Originally Posted by 54 jimmy (Post 4515113)

would be really cool if they started a build thread to let us know how the truck is coming along.

Originally Posted by 54 jimmy (Post 4515113)

would be really cool if they started a build thread to let us know how the truck is comming along.

Originally Posted by 68jewel (Post 4515528)

This is a sad case. That mechanic is evil and he will get his. I never wish nothing bad on people, but when you're evil and bring harm to women and children (emotional harm in this case) , it's a different ballgame. I say he is evil because when the soldier told him he was going to Afghanistan and would be deployed for an unspecified amount of time and left him with $17k, he knew right then and there that he had no intentions of restoring the truck.

Originally Posted by JSE67 (Post 4533960)

Did anybody watch Powerblock TV on Spike this morning? Reason I ask is they advertised a new show premiering in May 2011 that I think Loctite is sponsoring where they send a Ford Dually with a trailer around the country looking to restore cars for people with a story about hardships with restoring their cars. I immediatly thought of this thread. I don't know who is in charge of restoring this truck for this family, and if truth be known, whoever it is will probably do a better job of it. But I thought of this story and thought it might make for great television. Maybe if someone on this forum knows who to contact, they could get this info to them somehow. I think there is a website that you go to and tell your story, but that's about all I know. Anyway, that's just my 2 cents worth.

Jeff

Originally Posted by lakeroadster (Post 4512439)

A fallen soldier and his unfinished gift to his wife: 1959 Apache Pickup.

Please watch this video:

http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=183372

The Friends of the 133rd will be holding an auction of April 2 at the Elks Lodge in Laramie. They are in need of auction items. Anyone wishing to help is asked to contact them via e-mail at friendsofthe133rd@hotmail.com.

You can also make cash donations at any Bank of the West. Two accounts have been set up. They are "Friends of the 133rd" and the "Bruce Hays Memorial."


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LARAMIE WYOMING- It sits in a garage at a vocational technical school in Laramie, still in pieces. The rust has been peeled away from the body of the 1959 Chevrolet Apache pickup truck. Black primer masks the years. The original engine sits off to the side. No one knows if it will ever run again.

It is an unfinished gift.

"Part of Bruce is in that truck," Major Dean Hunhoff of the Wyoming Army National Guard said. "He always saw things through to the finish."

Bruce Hays bought the old pickup truck in 2008 as an anniversary gift for his wife, Terry. He planned to work with her to restore it.

In August 2008, Hays, a captain in the Wyoming Army National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Before leaving, he paid a local mechanic $17,000 to restore the truck for his wife. It was to be a surprise for her when Hays returned.

Capt. Hays was serving as a combat advisor to Afghan security forces in the Hindu Kush Mountains. He was working with them build wells in villages. At 10,000 feet in elevation, roads in the area are primitive. It is an area where the Taliban is active.

"The enemy knew he was coming, but he had to go anyway and there was only one road to get there," Lt. Colonel Raymond Kent of the Wyoming Army National Guard said.

On the morning of Sept. 17, on that one road he had to take, Hays and three other American soldiers died when a roadside bomb exploded.

The three soldiers who died with Hays were Sgt. Joshua W. Harris of Romeoville, Ill, 1st Lt. Mohsin Naqui of Newburgh, NY and Staff Sgt. Jason A Vasquez of Chicago, Ill.

A memorial service was held for the four soldiers at their forward operating base in Afghanistan.

"Everything was pretty surreal," Kent said. "When you're doing a last call and you have the 21 gun salute go off. It just hits you that this is it. Bruce is really gone."

Hays left behind his wife, Terry, and two daughters, Bethany and Eleanor.

Back to that unfinished truck.

"It is Bruce's last wish," Kent said.

Hays' wish to give it as a gift vanished when the mechanic and money vanished without fixing the truck.

"Then after he was killed, he took the money and ran. It was very difficult," Hunhoff said.

This past January, friends decided the finish the job Hays had started. They hauled the truck to the garage at the vocational technical school in Laramie. Volunteers have worked to restore the body of the truck. The work is being slowed by a lack of money to buy the parts needed to finish the job.

A fundraising effort has begun to restore the truck so it can be given to the family.

The Friends of the 133rd will be holding an auction of April 2 at the Elks Lodge in Laramie. They are in need of auction items. Anyone wishing to help is asked to contact them via e-mail at friendsofthe133rd@hotmail.com.

You can also make cash donations at any Bank of the West. Two accounts have been set up. They are "Friends of the 133rd" and the "Bruce Hays Memorial."

The importance of the truck to the family can't be overstated.

"I believe it probably means a lot more to the family now than it ever did," Stacy Morton, who is coordinating fundraising efforts for the Friends of the 133rd, said.

"All they have of their dad right now is a picture," Kent said. "They need something they can put their hands on and they need to know how much people love their dad."

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Originally Posted by Corts60 (Post 4512565)

That is terrible. I hope that mechanic goes to jail for a long time.

Originally Posted by OrrieG (Post 4512966)

I just received an email from a representative of the trust for Capt. Hays.

The mechanic was caught and is serving jail time.

She also indicated that through donations there is enough to finish the truck and it appears there will be money left over that will be donated to an organization helping wounded vets.