Aside from the danger of welding on wet floors (Tenth Job of Bob - Part II) at the rent-a-truck assembly factory, we welded in a bay that was also used simultaneously to undercoat the trucks. I don't know what undercoating is made of nowadays, but in 1980 it was extremely flammable. Welding flame is extremely hot. Hmmmm, na, there is no problem here, I am just overreacting. On more than one occasion the trucks would start on fire. On at least two occasions the flames got so high as to burn the logo off the side of the van box (the cargo van boxes often came in with their pending vendors' names already painted on the sides.
On one particular day the fire raged bigger than usual. Ol' Jim, the partner from hell, grabbed a fire extinguisher and without looking to see where I was in the scene of the blaze, he blasted the extinguisher off at the fire. Most extinguishers are under tremendous pressure. The problem was that the fire was between Jim and me. Drunk, ignorant Jim from hell blew hot flaming undercoating on to me. I still have a scar on my neck.
One of the material handlers and I at the rent-a-truck assembly factory had a couple of commonalities. A guy named - we will call him Joe - apparently was dating one of my old girlfriends from the lake (Fourth Job of Bob). Joe had also been in Sunday school with me. We will call my ex-girlfriend Gretchen - crazy Gretchen. My Mom always forwarded me updates about the two lovebirds. Every time one of them was arrested for beating the other up, Mom would clip the police report. "I am so glad you don't mingle with those two anymore," she would say after each reported incident. Then she would get that pleased "Mom" look on her full-blooded Irish face.
One day Ol' Joe wandered into the factory with his clipboard and Polyester pants. Chatting with a manager, he pretended he did not know me as he passed by my hell-hole work bay. Psycho Jim, bay partner from hell, said with a smile on his face, "Now there goes a hell of a great guy. His girlfriend is so cool too. I love to party with them. You should meet them, Bob."
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is U.S. Marine Corporal Adrian V. Soltau, 21 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Corporal Soltau was on his second tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was killed in an explosion Monday, September 13, 2004 near Fallujah, in Anbar Province, Iraq. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated that, Adrian followed his older brother Andre, 23, onto the football team and honor roll at Milwaukee Madison High School, then into the Marine Corps. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Corporal Soltau was nearing his time to come home. Adrian Soltau has seven siblings. He went to boot camp in August 2001 two years after his brother entered the Corps. Corporal Adrian V. Soltau was in Company A, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He was killed in combat action. Adrian was the 21st soldier from Wisconsin and the second graduate of Milwaukee Public Schools to die in the fighting since the United States entered Iraq in March 2003.
3,733 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
27,662 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.
78 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
112 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
