In some of the post this evening I had a squeeze feeling about some of
the things people are asking. Such as Would "YOU" meaning would " I"
go down the road again with our GMC. I guess what they mean is would I
do it all over again?
I must write this to try and get the affirmation off of my heart or soul
or where ever it comes from. In the early 80's I had heart surgery, not
much different that probably a lot of you, four bypass and the promise
of more to come such as mitro-valve pro lapse and so on, the main Aorta
was replaced and life went on. The last of the 80's I lost one half of
a lung to pneumonia. When I came out of the heart surgery it was sort
of comical which I must share with you. I had just returned off the
Kitty Hawk and did a number of sorties, cats and traps and bounces. It
was really great and like a GMC hard to think of trading for anything
else. That week end I had what later was determined to be severe
angina. To me it was something quite different. Every time I would
walk my hand felt like they were asleep and sort of tingled. This
sensation continued and seemed to worsen daily. I played base ball at
a change of Command Bar-B-Q went to a 20 year Class reunion and did all
the things one does in our normal every day lives. That Monday I was
really feeling tired and one of my co-workers said you ok, you don't
look ok. I told them of the finger sensation and they took me over the
hospital. An EKG was run and the Air Force physician said well, you
have been pretty well stressed so why not take a day or two off, go home
and rest up a little. As I departed the hospital, a young physician
assistant ran after me, Mr. Will, Mr. Will, I stopped and looked at her
and she said, they'd just kill me if they knew I was talking behind
their backs. I have been reading about hearts and I just feel you are
suffering from sever advance stages of angina and if you would go see a
cardiac specialist he would either tell you so or that you are ok. I
said ok. I went back to the office and made a call to my cardiologist
who had just four months earlier given me a clean bill of health on my
flight physical and the Navy was happy and I was returned to flying
status. I called him, we talked and he said, can you come down for a
few test, I replied yes that I could. He added plan on spending a
couple of days here. I checked in and my physician came up to see me.
He said you aren't going to smoke all those are you? Referring to my
carton of Pall Mall. I said, well, yes I had planned on that. He
replied well maybe it would be best not to here. This place is full of
Oxygen and I don't want you to blow this place up. In the morning they
did what is called an angio gram. That is where they open you artery at
the groin and go into your heart with a little wire and watch it on a TV
screen. There he and myself and a number of other doctors watched with
intent and finally showed problems i,2,3, and 4 and then the mitro
valve. He said, this is what needs to be done. OPERATE. At first I
though gosh I am going to die. The time lying there in the hospital
passed very slowly. I had to stay in bed and not move around, I was
under their strict supervision. There was plenty of room in the
operating room, none what-so ever in the recovery room. Finally Friday
arrived and I went in to have the heart bypass worked done. The next
thing I remember was the doctor was talking to me and asking me dumb
questions and the one that stuck in my mind was oh! by the way are you
still going to smoke those cigarettes, of course my reply was a very
painful and emphatic" NO", he retorted, Good Boy. I was 41 years old
then. My life style changed, no more hamburgers at Wendys, McDonalds,
or any where else and yes, I quite smoking. I started walking five
miles a day, Did 1/2 hour of aerobics daily and ate good and tried to
calm down. Work aholics have a hard time doing this. I started
thinking about retirement, a motor home etc. In 89 I went back into the
same hospital, 31 more day in ICU, 1/2 lung later I came out and I
assured my wife that if and I mean if I were to reach retirement age it
might be a miracle. We got serious about the motor home and one day I
saw this strange beast running down 101, I followed it swinging its back
wheels from side to side, and at that instant I knew I had to have one
of those. I followed him into the gas station at Buellton, California
and like all good GMC owners was invited in and shown everything
including the bathroom. At that point I excused my self and left, 2
hours later. I told my wife about what I really wanted but that they
were no longer in production and we would have to locate one for sale.
We chased all over California, Pismo Beach, Palm dale, Las Vegas, NV,
San Diego and on and on and on. One day while at work I walked out of
the Headquarters Building and ran smack dab into to one of those ugly
green GMC's. I waited patiently by the door for the owner to return.
He did. He was a retired military gentleman who had recently lost his
wife to cancer and he was as he said retracing his love steps in life.
