10 Year Anniversary
In this episode, I asked a few of my brother's friends and family members to share stories about him to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of his death in Afghanistan.
Links & Resources
Transcript
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:03 Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast, where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I'd like to ask a favor if you haven't done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. If you've already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience. And while you're there, click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes. As soon as they come out, if you don't use Apple podcasts, you can visit DriveOnPodcast.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email list. I'm your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let's get on with the show. Over the weekend, on August 22nd, our family observed the 10th anniversary of my brother, Steven's passing. For those listeners who might not be familiar with his story and how he died…
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:54 My brother and I were both deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. On August 22, 2010, his unit was out on a patrol and they began receiving enemy fire, and Steve was killed pretty much as soon as the fighting had started. There is obviously a lot more to that story, and one of Steven's friends, Wes Black, talked more about that day back in Episode 14. So, if you're interested in hearing the story of the events that went on that day, please go back, and give it a listen. That was a really good episode. Anyway, I thought I would do something different to honor my brother in this episode. I'm a firm believer that a person will continue to live on in our memories so long as their story is told by the people who knew them best. So, I asked some of Steve's friends and family to record a few short stories about him.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:01:49 Now, if you're wondering why you might want to hear these stories, the stories serve two purposes. First and foremost, I wanted to share these stories for Steve's friends and family. It offers them an opportunity to hear some of the stories that they may not have heard before or to reminisce on some familiar stories that will bring a smile to their faces. And second, for any listeners who didn't know my brother or our family, it gives you an insight into a Soldier's life. It makes at least one Soldier's death, just a little bit more personal to you. That way, when you hear about a service member who was killed in the line of duty, you don't dismiss it as just another news story. You take a moment to listen to the story and think about the Soldier, the Marine, the Airmen, the Sailor, the Coast Guardsmen, who was killed and think about them as a real person. Think about them as someone's child or sibling or spouse, aunt, or uncle, even just as someone's friend, those service members all have stories of their own to share. And these are just a few of my brother's stories and I hope you enjoy them.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:03:01 First off, we have Steve's XO from the 2010 deployment, Micah Kidney.
Micah Kidney: 00:03:07 Hello, my name is Micah Kidney and I served as a First Lieutenant and the company Executive Officer for Alpha Company during our deployment in 2010 to Afghanistan. Now I'm the battalion executive officer with a third of the 172nd, the battalion that Alpha company fell in under during the deployment. At this point I'm a Major. During the deployment in 2010, 3rd Battalion was attached to the 101st, 187th Airborne Taskforce Rakkasan. They were located at FOB Solerno, which was about 60 or 80 miles to our South. 187 Airborne, they fell in under the 101st Airborne. At the time 187th was commanded by then Colonel Viet Wong. He himself was a guy who immigrated to the United States as a child from Vietnam.
Micah Kidney: 00:04:03 Pretty cool story. He was an incredible leader who came in after August 22nd to spend time with the platoon. I definitely will never forget sitting out on the LZ at combat outpost Herrera, when he flew in on his Black Hawk, his command Black Hawk, and looked into our eyes, he had tears in his eyes and he just wanted to share the fact that the loss that we felt, didn't stop on a company level. He felt it up to his level and it meant a lot to us. We definitely, really appreciated it at the time and I still do. Anyways, Steve’s job in 2010 was a team leader with Alpha Company, 3rd Platoon, at combat outpost Herrera, which was in Jaji province, in Eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. His platoon was fantastic. They had a great young platoon leader named Charlie Flood and a fire-breathing platoon Sergeant, Smitty, and a couple of incredible squad leaders and team leaders, Chuck Ames, Isaiah Gomez, Steve DeLuzio, was one of those guys and Rob Kocher.
