For those who were unable to make it to Tonys memorial at the Airsta, this is the speech I gave. ANTHONY YEOMAN Good morning to all, I want to thank everyone for coming to celebrate Tony’s life and honor a not only a great friend and Coast Guardsmen, but one I consider a brother. I remember when Tony and I unofficially met but didn’t realize it until later. We were at A school at the same time and shared a mutual friend that was in class with him. Eric (our friend) was worried about his uniform inspection so I volunteered to polish his boots for him. As I dropped them back off in Eric’s room half of his class was in his room including Tony. When Tony and I reflected on school he couldn’t remember me being there until I told him that I was the guy who polished Eric’s boots, he then quickly snapped smiled and said laughing “ oh yah you were that fat guy!” I called it baby weight, he called it fat. This was Tony’s way and we loved him for it. Tony and I officially met when he reported into savannah after A school. I was assigned to night shift 2 days after his arrival and didn’t really get to know him until I went back to day shift in where our friendship grew. I remember showing up to work that first day back and Tony approached me while saying ”hey buddy” and gave me a hug. I remember thinking this was strange because we hardly knew each other. From then on, every morning when we saw each other he would say “hey buddy” and give me a hug. it wasn’t long before it turned into “hey friend” followed by a hug as if he was affirming our friendship. Soon after that it turned into “hey best friend” followed by a hug. I remember thinking after a while that I have never met anyone who was like that. Someone who picked me out of group of guys and said “yup, we’re friends”. But that was Tony. He truly was one of a kind. He gave me a friendship that I didn’t know I needed. During our time together I had the privilege of getting to fly with Tony a few times serving as his “duck” during his Flight Mechanic syllabus. One in particular was his STAN check, his last syllabus flight. Tony was lowering me to the boat while I sat in the rescue basket. As I got closer to the boat my rate of descent slowed and then came to a stop a few feet above the deck. Then suddenly and unexpectedly he dropped me as fast as the hoist could, right on my ass on the railing of the ship. This was not the best feeling in the world, and I remember looking up at him while he smiled from the helicopter thinking to myself that he did that on purpose. I couldn’t help but laugh at him. When we returned home and I finally asked him about the hoist, he laughed hysterically and apologized. Tony said he didn’t mean to, but I still think he did and he did it while laughing. While I never had the chance to return the favor, I did get some satisfaction out of when he was officially qualified and he was cornered on the wash rack, held down, soaked with a water hose and covered in baby powder. He had the biggest smile while it happened and after for the rest of the day and ill never forget it. Now that Tony had completed his syllabus, I remember him not getting a flight for a while after that. During that time we had spent so much time together that people at work began to make fun of us because we were never not doing something together. There were multiple times when at the time Chief Kluyber would come out of the shop looking for one of us, and all he had to do was ask the other and if we weren’t together, we knew exactly where the other was. Tony and I caught on to the jokes and began to run with them and play along. There was one day that tony and I had just finished working out and decided to go the smoothie king. Now let me paint this picture for you. We were both wearing tank tops, we were driving in my little red corvette with the top off while pulling back onto an Army Base drinking smoothies. After going through the gate we were laughing at the idea of how ridiculous we looked, so Tony took out his phone and snapped a picture of the two of us with our smoothies and sent it to Chief Kluyber with a caption saying, “is this gay”. Tony and I made so many jokes at our expense to other people So once Tony finally got a flight after his syllabus, we were made fun of because he was about to go flying without me. So as a joke Heath Kingsley and I got together and Took a picture of myself, had I laminated and gave it to him so that he didn’t have to be without me up there. He didn’t fly without it for a while until the photo’s mysterious disappearance. Now that Tony has left us all too soon, I know that I will never go flying without tony being with me not only because of the photo I will carry with me, but his loving memories that he left behind for all of us to keep with us. As all of you know, Anthony Yeoman and the gym were synonymous. Or maybe it was just Anthony Yeoman and chest. Either way, Tony and I worked out a lot together, and during our time in the gym together I gave him the nickname T-Rex. He wasn’t exactly clear on why I gave him that name, so I will clear it up for him now. Every Monday was Chest day. Now when Tony was on the bench press we began to notice that the reason he could lift as much as he could is because of his shorter arms. So while we were bench pressing 350 lbs. he would only have to move the bar maybe a total of 3 inches. This began the nickname T-Rex. We then began to send him all kinds of photos of T-Rex trying to do things and Tony would just look at me, shake his head and smile. Ill never forget his smile either, it immediately lit up the room and made everyone else smile. And if you had the pleasure of being anywhere around him you know what im talking about because he was always smiling, and I miss that. Ill miss that we would submit Duty chits to stand duty together. Ill miss that he would make my bed when I relieved him from JZI. Ill miss that he never did anything without asking Sarah if he could do it first. Ill never forget the day that the XO called us out for wearing sweat pants in the gym so no one knew we skipped leg day and had little legs. And ill miss what an amazing friend and brother he was to me. And If I had to do it all over again I wish I could have spent more time with him and Sarah. I have one last story that just makes me smile and I know he will to. This happened last week, just after a plane had come out of heavy maintenance. Tony as usual volunteered like he always did to do the runs on the plane to get it back to mission capable. Well they set out to go flying without coming to find me and say “just in case, I love you”. Well it was but a few minutes later that the plane was turned around and coming back because of a master caution light illuminated. Once I heard about it I ran out to the plane when it shut down and yelled at him “do you see what happens when you don’t come find me and say it Tony?! Your plane brakes down!” He cracked up laughing and say “I was thinking the exact same thing! Ill never do that again!” and he never did, and I never will either. With that being said, Just in case Anthony Michael Yeoman, I love you brother.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:38:22 +0000
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