At that point I was not sure what he meant, but we did get to the point
and he provided me a telephone number of a chap in O'fallon Ill. Well
since it was winter time, the owner of the GMC was in Florida. So I
called him in Fl. We talked about the GMC and he sent me pictures of
the Eleganza II. On that Memorial Day weekend my wife and I flew to St.
Louis, where we were meet by Jim and Nola Clendenny. The took us home
to meet the GMC and Jim spent the next several days showing us how to
drive it, crawl under it and all the preventative measures I needed to
take. We finalized the transaction and departed for home. $34,000.00
lighter. We went to Omaha, Ne and visited my aunt and uncle and SAC
Headquarters since that is who I worked for. We headed on home and were
terrorized by a tornado, it never touched down but it did however, go
right over us. Hanna, said, I think we should find a camp spot. So I
pulled off into a nice park. The only place I could find was one little
spot on top of a knoll and we parked there. All the good spots next to
trees and in sort of a little grassy indentation were taken. In the
morning when I got out to see daylight, all those trees were on top of
the motor homes, the ones in the grassy spots had water up to their hubs
we managed to drive out around down power lines and the rest of the
debris that had been spread over what seemed to be a great distance. We
drove her on home through Wyoming and into the adventures for the 11
years of break downs and repairs. For some of you, you know, I have had
two transmission, three, now that is four engines, two complete front
ends, hubs, knuckles, bearings, rear bearing, two drums, one rotor two
radiators and on and on and on. Would I do it again? You betcha! I
have never in my life had as much fun as I have had in this GMC. I have
over 500 carrier landings, and that AIN't bad for not being a pilot. I
was a combat photographer and flew as much as I could. I rode Harleys
for years and gave the Air force the best motorcycle program they ever
had. But no, and I mean one of this tops the GMC. Just wanted you to
know if it was worth it. A mans values are all different. But for the
GMC, I know that all the GMC operators are as Ed Lubo put it the other
night, either extremely smart of pure geniuses, he never ever met a dumb
one yet.
Chuck Will
Lompoc, CA
1978 GMC Eleganza II
the things people are asking. Such as Would "YOU" meaning would " I"
go down the road again with our GMC. I guess what they mean is would I
do it all over again?
I must write this to try and get the affirmation off of my heart or soul
or where ever it comes from. In the early 80's I had heart surgery, not
much different that probably a lot of you, four bypass and the promise
of more to come such as mitro-valve pro lapse and so on, the main Aorta
was replaced and life went on. The last of the 80's I lost one half of
a lung to pneumonia. When I came out of the heart surgery it was sort
of comical which I must share with you. I had just returned off the
Kitty Hawk and did a number of sorties, cats and traps and bounces. It
was really great and like a GMC hard to think of trading for anything
else. That week end I had what later was determined to be severe
angina. To me it was something quite different. Every time I would
walk my hand felt like they were asleep and sort of tingled. This
sensation continued and seemed to worsen daily. I played base ball at
a change of Command Bar-B-Q went to a 20 year Class reunion and did all
the things one does in our normal every day lives. That Monday I was
really feeling tired and one of my co-workers said you ok, you don't
look ok. I told them of the finger sensation and they took me over the
hospital. An EKG was run and the Air Force physician said well, you
have been pretty well stressed so why not take a day or two off, go home
and rest up a little. As I departed the hospital, a young physician
assistant ran after me, Mr. Will, Mr. Will, I stopped and looked at her
and she said, they'd just kill me if they knew I was talking behind
their backs. I have been reading about hearts and I just feel you are
suffering from sever advance stages of angina and if you would go see a
cardiac specialist he would either tell you so or that you are ok. I
said ok. I went back to the office and made a call to my cardiologist
who had just four months earlier given me a clean bill of health on my
flight physical and the Navy was happy and I was returned to flying
status. I called him, we talked and he said, can you come down for a
few test, I replied yes that I could. He added plan on spending a
couple of days here. I checked in and my physician came up to see me.