Micah Kidney: 00:05:20 So their leadership in that platoon, was top shelf. Combat outpost Herrera was at the apex of three legs of what would look like a tripod, each consisting of an MSR, like a supply route in a low ground with mountains on both sides. First platoon, owned to the Northwest up towards [inaudible] and Rockion, Second platoon owned the leg of the tripod to the South towards the Candor Cal Tarkanai and there was an outpost down there and the Ahmad Calc DC, the district center, a third platoon, Steve’s platoon, owned to the Northeast up through Ali kale, right to the East of our outpost through Bella up about 10 to 12 clicks up to BCP 12, 13, and 14, along the Pakistan border, looking down into the Pakistan city of Perishenar. Each platoon had a tough AO, but 3rd Platoon’s AO was pretty big.
Micah Kidney: 00:06:23 And it was just a massive area of operations still. Our company AOF for the Taliban was like a web of mountain trails and go pass. For the most part it was a highway for Taliban fighters to enter Afghanistan from Pakistan during the fighting season, headed West towards Gosney North, towards Jalalabad, but mostly towards the Capitol and Kabul to the Northwest. And it was our company mission and each of the platoon's mission to disrupt and interdict that Taliban infiltration into the heart of Afghanistan. We also had a secondary mission to train the ANA, the Afghan National Army, the ABP, the border police, and the ANP the Afghan national police in Jaji, where we were located. I didn't know Steve before the deployment, but I was lucky enough to be out with platoons almost every day.
Micah Kidney: 00:07:19 And I got to know Steve pretty well. We came to know each other as lifelong hockey players who loved, lived, and breathed the sport. And we both loved the Bruins. We had quite a few late night opportunities to watch the Bruins in the playoffs, as they coughed up that year, a 3-0 series lead to the, I think it was the Flyers, but it was a tough season for the Bs but that's kind of how we came to know each other. We'd play hoops almost every night. We had a little tiny basketball court and Steve is a pretty horrible basketball player. It was definitely not his winter sport, hockey was that, obviously. And many of those games ended with one of us…and I remember Steve doing it like punting the basketball outside of the outpost inside of the local town after he, or one of us lost.
Micah Kidney: 00:08:15 We also worked out a ton in the gym, but the story I'd like to share involved our nightly poker game. So, there's about 10 or 12 of us who would play in my office. We had a good poker table set up and it was just a bunch of the leaders in the company just kind of blowing off steam, having some fun at night. Steve was a fairly, I would say pitiful poker player, but we were all just in there for fun. And we were frequent opponents, like heads up on a table. Steve had a curious habit of playing pretty poor hands and winning a lot, which was interesting. Also funny was when his 2 7 off suit or whatever it was didn't pan out
Micah Kidney: 00:09:08 and he lost. He'd become pretty furious. This is the setting of the story I'd like to tell. Steve talked a lot of junk when we were playing, obviously that was part of who he was and we loved it. And one night we were playing and he was so sure that he was going to win, that he was willing to make a bet with a few of us that if he lost, we could choose any outfit to our liking for him to work out in the next day. And of course, he lost. The outfit that we put together was like a Hawaiian hula outfit full to the nines, grass skirt, we had actual coconut bikini top for him. So, he had the bikini coconut top on and he was working out and I knew he was working out.
Micah Kidney: 00:10:08 So, of course I was going to document the moment with a couple of pictures. So, he was on the Stairmaster, one of the machines that we had in our little gym and tooling away, and I busted through the door so he couldn't hop off and try to look cool, and I just remember him as I snapped the pictures away, like staring down at me, just laughing so hard and embarrassed, but he was cool with it. I decided to take it a step further. And the next day I made up like 30 little posters, with the picture of him in the outfit, put them all around the outpost. And I turned it into like a like a fake call to action for all the Burka wearing Afghan females to shed their passion ways and full body coverings and start wearing this Hawaiian hula outfit.
Micah Kidney: 00:11:07 And it was pretty funny. I put them all over the outpost and as we know, Steve is not going to lose a prank battle. So, he took it to the next level. And the next day, someone told me to go over to my B hut and I went over to my B hut, my little five by eight little room inside of this plywood shack. And there was like 30 people standing around waiting for me to go in. And I went in and Steve and Chuck Ames had shredded my B hut room. And it was hilarious, like all the games from the MWR, the checkers and the Connect 4, all that stuff was spread out through my room, about knee deep. He had taken multiple fire extinguishers and released their contents into my sleeping bag, which by the way, if you didn't know, was purple, the stuff that comes out of there.
Micah Kidney: 00:12:06 So they shredded my room pretty good and deservedly. So, I guess and I remember, I'll never forget, I came out of my B hut incredulous. Steve was right there in the front and arms crossed and I will never forget that he says, “ LT, when you mess with a big dog, you get the T and I’ll never forget it. It was a couple of weeks later that we lost Steve in Rokkian. Steve was the glue that kept the company together. And especially the leaders E5, E6s, he was just the best. I still can't believe he's not here. I'll never forget him. And my children know his name as do my family and my grandchildren will. Steve, miss your brother, we'll catch you on the flip side.
Scott DeLuzio: Next, we have a story from one of Steve's long-time friends, Zach Tracey.
Zach Tracey: 00:13:08 Hi, my name is Zach Tracy, as someone who was friends with Steve for 20 years, there are countless stories about the times we spent together that I could share. Some are appropriate, some perhaps not. But the one story about Steve that most frequently comes to mind is one I wasn't involved with at all. Instead, I heard it second hand from Steve, with the help of Italian hand gestures and the level of embellishment he could have only learned from his father. Like all good stories, this one begins in the worst of weather with sleet and snow falling on an almost barren I-91 in Vermont. As Steve drove up to Norwich University, after a short visit home. For anyone who traveled with Steve in his blue Nissan Xterra, I'm sure you can envision him driving down the highway, blasting some loud and angry music and happily drumming along on the steering wheel.
Zach Tracey: 00:13:49 As he drove on, the weather and roads got worse. A car in front of Steve started to lose control, slipping, and sliding on the ice. In an effort to avoid the sliding vehicle, Steve hit the brakes and immediately found himself sliding around the frozen highway, but he eventually managed to avoid the car in front of him. However, the car behind him wasn't so lucky. Once all the cars came to a stop, Steve stepped out into the sleeting weather and approach the rear vehicle to make sure everyone was safe. As he got closer to the vehicle, he noticed the color red spattered all throughout the car. Fearing the worst, he quickened his pace. When we finally got there, he hastily asked if everyone was okay. Confused by the rushed tone of Steve's voice, the driver looked around the car and then finally understood, “Oh, we're fine,” the drivers said, “my wife was just holding a pot of pasta sauce.” I'll never forget Steve bursting into laughter immediately after telling me it was just pasta sauce. I was reminded of that story as I'm driving in bad weather, it speaks to who Steve was. He was always quick to help others in their time of need, but just as quick to find humor in any situation.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:14:55 Alright, next, we have a couple stories from another Soldier, Wes Black, who I mentioned earlier, deployed to Afghanistan with Steven. These stories actually come from Episode 14, the episode that I mentioned earlier. So, if you want to hear more stories, like the ones that you're about to hear from Wes, go give that a listen, after you hear this.
Wes Black: 00:15:16 The first time I met Steve was actually at a drill weekend and it was Halloween weekend and it was a MUDA4, so it was a Saturday, Sunday non-remain overnight. And so Saturday night we got cut loose. And so, because I had been in the unit for a little over a year, I knew to bring civilian clothes to the drill. Because if we got released, we'd go out into Burlington and raise hell. And so, it's Halloween night, and Steve kind of looks at me and he's like, bro, I don't have any clothes. I don't have any civilian clothes. At the time he was a freshman at Norwich University. So, freshmen aren't allowed, according to the rules, you're not allowed to have civilian clothes. You could if you were in the guard.
Wes Black: 00:16:01 But Steve had only recently just come to drill and didn't know the rules. And so, I said, f**k it, man. It's Halloween. Just tell everybody you're a Soldier. It was 2004 and I was like, just tell everybody you're a f**king Soldier. Everybody loves Soldiers. I mean, we're heroes, man. Just go as a Soldier. So, he's like, alright, so we go downtown and I'm in civilian clothes. I think I had stopped and grabbed a stupid mask or something at one of the Halloween party stores. And so, we're downtown in Burlington, eating pizza and drinking beer at, what was it? Manhattan pizza or Mr. Mike's or something like one of the pizza shops. I had actually scratched my ID, the back of my military ID because
Wes Black: 00:16:50 I was born in 1985. I had scratched it so where the five connects down to the bottom, I scratched away that side. And then on the other side I scratched it. So, it looked like a three and then used a Sharpie to color it in like a fine point Sharpie. So, I actually had an ID that said I was like two or three years older than I really was and I was 19. So, it said I was 21 so I would get into all these clubs and drink and I could go up to the bar and get drinks in case the police were listening. I only did it once. So anyway, we're out, we're drinking. I had set Steve up in the corner and I was like, “Hey, listen, I'm going to go out to the bar. I'm going to get us a couple of drinks.
Wes Black: 00:17:29 I'm going to get us some food. And so, at the time I think he was with Leeza and so I come back and Steve was always a charmer. He could strike up a conversation with the wall and I mean, he really could. So, I come back and there's these three women standing around the table that Steve is at and I'm like, this is going to be a good night. So, I sit down and I was like, Hey, what's going on? So, we were sitting there chatting and chatting and chatting. I look at Steve and I’m like, “yo man, you going to bring these girls home. He looks at me and he’ like, no, I have a girlfriend. What? So sure enough, man, we went back to the hotel room and I’m sitting there going, are you kidding me?
Wes Black: 00:18:19 Sure enough. He called Leeza, “Hey, how's it going, honey?” This is what he was like, I was like, “Oh my God.” So, I rode his ass a little bit about that. And so, to give you the other side of Steve, after we had come back from Iraq, I tried to go back to Norwich and I just couldn't do it. So, I bummed around the Vermont guard for a long time. And so, when we were getting ready to train up to go to Afghanistan, Steve and I were in the same platoon, we were both team leaders. So, we were both sergeants. I think he was assigned to first squad or maybe second squad and I was third squad. I was the third squad alpha team leader. I think he was like the first squad Bravo team leader first or second squad Bravo team leader.
Wes Black: 00:19:03 And so we were out one day at Fort Polk, getting ready to train our guys. We'd set up a glass house, which is just tape on the dirt, in the shape of a house. And we were going to do these close quarter battle drills and train our guys on how to move through houses. And so, we go walking out and I turned to Steve and I went to check him. Steve was a hockey player. He was a phenomenal hockey player. And he just happened to get just low enough on me that when he and I went to check each other, he actually popped my right shoulder out, like dislocated it. And all of a sudden, my shoulder's killing me.
Wes Black: 00:19:46 And of course Steve feels bad instantly. He is like, “Oh my God, bro. I'm so sorry.” And so, he gets me over to the aid station, helps basically carry my arm. And we get over to the aid station. The doc puts it back in; the doc's like, all right, listen, you gotta take it easy over the next day or two, just ice it, relax it. I'm going to give you some compression bandage to put over it. I really want you to take it easy. So, we go back out, we do the training, we go back inside to sit down and we had these big open barracks filled with these little cots. And so, I'm sitting on my cot and Eric Kilbourne, who was one of the guys in second platoon, very funny guy.
