, and will be doing my last tour starting in June and ending in March 22. Then I retire...and walk away with 37 years...
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I recently learned that Rick passed away on March 5th due to complications with Pneumonia. He will be buried in Arlington in early November. Rick worked with me in the boathouse that summer and taught me to sail (Although our first time out I had my doubts we would every get out of the dock with a north wind keeping us from going anywhere but onto the rocks). I was amazed at his ability to find humor and reason in virtually every situation. Classic Rick story; Major Fory sent the Chiemsee TDY'ers off to B'gaden for haircuts, as each guy got in and out of the chair, another member of our band of thirteen Mike Rutkowski, joked about how bad we now looked and any slim chance we had at women that night was lost. At last it was Mike's turn for the chair and instructed Shaky Joe the barber what he wanted done. Rick meanwhile had collected a large handful of DM from the sheared lot and paid Shaky Joe to shave the back of Mike's head above his ears and the rest as uneven as possible. Mike left the barber shop looking worse than a mangy dog. On another occasion, in a very bad storm Rick decided to take the motor boat out to help a German couple in distress out on the lake. Why I went with him I'll never know. We nearly got killed out on the water and then again when we got back by the German guy whose name I can't remember.
Those who knew him please know he continued doing the things he loved best till the end. He was a loving husband and proud father. And a good friend.
Rick will be missed.
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Rick Watson - Chiemsee summer '78
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