I have slept on the problem. What seems to be weighing heavily on my mind at the moment is this question:
You're a Marine, doing what Marine does, and you've done a good job of it. However, some fellow that smells heavily of goat has just blown up an IED in your general vicinity. The room goes dark. The sound of your buddies fades. You think that's it.
There is a dull sound in your head. It sounds like it might be the evacuation chopper, but's it's different. You strain to hear. The sound grows until it blots out everything else. It is the sound of 2 motorcycles approaching. At just the moment you expected them to run over you, the engines stop.
You hear 2 women talking. Finally one comes by and you hear a bag unzip, and the two most beautiful women you have ever seen are standing over you in the moonlight. They tell you time is short and ask you to go for a ride with them. It is then you look over to their rides.
What do you see?
My personal feeling, albeit a tad naive, is that no self-respecting Marine is going to want to show up in Valhalla and shake hands with the likes of Lou Diamond, Chesty Puller, and the Honker having just come off the back of a rice burner.
I think we need to restrict ourselves to domestic manufacture. My apologies for not thinking of this earlier.
Unless there is dissent, I say we concentrate on Mister Teal's suggestion, and the example I found yesterday evening. My remaining question is as follows:
Given a 70's build Custom Hardtail 1956 Harley Panhead Chopper as described, what modifications would you make in 1982 to make it an ideal bike for the purpose of retrieving fallen warriors?
So now this has morphed into a military theme, out of body story, but with period correct custom chopper build details?
Ok, but to my reasoning, given Lou "Honker" Diamond's and Chesty Puller's, hard earned, well deserved, reputations as hard-core, old school, warrior patriots, it's my opinion they both would be most impressed by original, totally stock, early vintage Harley or Indian motorcycles.
Lou Diamond died in 1951, long before the custom chopper fad began. He never saw or heard of such a thing but he very well may have ridden some of the old stock originals, though.
Chesty Puller died in 1971 so he was still alive after it began but for just for a couple of years.
My personal belief, were it possible, both men would probably regard custom choppers as symbols of the non-conformist, outlaw, hippie/beat-nick movement of that era.
It's your story though, Shaman,...tell it how ever you choose.
