It was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It was 1980. I was out of the Army since 1976. My best friend at the time, B. Maury Stout, were hankering to go and see President Carter who was supposed to arrive in Springfield, MO where we were going to school. His plane was to touch down at the Springfield, MO airport where he would make a speech. Just a week before, soon to be (thankfully) President Reagan, was at the Springfield, MO fairgrounds near the college. Maury and I, in addition to another group of friends, were at the fairgrounds and watched in awe as future President Reagan - the greatest President third only to Washington and Lincoln - rode a wagon pulled by mules (from his old Borax Mule Train TV Series) onto the parade field at the fairgrounds - Nancy was with him. It was electric...this guy was going to win. Jimmy Carter? How would you like to sit in in gas lines for 2-3 hours at a time on a convoluted gas 'shortage,' and 18% interest rates and the disaster at Desert One where a bunch of our guys died in the desert trying to rescue the hostages held by the militant Iranian lowlife students, then the - as Carter called it - the 'Malaise' the country was in - great leadership Jimmy! - and then - MAGICALLY - the day Reagan is elected - the Iranian 'students' let the hostages go because they knew Reagan was ready to turn that waste of a country into a parking lot (that's real strength compared to the current Obamanation apology tour). 
Anyway - we were pumped because Reagan loved the country for real. And we all saw it at the polls. Carter barely carried his own state.Now to Carter. Maury and I had motorcycles and we were intent on getting to see Carter on the night before he was going to be thanlfully thrown out of office, so it's November 1980. We both had 100cc Yahamas that could top 50 MPH in a heartbeat - smokin.' Carter was supposed to land at the Springfield, MO airport for a speech which he hoped would rally the last state he hoped to win. Thankfully NOT! We were riding to the airport on a two lane highway and apparently we were not the only ones bent on seeing the failed President one last time. We all of a sudden ran into a huge amount of cars going that way. So what do we do? We get into the oncoming lane and power past all the waiting cars. What happens next? A cop comes up beside us off the road and we think we are for sure busted. He starts waving to us and we thought he was trying to pull us over to give us the ticket. He wasn't. He was motioning us to FOLLOW him since they were making the road to the airport one way. So we followed the cop to the airport and found ourselves in front of everybody. On arrival at the runway we scoped the situation and Maury - being the brilliant guy that he was - noticed a rope and a podium along a building and figured that was going to be the front row seat so we parked the cycles and grabbed the rope post-haste. He was right. The plane landed and a few minutes later and out pops Jimmy Carter and his lovely wife! He made his way to the right side of the podium and then the crowds figured out where he was going to speak so we had to hang on for dear life as we were getting pushed big-time. Carter made his way to the podium and made the last 20 minute long diatribe of his Presidiency. To this day I can't remember what he said since those long gas lines were swimming in my mind. After it was over he made his way down the left side of the stage and started to move toward us shaking hands.
Secret Service were all over and Maury and I stuck our hands out to shake Carter's hand. The Secret Service at first slapped our hands down but we kept putting them back out and then Carter grabbed my hand and shook it with both his hands. I always wondered if my hand was one of the last few he shook as President.
Anyway, it was a great time and Maury was a great friend. I say - was. Maury committed suicide on 11 November 2007. Not sure if I have much more to say about him...maybe some more...He's buried in the National Cemetery in Fort Leavenworth, KS
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