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I swore I would never pay @elonmusk to tweet but I'm incredibly proud of my son Riley @WizardClient201 and I want everyone to know it with out a 50 tweet thread. He is in NYC this weekend on a school trip and went to the 9/11 Memorial today. I gave him a flag to take with him.
I graduated from Batavia High School in June 2001 and got a job as an electrician. I was working at RIT in the beginning of September. We all know what happened and there's no need to talk about it. I joined the United States Marine Corps 6 month later. I was an infantryman with Animal 1/7 in Twentynine Palms, CA. I invaded Iraq on the 1st day of OIF and didn't come home until October 2003. I went back to Iraq a 2nd time in 2004 through 2005. Both times I went I kept a 3' x 5' American flag folded and tucked inside my flak jacket. It's always meant a lot to me and I keep it on the head board of my bed and sleep next to it every night 22 years later.
I've always been a hockey fan since I was a little kid but I was never a Buffalo sports fan until I got out of the Marines in 2006 and came back to Western New York and feel in love with the @BuffaloSabres. I meet @RedHunter521 in April 2007 and we hit it off. She worked for Richard Smelik at the time and he got us tickets to the Winter Classic. Riley was born in December of that year and came home on New Years Eve 2008. When he was 3 days old I had him in front of the TV watching the 2nd Winter Classic hoping to get my love of hockey into him early. He never really got interested in it until he was about 5 years old. He would play a demo for EA NHL 13 on the PS3. The default teams on there were the Kings and Flyers. Kings sounds way cooler than Flyers to a 5 year old so he would play as them and ended up @LAKings fan because of it.
In 2014, obviously, the Kings won the cup. I let my now 6 year old son stay up to watch game 5 because you never forget memories like that. I told him if double OT ends without a goal he has to go to bed. When Alec Martinez scored he was half asleep. I yelled and hugged him and we rolled to the floor. He was more scared than excited because he was half asleep and I hugged him too hard. He never lets me forget it.
I started taking him to Sabres games after that and 10 years on I've converted him to my side. Kings aren't as cool now as when you're 5.
I've recently began going to the VA after 20 years and was diagnosed with PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and Tinnitus just for good measure. I have this flag next to my head every night and I started thinking maybe its time to let it go. I know Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 but that's what led me to joining the Marines. I have absolutely no plans to ever go to NYC so I thought what if I give it to Riley and have him take it there and pick a random name and leave it there in their honor.
He left for NYC on Friday March 21 and I decided on the 20th, which was also the 22nd anniversary of the beginning of OIF, that I would feel bad to if I didn't have it anymore. I gave him the flag and told him to pick a name and take a picture of the flag and send me the picture then bring me home the flag.
I reminded him of being a LA Kings fan when he was younger and told him that Garnet Bailey and Mark Bavis were scouts for the Kings and were on United Airlines Flight 175 and died that day and their names are on the memorial and maybe he could find them.
He took it on himself and did the research and found the exact location of their names on the memorial and sent me these pictures this morning. I was working and pulled my work vehicle over and sat on the side of the road in Tonawanda crying like a baby. I honestly don't think I could ever be more proud in my life.
If you're reading this, Riley is tagged. If you're so inclined give him a HELL YEAH to let him know. Riley is on the right and his friend James is on the left.
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