Wes Black: 00:20:28 Love to just joke around with anybody. And Steve was the kind of person where he would make fun of anyone mercilessly. He knew how to push your buttons, that's exactly what he would do. But the slightest opening he would expose. Oh yeah. And he would, he would. I will tell you what, only Steve was allowed to do it because if somebody else started doing it, Steve was the first person to be like, shut up. He was very adamant that he was the only one that could needle you. And so, I'm sitting on my cot, minding my own business. I think I actually had my headphones on. I wasn't paying attention. I was watching a movie. Well, Kili comes up with this pillow and he just whacks me across the back.
Wes Black: 00:21:13 He's trying to be funny. He's trying to start a pillow fight except it pops my shoulder back out because I have literally had it just put back in. And so, of course I instantly buckle. I start crying because of the pain, like it really hurt man. And so, Kelly looks at me. He's like, yo, you all right bro? And I pull my headphones off. So, Steve comes flying over, like literally puts his hands on Kilborn. He's like, what's your problem? And so, Kelly's like, Whoa, Whoa, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I had no idea. And I'm like, it's okay, man. Like, don't worry about it. So, Steve actually helps me get my shoulder popped back into place because he'd watched the doctor do it. So, Steve knows how to do it. So, Steve helps me pop it back into place. It feels better. So, he sits down next to me and I literally have tears rolling down my face from the pain. It hurts so bad. And he looks at me and he goes, all right. I was like, yeah bro, I just hurts, man. He goes, alright, he kind of slaps me on the knee. And he goes, good. Get yourself fixed up because you look like you just took second place in a drag race and stands up and walks away.
Wes Black: 00:22:25 That was the kind of person he was, he would make sure you were okay. But he would make sure that he got one in as he was walking away.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:22:34 Next up my mom and I guess, well Steve's mom too, same person has a couple of stories that she wants to share about him.
Diane DeLuzio: 00:22:46 Hi Scott. I just wanted to share a couple of stories that you may have heard, but many other people may not have heard about Steven. What is an interesting story from when he was at his basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia. And when we all, as a family went down to his graduation, the procession of Soldiers was marching in front of us. You guys were all saying, “Oh, there's Steve, there's Steve.” And I couldn't see him. And the group was marching right in front of us. And I remember Leeza saying to me, “he’s right there, he's like the second one in the row.” And I couldn't see him when they finally turned, they were facing us in profile and they finally turned and faced us straight on. It didn't look anything like Steve. As you know, he had a darker complexion, olive skin, but from the months of training in Georgia, his skin was very dark and he
Diane DeLuzio: 00:23:46 had lost quite a bit of weight that I totally did not recognize him. And I would say, I don't know, he was probably 30 feet in front of us or maybe a little more. But anyway, I didn't even recognize him. So, I remember tears came to my eyes because I was thinking, “Oh my gosh, he hasn't eaten in all this time that he's been here at basic training and he's gotten so dark, but I guess the training did well for him because when he got back to Norwich University, the first time they had some kind of competition in terms of agility and all that kind of stuff. And he came in 1st place. So, I guess after the basic training regimen that he went through at Fort Benning, it definitely got him in really good physical shape.
Diane DeLuzio: 00:24:37 It was just poor mom didn't recognize him. And the other story, I think you've probably heard this one too, but anyway, in all the years with Steven, I wanted to keep an eye on him. He was always doing crazy things and he had no fear, but anyway, as an adult and he was now in the Vermont national guard. There was a training coming up over training weekend or whatever. And I know he had to have a weigh-in and he had put on a few pounds and so he was trying to exercise and he went to the gym and he's riding his bike and he was doing all these things, trying to drop a few pounds.
