A Tribute to Two Dear Friends and Fine Men

I would like to thank two of my childhood friends who I have stayed very close to over the years. Both of them decided at different times that they wanted to serve in the United States military, one in the U.S. Army and the other in the U.S Navy. There were times during their service that being a soldier or seaman was not the most popular career choice but they stayed the course.

Douglas E. Osborn, after graduating from Radford University spent time in the civilian workforce. He then made a life-changing decision to follow in his father’s footsteps and apply to Officers Candidate School, was accepted, joined the Army and started his journey. Doug has been deployed to Iraq (more than once), Afghanistan, Turkey, Germany, Korea and many bases in the US. He still has a few years to go before he retires and begins his new career as a Paul McCartney impersonator.

David Van Badzik, after receiving a perfect score of 800 in the math section of his SATs he received a ROTC scholarship and attended Georgia Tech in 1980. When David graduated (he’s now known as Van) he bounced all over the US from San Diego to Pittsburgh, from Hawaii to New Orleans all over the world including Germany and the Mid East. He spent a lot of time on nuclear submarines and during his land time he managed to marry a lovely wife, Carol, and have two fantastic boys, Nick & Zack. Van has just retired on Bainbridge Island, Washington after 22 years in the Navy and plans on becoming a professional salmon smoker.

You may not agree with what our military does and where they are sent. That is why America is so great, we can all have different opinions but I hope we all can thank those who serve our country including the military, the police, firemen & women, EMTs and everyone else who makes our country the envy of the world. We have the best!

Thank you Doug & Van for your service. You both now owe me $20.