I wrote to Greg and asked him to write to his fans and to let us know where he was and what he is doing. The following is from Greg. I personally want to thank Greg and all the men and women for the 'call to duty, in defense of America. It's important to all of us. We will never be able to thank them enough. The following is part one of a two part series. Part two will be posted on Wednesday March 13th.

March 6, 2002

I haven't seen the statue.

This year at the Daytona International Speedway,just before speedweeks, they unveiled a statue of the late Dale Earnhardt. I haven't seen it yet.

Normally I would have been in Daytona for speedweeks, working and enjoying the first race of the season. Being able to go my home in Orlando every night, instead of a hotel like the other events on the Winston Cup circuit.

In past years, I would have attended testing in January, then Speedweeks in February. Getting caught up in the hoopla. Winter is over, time to get back to work.

I would have been there for media day. The Circle Track Expo. Watched the ceremony as the Dale Earnhardt statue was unveiled. That was before September 11th. Before the US Army decided to call me to active duty.

I have been in the US military for over twenty years. 12 years active duty, 8 years as a member of the Florida Army National Guard. It was the National Guard who called me on the night of Sunday, October 8th.

"Report in twelve hours," they said. How long? Well let's just say that's a question yet to be answered.

I started out in charge of a "Force Protection" team, guarding critical assets in the state of Florida. I can't go into what we were guarding, I can just tell you that I found it so strange to be on such a war footing, walking around inside a fenced area 12 hours a day, seven days a week, armed to the teeth, M-16's and all while the world went on around us.

Mom's walking their kids to an elementary school down the block every morning. People rushing by on their way to work. The mail being delivered at the same time every day.

My life no longer revolved around NASCAR. Point standings meant nothing, instead the morning intelligence briefings replaced race results. Machine guns replaced wrenches, I exchanged a hotel room for a cot in the corner. Every civilian who walked by was a threat, the mail became potentially deadly. Every vehicle that slowed down or stopped in front of the building became a suspected car bomb.

There was always a tension in the air, it dominated every hour we were there. It just felt 'different' because we were always on edge, knowing in the back of our mind that something could happen at any moment. We were also bored to tears.

This mission was to supposed to last six months, but as I was to find out, this is a "fluid" situation. Just over thirty days after we started, the security abruptly ended and we joined other members of our unit with our latest mission: Guarding the cruise ships at Port Canaveral Florida.

Port Canaveral is one of the largest cruise terminals in the world. On December 6th I joined the other members of my unit who had been there since early November. Our duties there were to guard passengers and to help oversee the general security of the Port.

This was a highly visible mission and there was a great deal of news coverage when the unit first deployed there. I've always enjoyed interacting with the public and the Port duty provided the perfect opportunity.

On the three days a week the ships were in port, we would have the same routine: stand around while they offloaded in the morning, smiling as the passengers shuffled by pulling their luggage behind them, then standing by the security gates in the afternoon as the next group of vacationers boarded.

One of the more positive aspects of this mission was all the positive feedback we received from all the passengers, everyone generally seemed glad to see us there. There wasn't a day that went by where we didn't shake a hand or acknowledge a "thank you for being here".

Behind the scenes, away from the passengers, I discovered how far the security at our nations ports needs to go. But trust me when I tell you my friends, that subject would entail an entire article of it's own.

On the days that there were no passengers , we would augment the security around the entire port. We became an arm of the sheriff's department and I sometimes felt like I'd been deputized and was living an episode of "Cops".

We were given police radios and sent to patrol the port.

Now I've never been a part of a civilian police department, I was a military police officer for awhile but that was the closest I ever came. The sheriff's department soon took us in and it wasn't too long before I felt like I'd been a cop for years.

The interaction with the public during this time wasn't always a positive experience. Any seaport in the country, the areas open to the public anyway, seems to draw some of the lower lifeforms of our society. We encountered drug users, homeless people, prostitutes, those searching for them and various others bent on living less than a lawful existence.

The sheriff's department told us that while we were there crime dropped over 60 percent. No wonder, guys dressed in BDU's driving around in HUMVEES and carrying machine guns, tend to scare most bad people away.

Just as we were falling into a routine at the Port, we were given a new mission. ......


To Be Continued Next Wednesday

You can contact Greg at: Insider Racing News