Crazy Larry....

I may or may not have written about a man I've met here, but today - we will explore him just a little further. You meet "characters" in places like this. Larry - is definately a character.

I don't know his last name, and suspect I never will, but he is a contractor here who runs a training facility for the military. He's about 60 years old or so, has this extremely loud personality - and is clearly a lonely man. The facility is a "video range" or a high tech X-Box of sorts. It is a completely enclosed facility shooting range with 2 - 25 foot screens upon which is projected a video image used for qualifying soldiers on various weapons. The weapons themselves are actual military weapons, retrofitted with lasers and air compression to simulate the full kick and action and nosie of a firearm.

Because this is a video based traning facility - there are no windows in the place, and Larry lives and works inside this facility. I don't think he gets out much - and strikes me as a pretty lonely guy. He loves it when people other than soldiers come to his little facility - because he gets to talk to someone. He likes it so much - that he gets a Armed Forces Network video feed - and he puts College and NFL football up on one of the 25 foot screens - so we went there to watch football both Saturday and Sunday nights....He's so animated at having people visit him, that you could turn off the TV sound and he narriates every play. He's a little off....

The really cool thing about Larry - is when he thinks you are bored and ready to go, he lures you into "play" on the military range. He fires up the training system, and hands you an M-16, and before you know it, you are fighting insurgents in some jungle, or desert or other landscape. Me and another guy from work played for a half hour the other night and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I'll have you know I qualified 20 hits for 20 rounds on the Fort Sill, OK shooting range on pop up targets. M-16 Qualified...

Larry is a nice man, who is working on a retirement....far away from home, and because he's a one man shop - lonely and anxious for interaction.....God bless him.....