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My Vietnam Corvette

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My Corvette story begins approximately 36 years before it became reality. In 1969 I was in the Infantry in Vietnam. And can remember when we would talk about coming back and buying a new car. I would say about 80% of us wanted a Corvette, while about 10% wanted a Camaro and another 10% wanted a Mustang. We only needed about $25/month so the remainder went home (as an E-4 I made $285/month). After coming home I had enough to buy 1/2 a corvette, and would have to work and use my GI college money to pay for it. I opted to buy a VW Bug. Drove it through college, and once I married with a son, the corvette was still out of the question. When I was 56 or 57 I thought “If you don’t buy it you will retire and never have a Corvette.”

I finally bought a 2003 50th Anniversary edition. Owned it for over 13 years and decided I wanted to travel and it might not do well parked in a garage for 5-6 months so I sold it and bought a diesel pickup. I have regretted selling it for the 6 years that it has been gone. As an aside, I located one of my squad leaders and though we had not talked for 35-36 years, his 2nd or 3rd sentence was “I never got my Corvette”. That has been about 20 years ago. Greg lived west of Chicago and on a trip on Route 66 from Shamrock, Texas to Chicago I stopped and visited with him. He said he had bought a Corvette, but eventually sold it rather than get mad at his grandkids for dropping ice cream in it. The Corvette was a completion to a story that began 55 years ago. Wish I still owned it.
Mike Chandler Mike Chandler Mike Chandler