[Vision2020] Family Helps Soldier Live On Through truck

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Army Times at:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_soldier_legacy_010410w/

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Family helps soldier live on through truck

By Joe Vanhoose - The Associated Press

WATKINSVILLE, Ga. — Memories of Joshua Reeves, a soldier killed in Iraq in
2007, are all around his parents’ house. His Christmas stocking still
hangs from the mantel. Pictures of him adorn end tables.

His dog, a 3-year-old German shepherd named Athena, spends cold days
curled up inside the house.

Then there’s his truck — a 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40, parked and
broken down in the driveway.

What was Josh Reeves’ four-wheel-drive toy now is his family’s project.
And, with the help of a couple dozen Land Cruiser enthusiasts, the vintage
truck will become his rolling legacy.

Members of the Upstate Cruisers and other Land Cruiser clubs plan to come
to Watkinsville and help rebuild the FJ40 over the Martin Luther King
holiday weekend. They hope to get the Land Cruiser running again and make
all the improvements Josh Reeves had hoped to do himself.

“People are donating parts and money and their time — one guy is flying in
from California just to help out,” said James Reeves, Josh’s father. “I
had no idea so many people would want to help.”

Reeves posted a message on a Land Cruiser Web forum filled with questions
about fixing the FJ and a little note about the soldier who owned it. He
got a lot of advice from Steve Springs of the Upstate Cruisers club in
South Carolina, but the advice only went so far.

A flood of memories of his son often stopped Reeves from getting much done.

“Every time I’d go out to work on it, I’d get misty-eyed,” Reeves said.
“I’d just sit in it and cry.”

Springs and Reeves talked for about a year by phone and through e-mails,
Reeves said, and he gradually told him the story of his son.

Josh Reeves, 26, was killed Sept. 22, 2007, after a roadside bomb
detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad. A day earlier, Reeves’ wife,
Leslie, gave birth to their son.

Reeves had just learned of his son’s birth when he went out on patrol, his
father said.

The truck will belong to Josh Reeves’ son, Jackson, one day, James Reeves
said.

Reeves’ 24-year-old brother, Jared, plans to drive it when it’s running
again.

“Josh and I both had Jeep Cherokees growing up that we’d go [four]
wheeling in,” Jared Reeves said. “I’m going to drive [the FJ] and take
care of it when it’s ready. You can’t fix something and let it sit.”

Almost everything needs fixing.

Jared and James Reeves gutted the interior and pulled out the engine and
transmission. Pieces and parts of the FJ fill about half of the Reeves’
two-car garage.

It would take Jared and James at least $5,000 and a few years to get the
truck running again. Now, it will take a few days.

“These old Land Cruisers aren’t too difficult to work on,” Springs said.
“But if you don’t know your way around one, they can be tricky.”

Springs expects 20 to 40 Land Cruiser fanatics to help install a new
engine and transmission, add a power steering pump and air conditioner,
and replace several pieces on the suspension.

Automotive shops have donated parts, a refurbished engine and
transmission, and local merchants have offered up everything from food to
a bigger garage to work on the FJ, James Reeves said.

“The response has just been phenomenal, amazing,” Reeves said. “All I keep
telling them is ‘thank you.’”

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Army Corporal Joshua H. Reeves

http://tinyurl.com/Corporal-Joshua-H-Reeves

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown