Larry Garner - US Air Force Veteran

Bio: Larry C. Garner was born in 1952 in Pueblo, Colorado. Larry’s father lost three brothers in World War Two, out of four who went to war. Being the youngest, only remaining male sibling, he was denied when trying to enlist. His mother had four brothers, all of whom served and came home alive. His remaining uncles were all a little wild, and took Larry to all manner of racetracks, illegal race venues, and a few bars in his formative years, forging a love for speed that has endured until the present day.Upon having the automotive school he was attending after graduating from Monte Vista High School in Monte Vista, Colorado go bankrupt, Larry enlisted in the United States Navy, subsequently becoming an AME, technically an Aviation Structural Mechanic (Egress and Environmental), working on ejection seats as well as all other systems related to the aircrew’s safety and comfort in F4J Phantom fighter jets. He attended aircraft mechanical fundamentals and AME “A” schools near Memphis, Tennessee at Naval Air Station Millington before being assigned to FRAMP training at VF-101 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. After Framp training, Larry was assigned to fighter squadron VF-33, where he was assigned to the AME shop. He served four years with VF-33, as a flight deck troubleshooter, night shift supervisor, and Quality Assurance officer at NAS Oceana, on board the USS Independence, and as a hand-picked member of numerous special detachments. During this time, Larry was given the nickname “Animal” by some of his shipmates while partying in Athens, Greece. It stuck. Upon being eligible for shore duty in 1976, Larry was assigned to fighter squadron VF-101 DKW (Detachment Key West), a squadron based on training aircrews in ACM (Air Combat Maneuvers) VF-101 DKW became VF-171 DKW in 1977. Larry served as a flight line tech, plane captain, night shift supervisor, and AME special representative on numerous special attachments, including Top Gun and Operation Red Flag in 1977. He also was a part of the Key West biker and partier scene. Larry was honorably discharged in February of 1978, six years to the day from his enlistment as an AME2, having passed the test for AME1 but deciding to pursue other paths. After a short stint as a manager for two convenience stores in Key West,he returned to Monte Vista, Colorado in May of 1978, in time to celebrate Mother’s Day with his mom. Larry and his first wife moved to the Four Corners area, living in a few different places before settling in Bloomfield, New Mexico. Larry started working for a local business that supplied liquid oxygen and other welding gases, something he had been trained to handle safely in the Navy, before moving to a manufacturing plant that built equipment for the oil field. Larry worked his way from a yard hand to a welder, thanks to training he received at the local junior college, where he maintained a place on the President’s Honor Roll for four years straight while attending classes he was interested in, but not in pursuit of a degree. He was building, painting, and riding custom motorcycles, as well as racing stock cars on a dirt oval track in Aztec, New Mexico. At one point, over half the cars at the track had Larry’s paint jobs on them. He soon moved up to a position as a “code welder”, having passed rigorous tests including x-ray exams of welds he made. He worked in this capacity until the business laid off 90% of the workforce due to the oilfield basically closing. After a divorce, he spent one year in Cape Cod, working on custom motorcycles and driving a moving truck. He became part of the local biker scene, serving on the board of directors of the local chapter of the Modified Motorcycle Association, raising money to support a local orphanage before moving “back to “America” in 1985. Back in Monte Vista, Larry worked a couple odd jobs before being asked to build farm equipment for a local manufacturer. He also started a local motorcycle club dedicated to raising money to help the families of sick and dying children. Motorcycle-related events allowed the club to raise tens of thousands of dollars for various families and charities. After building potato-farming equipment (some of it his own design) for a few years, Larry signed on as a farm mechanic for a large local farm, building, painting, repairing, and maintaining equipment and vehicles. He met and married Marcia, the love of his life. He and Marcia welcomed twin sons in early 1989. During this time, he built his first hand-built, custom three-wheeled motorcycle, or “trike”. Trying to support his growing family, the meager wages offered by the farm necessitated another move, landing Larry and family in Vernal, Utah, where he worked as an equipment designer/builder/painter and well casing truck builder for a well casing company. He finished his first custom trike, built another one with a rear seat for the boys, and made several trips to Sturgis and elsewhere on the “family trike”. During this time, He and Marcia ran a non-profit organization that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the families of sick and dying children, raising money through motorcycle-related events. Larry was also appointed a county Child Abuse Special Advocate, while also serving as a member of Bikers Against Child Abuse. After the oilfield took another dive, the Garner family spent a couple of years in Bloomfield, New Mexico before Larry was offered a job with the United States Bureau of Reclamation. He worked in the Alamosa sub-station as a maintenance worker, welder/fabricator, and purchase order writer for sixteen years, retiring in 2016. During this time, Larry was racing stock cars in nearly every class at Thunder Valley Speedway outside Mosca, Colorado, winning three class championships, including a Tough Truck championship on the motocross track. He was also building, painting, and lettering race cars for others as well as custom bikes and trikes. He also started building hot rods for the street. In 2008, Larry and friends started a new non-profit that put on automotive-themed events to raise money for charity and community projects. The skate park in Monte Vista, the Kids Connection in Monte Vista, The San Luis Valley 4H program, as well as many other community projects benefitted over the next fifteen years from this program and its successors’efforts. The Faith Hinkley Veterans Memorial Park was the recipient of funds from car shows and other fund-raisers over the last ten years, and Larry also helped the City of Monte Vista plan and put on an event in 2024 to finally pay for all the elements needed to finish the park, including paving stones for veterans, KIA’s, and POW’s from the entire San Luis Valley. In 2010, Larry was recovering from a knee replacement. He decided to try his hand at writing, as many people in his past have encouraged him to put some of the stories he regaled others with at bars and parties over the years. Using some of the multitude of “characters” he has known, couple with places and events from his past, Larry started writing what has become the “Hammer” series of vigilante justice action novels. There are three books in the series at this point, the last two of which are set in the San Luis Valley after the initial novel got things rolling in the Deep South. Larry looks forward to doing whatever he can to help his Community.