A fallen soldier and his unfinished gift to his wife: 1959 Apache Pickup.
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The Friends of the 133rd will be holding an auction of April 2 at the Elks Lodge in Laramie. They are in need of auction items. Anyone wishing to help is asked to contact them via e-mail at
friendsofthe133rd@hotmail.com.
You can also make cash donations at any Bank of the West. Two accounts have been set up. They are "Friends of the 133rd" and the "Bruce Hays Memorial."
LARAMIE WYOMING- It sits in a garage at a vocational technical school in Laramie, still in pieces. The rust has been peeled away from the body of the 1959 Chevrolet Apache pickup truck. Black primer masks the years. The original engine sits off to the side. No one knows if it will ever run again.
It is an unfinished gift.
"Part of Bruce is in that truck," Major Dean Hunhoff of the Wyoming Army National Guard said. "He always saw things through to the finish."
Bruce Hays bought the old pickup truck in 2008 as an anniversary gift for his wife, Terry. He planned to work with her to restore it.
In August 2008, Hays, a captain in the Wyoming Army National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Before leaving, he paid a local mechanic $17,000 to restore the truck for his wife. It was to be a surprise for her when Hays returned.
Capt. Hays was serving as a combat advisor to Afghan security forces in the Hindu Kush Mountains. He was working with them build wells in villages. At 10,000 feet in elevation, roads in the area are primitive. It is an area where the Taliban is active.
"The enemy knew he was coming, but he had to go anyway and there was only one road to get there," Lt. Colonel Raymond Kent of the Wyoming Army National Guard said.
On the morning of Sept. 17, on that one road he had to take, Hays and three other American soldiers died when a roadside bomb exploded.
The three soldiers who died with Hays were Sgt. Joshua W. Harris of Romeoville, Ill, 1st Lt. Mohsin Naqui of Newburgh, NY and Staff Sgt. Jason A Vasquez of Chicago, Ill.
A memorial service was held for the four soldiers at their forward operating base in Afghanistan.
"Everything was pretty surreal," Kent said. "When you're doing a last call and you have the 21 gun salute go off. It just hits you that this is it. Bruce is really gone."
Hays left behind his wife, Terry, and two daughters, Bethany and Eleanor.
Back to that unfinished truck.
"It is Bruce's last wish," Kent said.
Hays' wish to give it as a gift vanished when the mechanic and money vanished without fixing the truck.
"Then after he was killed, he took the money and ran. It was very difficult," Hunhoff said.
This past January, friends decided the finish the job Hays had started. They hauled the truck to the garage at the vocational technical school in Laramie. Volunteers have worked to restore the body of the truck. The work is being slowed by a lack of money to buy the parts needed to finish the job.
A fundraising effort has begun to restore the truck so it can be given to the family.
The Friends of the 133rd will be holding an auction of April 2 at the Elks Lodge in Laramie. They are in need of auction items. Anyone wishing to help is asked to contact them via e-mail at
friendsofthe133rd@hotmail.com.
You can also make cash donations at any Bank of the West. Two accounts have been set up. They are "Friends of the 133rd" and the "Bruce Hays Memorial."
The importance of the truck to the family can't be overstated.
"I believe it probably means a lot more to the family now than it ever did," Stacy Morton, who is coordinating fundraising efforts for the Friends of the 133rd, said.
"All they have of their dad right now is a picture," Kent said. "They need something they can put their hands on and they need to know how much people love their dad."
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