very cool story and great looking truck! and as others mentioned, thanks for your service
i lived in P'cola for almost 3 years...hopefully you've found the cruise-in @ Burger King on 9-mile Rd....made some good friends there that i miss quite a bit...too bad we're not still there, or we could have a "Black Betty" get together
....i bought my '66 from a gentleman there in Pensacola, & he called her Betty...well, since the truck is black, i kept her name & now call her Black Betty...& since i don't have a working radio, my wife used to sing "Black Betty" to me when we were cruising around P'cola, lol