…came from a trucking family. As soon as he was old enough to get a basic CDL (18) he started doing short haul for his dad. When he hit 21, he went into school busing and interstate driving. I first met him about 7 years ago. He’s always been an excellent, thoroughly professional driver.
He also (with his dad) were seriously into competitive drag racing and had a good performing fuel dragster. They were already off to a good season start.
So Friday about 4 AM they loaded up Kyle, his pop, his spouse, a sidekick, and Pop’s dog into a very nice rig, a Freightliner RV which is built on an 8-ton chassis version of the Freightliner-based 5-ton Thomas C2 school bus, towing a closed trailer containing the dragster, and set off for a weekend of racing somewhere in Alabama.
They got about halfway between Paducah and Nashville on I-24 with Kyle driving, and shit went haywire. They had a bad wreck, Kyle died instantly, the other 3 were all stoved up inside the wreckage and the dog walked around dazed before climbing back into the mess looking for Pop.
Responders could NOT get the dog to leave Pop’s side until they cut his ass out of there and air-evac’d him. They also evac’d the other two.
This pic is why I’m posting the story. It’s already semi-viral on FB. Shows the KY state fire marshal, who was involved in the rescues, comforting the dog as they wait for an animal control officer to come take him to a shelter, where he’ll be kept until family members pick him up.
Kyle was a straight up guy, smart and high functioning, and even without military experience he was a sort of warrior. And he died doing what he loved, and I heard the news Friday morning and was sad but never shed a tear because “live by the sword” seems to be ingrained in me.
But the pic showed up this morning and I don’t mind saying, it breaks my heart every time I look at it.