Diane DeLuzio: 00:25:24 I think he needed to lose another five pounds by the weekend or something. And so, he was doing it through sweating and really working hard and not eating a lot. So, on this particular day he had driven his bike. And as you might recall, those who knew he had a mountain bike, it wasn't a typical bike that you would go riding down the streets or long distances on. But anyways, it was a mountain bike and he had been gone for hours and hours and it was a hot time of the year. I don't remember but it was summertime. I don't remember the temperature exactly. But he had been gone for a long time and I was actually beginning to worry that maybe something had happened to him. And so, I, as a mom, maybe a helicopter mom, I don't know,
Diane DeLuzio: 00:26:08 I got in my car and I knew the route that he was on because he was going to the gym and then he was going to ride his bike back home. And so, from where we lived, I figured I knew which way he was going to go. So, I went down this street, Hebron Avenue, for those who are from Glastonbury might know where the area is. I just started driving down the road and there I see Steve, maybe halfway between the gym where he had been and home; he was riding his mountain bike up this pretty steep hill. And so, I turned, he was going one direction, I was going the other direction. So, the first street that I could, I turned around and I came up behind him and he looked like he was really dogging it.
Diane DeLuzio: 00:26:58 I mean, he was going really slowly and I wasn't sure he was going to make it up the hill. So, I rolled down my window and I shouted out the window. Do you want a ride? Are you going to make it? Well, he pulled off to the side of the road onto the sidewalk and he was mad because he was halfway up this hill but because I had stopped now, he had to stop. He lost his momentum and he's like, “no, mom, I don't want a ride, you're going to get someone killed, you're going to kill me. You're going to kill everybody around here because you're stopping a bicycle on the side of the road.” And he was very upset that day. One of the few times that he actually did get angry, but he was. I think he was so exhausted and he really did want a ride home, but he knew he couldn't. He was not happy with me that day, but anyway, I thought maybe I'd share those two stories. They are just two of the many, many, many stories, happy and sad that I have of Steve, but some people may not have ever heard those stories. So, I just thought I would share. Thanks, bye.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:28:03 And finally I have Steve's dad, my dad, again, same person. I have to preface this next section with a little bit of background. So, my kids call my dad, Poppy. And one day my wife and I were talking about the local PTA at the kid's school, the Parent Teacher Association, and my son looked at us as we're talking and asked what's PTA stand for. Does that stand for Poppy Talks A-lot? It's true. Once you get my dad gets on a roll, he doesn't seem to want to stop. So, PTA became sort of an inside family joke. And I figured I'd share that too, since we're having fun telling stories and everything and true to his PTA form, here's my dad sharing some stories.
Mark DeLuzio: I don't know where to start. I've got so many crazy stories that we've been through in his short 25 years.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:28:56 I think I'm going to go back quite a way to talk a little bit about what might tell you about Steve's character. It might tell you more that he was a character and that he really was sort of fearless in a lot of regards. When he was three years old, his birthday is on February 25th. So, when he was three years old, we bought him a two-Wheeler bicycle with training wheels. And, of course, it was February in Connecticut. So, he wasn't really able to use it all that much in the first month or two. But as it warmed up, it was Memorial Day weekend and we lived on a cul-de-sac and I'm out there playing with Scott and Steve and just messing around. And I see Steve ride his bike across the cul-de-sac.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:29:45 Now, remember it had training wheels on it, but he rode it so hard that the training wheels over time bent up and they were off the ground. And as Steve went across the cul-de-sac, I noticed that the training wheels never hit the ground. I mean, the kid was riding a bicycle on two wheels. And, again, he was at that point in time, he was three years and three months old. No, he still had diapers on. So, I want to come back to that in a minute just to let you know. Steve had no time for that type of stuff. But, anyway, I called Steve over and sure enough, I said, “Hey, Steve, I don't know if you know this or not, but you rode across the cul-de-sac with the training wheels never hitting the ground.