Fredericksburg National Battlefield
One thing about being a real estate agent is that my clients come from different professional backgrounds. Since Northern Virginia abuts Washington D.C. and is home to The Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and much more, there are plenty of veterans that I come in contact with in the real estate business.
On Veterans Day, these veterans pop into my mind:
- A Navy Admiral introduced me to “Five Guys Burgers & Fries” in Arlington in 1999
- A former POW who had been in the Hanoi Hilton was a home inspector I used a decade ago
- A retired Air Force pilot told me about flying F-111’s low over a lake in Canada
- A client used the Internet to search for homes, when he was stationed in Afghanistan
- A Naval Reserve Supply Corps officer had to put off house hunting when he received orders to report to duty… on Monday
- While in Newport, RI at the Naval War College, a client broke his back playing volleyball. He retired as a Captain 20 years later
- During Vietnam, a local home inspector was a medic
Doc Francis on high line Photo: Carl Ericson
- An agent friend flew F-4 Phantoms in Vietnam
- During the Korean War, my father left Newport on the USS Compton DD-705
- Some friends are just about to move for the third time in five years (they have three boys)
- When dropping off a client at the Pentagon, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter took off next to my car
- I have seen many Tiki Bars in the basements of WW II vets (see South Pacific)
- My neighbor flew DC-3’s over the Burmese Hump during WW II and holds the Chinese Air Force Red Star.
- A client in the Navy now flies senior staff in a G-V around the world
- A client was a tank driver in Bosnia
- Another became the chief of a ground crew for a AC-130 gunship in Bosnia at 20
- And another was left behind, accidentally, in Bosnia and had to catch up to his unit
- A friend who bought and sold three homes, a Vietnam vet who then worked at NSA, passed away recently and will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery
There is much more to come…
