graycrait
Legend
I get to hit with quite a few fellow retirees, vets and active duty living next to Ft Campbell, KY. Back in the '70s there was a short-lived 1st Infantry Division Forward goodwill tennis team I was a part of playing against Germans. When I got back to Germany my third time I was near Heidelberg and played at some nearby US Army clay courts where I was told that Steffi Graf played at back when she was young. I even got to hit some balls on a single clay court about 25 miles outside of Sarajevo when I was on "loan" in early '93.
One time back in the '80s I was at Ft Knox, KY supervising some training and in my off time I occasionally hit against the wall at the local courts. One day a gray haired gent wearing a straw hat asked me if I wanted to hit. I said sure. It didn't take 10 minutes to realize I was hitting against one of my "betters." I asked the guy, "Who are you?" He laughed and told me he was ranked 5th in the nation in his age group and that he was visiting his son, but normally lived in the southwest during the winter and somewhere further north in the summer. It is amazing to meet, hit with for a couple of years and then say good-bye to active military tennis players. I just strung a racket for a newly assigned Army surgeon, but with his 5 kids and job we decided we might not ever see each other again on the courts.
One time back in the '80s I was at Ft Knox, KY supervising some training and in my off time I occasionally hit against the wall at the local courts. One day a gray haired gent wearing a straw hat asked me if I wanted to hit. I said sure. It didn't take 10 minutes to realize I was hitting against one of my "betters." I asked the guy, "Who are you?" He laughed and told me he was ranked 5th in the nation in his age group and that he was visiting his son, but normally lived in the southwest during the winter and somewhere further north in the summer. It is amazing to meet, hit with for a couple of years and then say good-bye to active military tennis players. I just strung a racket for a newly assigned Army surgeon, but with his 5 kids and job we decided we might not ever see each other again on the courts.
