September 23, 2026 — Every Day is Veterans Day
Check out this week’s blog post by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
Jon (known as “Snag” to this group) and Fred arrive together with Jack in tow after a stop at O’Hare Airport. Jon starts his drive from Minnesota and stops outside of Chicago to pick up Fred on the way. At some point, the decibel level will increase when Jon and Jack are in the same room. That’ll be due to hearing aids failing and friendly insults being verbally tossed.
Jack ambles into the rented house. He’s been traveling for hours from Texas to some out of the way crossroads town in Michigan that doesn’t have a stop light. With Jack, you know that he’ll eventually be looking for a spot to light up his cigar.
Larry drives from Indiana and always has a big smile seeing the other guys. Jesse’s low-key but an integral part of the group. Given everyone’s age, it doesn’t seem right to call Jesse by the nickname “Pops”. He might’ve seemed like the “older” guy decades ago when he was a few years older than others during basic training but given the ages of everyone here, calling him “Pops” just doesn’t seem to fit anymore.
Quiet Don makes it over from Pennsylvania. He always drives. He’s a quiet guy, but that’s because it’s difficult at times to get a word in with this group. He’s not here because he has something to say, he’s here because of the camaraderie among these guys.
Rich lives in Michigan and has a short commute compared to almost everyone else. He’s the spiritual one among the group but will dive into the lively exchanges as quickly as anyone. As the RTO (radio-telephone operator) for the company commander decades ago, he had a front row seat to what a young captain dealt with in a rifle company.
Jerry is likely waiting at his nearby lakeside cabin for word that we have the code to enter our rental. We call this week “Camp Gast” because when I began attending it was always at Jerry’s cabin. Back then, we slept on floors, tents in the yard or in vehicles. Age dictated change.
We’ve progressed to a time in life when we can’t do stairs well, our bladders require more than one bathroom to be available for a group of old guys, and one level living is necessary in case there are canes and walkers for assistance. The one good thing about this group, excepting me and Fred, is that they all survived their combat tour of duty in Vietnam but not necessarily without earning Purple Hearts.
We’re missing a few regulars this year. Sadly, several passed away since last September’s gathering. Bill, Larry “Skinny”, Dan and Gary passed away. Though not everyone in the company came to these “Camp Gast” week-long gatherings, they all served in the same rifle company.
Fred and I bookend the group and we’re the outliers. Fred’s the oldest and I’m the youngest. Despite the roughly decade difference in age, Fred and I served during the war years, but we did NOT serve in Vietnam. The reason we have the privilege of being with these combat veterans is because we had a sponsor, someone who was the common link—the company’s old First Sergeant who passed away in 2020. Fred was a young, newly minted Drill Instructor under that First Sergeant who happened to be my father. (Fred explains in this video Camp Gast 2025: F Hall, D Zimmer Conversation).
These combat vets somehow found themselves in B Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in 1968-1969. Fred and I first met in 1968 when Fred found himself in a basic training company at Ft. Ord, CA. Fred began his duties under the First Sergeant in December 1967 and carried on with those duties under my father until around September when the First Sergeant left to join B Company in Vietnam. Amazon.com: The Fortunate Son: Top, Through the Eyes of Others eBook : Trainer, Timothy, McCaffrey, Gen. Barry: Kindle Store.
When the week nears its end, someone will ask if we’ll be doing this again in 2027. The answer is, hell yeah. As horrific as war is, there are inexplicable bonds that formed, and time only magnifies how strong they are.
Timothy Trainer’s 2017 book recounts the parallel lives of an army brat and a group of Vietnam veterans who intersect decades after the war.
“The veterans open up to me, the army brat, perhaps in a way they never have with their own families,” explains author Timothy Trainer. “Through my father, Top, their First Sergeant, we have a common link. Over the years, we’ve gotten to know each other. They begin to understand the sacrifices of an army family. But, more importantly, they want me to understand how our family’s sacrifice and my father’s tour of duty in Vietnam with them, in the jungles, gave them confidence to believe they would make it home alive.”
The Fortunate Son is not about a single battle or a single soldier’s tour of duty. You will meet us, learn something about us, and get a glimpse of our lives during the war years. You’ll find out why half a century after that tour of duty ended, we remain bound together. If you’ve ever been in the military or part of a military family, you’ll know that we all are bound together. For those who find the military to be foreign and unknown, our story may help you to understand why it binds so many together.
Fourteen of these soldiers have shared their stories. Their stories describe two life transitions—first from civilian teenagers or young men to combat grunts trying to stay alive in the jungle—and then back to stateside life. What happens between these transitions, as they slog through the jungle day by day paints their portrait of Top, my father. Now, I appreciate why they remain bound together half a century after their tour ended. Their stories are an unexpected gift that bestows new insight to me on my father. So, as you read and “listen” to these soldiers’ stories, both what they say and how they describe Top, you understand why I’ve learned that I am The Fortunate Son.
Click here to watch more videos from The Fortunate Son on TimothyTrainerTV.
About the Author: Tim Trainer is a proud Army brat. He was born into the Army in Japan and was a high school junior when his father retired from the Army. Typical of Army or military brats of the times, he had attended 10 schools by the time of his high school graduation. He did not arrive in the United States until he was past his fifth birthday. After arriving in the United States, the Army life meant living in various parts of the United States, on and off post, depending upon his father’s duty station.
He had three “tours of duty” at Ft. Knox, KY, (some elementary school, some high school, and basic training). Upon his discharge from the Army in July 1975, he left the Army behind permanently. At the time of his discharge, he was twenty-one and half years old but had spent twenty years as either an army brat or on active duty.
After the Army years, he eventually earned a law degree and moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1987. Since moving to the Washington, D.C., area, he has worked as an attorney in federal government agencies and in the private sector. He has traveled extensively around the world, including several trips to Vietnam.
This work is evidence that his break from the Army was not “permanent.” In the late 1990s, his father, who was reuniting regularly with men he had served with in B2-7, invited him to meet the guys when they met in Washington, D.C. This led to his father’s invitation to attend a summer reunion in 2003. Since 2003, Mr. Trainer has been a regular attendee of the B2-7 reunions in Washington, D.C., and at the summer gatherings at what he calls “Camp Gast.”
Learn more about Tim and his books: TimothyTrainer.com