He said you aren't going to smoke all those are you? Referring to my
carton of Pall Mall. I said, well, yes I had planned on that. He
replied well maybe it would be best not to here. This place is full of
Oxygen and I don't want you to blow this place up. In the morning they
did what is called an angio gram. That is where they open you artery at
the groin and go into your heart with a little wire and watch it on a TV
screen. There he and myself and a number of other doctors watched with
intent and finally showed problems i,2,3, and 4 and then the mitro
valve. He said, this is what needs to be done. OPERATE. At first I
though gosh I am going to die. The time lying there in the hospital
passed very slowly. I had to stay in bed and not move around, I was
under their strict supervision. There was plenty of room in the
operating room, none what-so ever in the recovery room. Finally Friday
arrived and I went in to have the heart bypass worked done. The next
thing I remember was the doctor was talking to me and asking me dumb
questions and the one that stuck in my mind was oh! by the way are you
still going to smoke those cigarettes, of course my reply was a very
painful and emphatic" NO", he retorted, Good Boy. I was 41 years old
then. My life style changed, no more hamburgers at Wendys, McDonalds,
or any where else and yes, I quite smoking. I started walking five
miles a day, Did 1/2 hour of aerobics daily and ate good and tried to
calm down. Work aholics have a hard time doing this. I started
thinking about retirement, a motor home etc. In 89 I went back into the
same hospital, 31 more day in ICU, 1/2 lung later I came out and I
assured my wife that if and I mean if I were to reach retirement age it
might be a miracle. We got serious about the motor home and one day I
saw this strange beast running down 101, I followed it swinging its back
wheels from side to side, and at that instant I knew I had to have one
of those. I followed him into the gas station at Buellton, California
and like all good GMC owners was invited in and shown everything
including the bathroom. At that point I excused my self and left, 2
hours later. I told my wife about what I really wanted but that they
were no longer in production and we would have to locate one for sale.
We chased all over California, Pismo Beach, Palm dale, Las Vegas, NV,
San Diego and on and on and on. One day while at work I walked out of
the Headquarters Building and ran smack dab into to one of those ugly
green GMC's. I waited patiently by the door for the owner to return.
He did. He was a retired military gentleman who had recently lost his
wife to cancer and he was as he said retracing his love steps in life.
At that point I was not sure what he meant, but we did get to the point
and he provided me a telephone number of a chap in O'fallon Ill. Well
since it was winter time, the owner of the GMC was in Florida. So I
called him in Fl. We talked about the GMC and he sent me pictures of
the Eleganza II. On that Memorial Day weekend my wife and I flew to St.
Louis, where we were meet by Jim and Nola Clendenny. The took us home
to meet the GMC and Jim spent the next several days showing us how to
drive it, crawl under it and all the preventative measures I needed to
take. We finalized the transaction and departed for home. $34,000.00
lighter. We went to Omaha, Ne and visited my aunt and uncle and SAC
Headquarters since that is who I worked for. We headed on home and were
terrorized by a tornado, it never touched down but it did however, go
right over us. Hanna, said, I think we should find a camp spot. So I
pulled off into a nice park. The only place I could find was one little
spot on top of a knoll and we parked there. All the good spots next to
trees and in sort of a little grassy indentation were taken. In the
morning when I got out to see daylight, all those trees were on top of
the motor homes, the ones in the grassy spots had water up to their hubs
we managed to drive out around down power lines and the rest of the
debris that had been spread over what seemed to be a great distance. We
drove her on home through Wyoming and into the adventures for the 11
years of break downs and repairs. For some of you, you know, I have had
two transmission, three, now that is four engines, two complete front
ends, hubs, knuckles, bearings, rear bearing, two drums, one rotor two
radiators and on and on and on. Would I do it again? You betcha! I
have never in my life had as much fun as I have had in this GMC. I have
over 500 carrier landings, and that AIN't bad for not being a pilot. I
was a combat photographer and flew as much as I could. I rode Harleys
for years and gave the Air force the best motorcycle program they ever
had. But no, and I mean one of this tops the GMC. Just wanted you to
know if it was worth it. A mans values are all different. But for the
GMC, I know that all the GMC operators are as Ed Lubo put it the other
night, either extremely smart of pure geniuses, he never ever met a dumb
one yet.
Chuck Will
Lompoc, CA
1978 GMC Eleganza II
-- when we are -- like Willie -- "On
