Something not from Dave.

David Porter….oh boy, well…a story or two couldn’t sum up what this man brought to Fort Riley and my life. One or two come to mind so let’s see if I can get this right:
Life was already spining out of control getting the news that we were shipping out to meet Saddam in the sand box when the new shipment of recruits came in, I had just myself P.C.S.’d to 2nd Battalion from Fort Lewis Washington after having re-enlisted. To my surprise I would be meeting probably one of my best friends in the world or so he would become…PFC David “Davey” Porter, truly talented on his Korg M1 keyboard, play anthing you wanted…hell…once he played something he just dreamt up at that very moment. Later I would find out he had come from a wonderful family in upstate New York (Kris and Linda Porter…aka dad and mom), was a swimmer in High school….always in good shape he helped me stay up to my potential. After working with him and teaching him what had been taught to me by a long line of soldiers the one thing I could not teach him was passion…he already had it in spades. He cared more for his fellow man than anyone that I could have imagined, and that he would need in the years to come to make a great leader that he has become today.
After hitting the sand box I was transfered to HHC Tank Section “113?s” or otherwise known as Tank Section Tracks….support for the Lt. Col. and the Airforce ALO officer assigned to our task force. Davey and I were inseperable, we’d talk until all hours of the night and his love of music kept us thinking about better days…his comedic sense of humor to this day makes me smile when I think of the first time I saw his smoke covered face emerge from the track, tired, worn to the bone, after a night in hell passing through rockets exploding, tanks exploding, and the zips and thuds of rounds plinking off the dunage we had strapped to our sides…..he looked like us all standing there in the assembly area waiting for hot re-fuel….he looked up, saw me, and with the whitest teeth I can imagine….grins…and using his hands signs in our joking way, “If you see my down easter alexa, and you work with the rod and the reel….tell my wife I am trolling atlantis, and my hands are still on the wheel”. A song by Billy Joel we’d been listening to and when unable to speak, he’d see me or I him and know we needed to laugh….he’d make like he was fishing….and I would turn my ships wheel. David Porter, yeah I can tell you stories about this man….but not one of them could measure up to how proud I am of him, I love him as my brother, and will forever to the day I leave this earth think of him as no less than the one thing besides my lovely wife Michele that helped me make it home in one piece.