Wearing
night vision glasses, crew member Ben Farney pulls night
duty in the machine gun bunker. Greenspoon appears and
accidentally trips a wire. Alarms go off and suddenly
they're hit with a blinding spotlight. Friend or foe? Ben
stays cool, but Jimmy's first thought is to cover the "home
front." It gets tough out there in the
trenches.
Ben
Farney
On
occasion, Ben would get on a roll telling you about
something, anything, and the potential was always there for
it to turn into an elaborate, detailed podium of an
explanation with tons of genius. I once told him I was
expecting him to pull out a chart on the subject. As time
went on, these moments developed into a full-blown persona.
"Ben. You're doing a chart again." Then it got shortened to
"He's chartin'" with the variable ... "Chart Man." He even
got into it HIMSELF! With the greatest of mock seriousness,
he'd pretend to reach up behind him and pull down a wall
chart, like a drill sergeant or professor might do, and then
smack an invisible pointer against it, making a whip sound
with his mouth for emphasis. Wonderful, bullshit routines.
Ridiculously funny as hell. Aykroyd and Belushi would love
it. Ben
worked with us as stage manager and monitor mixer for a
number of years. He was already a crew member when I
returned to the group in 1991. He may have been there since
1988, and continued with us until 1996. We were very close
and were a strong team together. Ben and Carson Price
represented our group with a lot of heart, a lot of drive
and a lot of tough sincerity that made being friends with
them a great thing. Devoted crewmen.
Ben was also a drum tech and tuned the drums frequently.
Yes, he played drums with an attitude, too. He possesses a
wonderful sense of humor that will keep you in stitches.
Does a hell of a mock imitation of Johhny Mathis that is
damn good (i.e. "Chances Are," "Misty," and the ever
popular, "You can kiss my ass and call me Charlie."
(Just
kidding)
My
good friend Ben Farney,"Chart Man" and/or "Overhead Ben."
He's a Kansas City man who's heavy on beef when ordering
dinner. His standard response when asked "How'd you like
your steak cooked?", was .... "Cut off it's horns, wipe it's
ass and bring it to me." (I
think that means RARE)
KUNSAN SPORTS
Sports?
Well, kinda. They did have a nine hole golf course right on
the base that most of us played a few rounds on, and a
gymnasium that was available to us. Here's Cory applying his
God given talents. It's too late for the golf shot, but I
suppose with a stretch of the imagination, the basketball
shot could've still had a chance. (NOT)
Yes, yes ... he hit
the ball. Digitally, I just couldn't resist. Cory and
Carson
We spent
3 days there, played music for the soldiers at Kunsan and it
felt good, but it was time to leave. Below: Danny sitting in
the Wolf Pack waiting room, while our C-141 transport plane
was on it's way. He couldn't help but choke back a smile
when he saw what was on television.