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:30:31 You can ride a bike. And he was a little bit afraid and matter of fact, but I took the training wheels off and got him back on the bike. Now he was so small at that time, even that little bike, he had to get up on a curb to get on the bike. So, I'd hold the bike for him and sure enough, the kid took off, he's driving a two-wheel bike with no training wheels at three years, three months. And, he was fearless, and he was just that way. So now let's go back to the diaper. So, he was still wearing diapers. Now, if you knew Steve at all, he couldn't shut up. You think I talk a lot? Oh my God, when he was at the dinner table, Diane would have to just continue to shovel food in his mouth in between words.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:31:18 Otherwise the kid would have died of starvation because he was talking away. He had no time to eat. He had no time for that kind of stuff. He had things to do. He had to go play with his friends down the street. He had to go out and play baseball. He had to go do this. He had to do that. He had no time for basic human needs, like eating. Well, another thing he had no time for was learning how to go to the bathroom. So, here the kid is riding a two-Wheeler bike with no training wheels at three years, three months. And he still has a diaper on. It was maybe a month or two after that, we finally got him to not wear the diaper. I won't go into any kind of gory details here on that one, but I think you can match what that might look like.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:32:10 So here's father's proud moment. My proud moment. I'm standing at the toilet with Steve and it's the first time he goes standing up and he's going and it's coming out and I'm standing there and I'm watching them. And he turns to me and he says, “Hey dad, how do you shut this thing off?” I swear to God. He said that. He had no time for that. He was too busy and standing there and doing that type of bodily function was a big waste of time to him. He was impatient and the whole event probably took a minute, but the minute was just too long for Steve. And that's where he turned to me and said, “Hey, dad, how do you turn this thing off?” In other words, I got things to do, man.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:32:57 I got it. I got it. I've got my bike to ride. I've got to go play baseball. So that just gives you a little insight as to Steve and how he looked at life, and how he lived his life. He lived his life hard and fun. I would say he probably had more life packed into his 25 years than most adults at 90. So, I think they always say, it's not the quantity of years. It's the quality in those years. So anyway, a little bit of clip about Steve and I thought I'd just share that. It was one of the many comical things that we've encountered with that guy. And, well, I sure miss him!
Mark DeLuzio: 00:33:53 Now, we're going to turn to Steve being 16 years old. And of course, every teenager who turned 16 wants to drive a car. Now, just to let you know, Diane didn't know this, but I took both Scott and Steve driving at 13, I let them drive at 13. I did it in, as a matter of fact, it's kind of ironic, but I did it at the cemetery where Steve is buried right now. There's a road that goes around the cemetery. And I thought that was a pretty safe place. And I told both kids, I said, “Hey, look, if you crack up and kill yourself, you're in the right place. We won’t have to really move you,” just kind of a joke. But anyway, I would take them there. And my promise to them privately was that when they turned 13, I'm going to let them drive a car and I'm going to take them to the cemetery and let them drive around a few times and get a feel for the car.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:34:46 Right? Probably so irresponsible for me as a father to do that. But then again, Diane always said she had three boys, right? Three kids. So, anyway, lo and behold, Steve turns 16 and now it's time for him to take his driver's test just to get his permit. Now, the driver's test is only 10 questions and you have to get seven out of 10, right. You know, a 70%. So, a couple of weeks before I ordered the book, the driver's manual and I brought it into Steve's room. Of course, he was in there playing video games or watching the Bruins or doing whatever Steve did in his room. And, I said, “Hey, Steve,” I threw the book at him. And I said, “Hey, Steve, take a look at this book. You got to study it because you know, you got a test coming up” and he looks at me
Mark DeLuzio: 00:35:41 and he says, “I don't need this. I don't need this book.” “What do you mean? You don't need the book?” He says, “I know how to drive.” “Steve, I don't think you understand.” Okay, I know how to drive and I wouldn't pass the driving test today. There are crazy rules. You know, how many feet do you park from a fire hydrant? And there's all kinds of crazy rules that they're going to ding you on. And maybe the question might be, is it 25 feet? Is it 20 feet is it 15 feet? You gotta study this stuff. “Dad, I know how to drive. I got this, man. I know how to drive.” “I saved the book in case you want it. I'm telling you, you gotta study it.”
Mark DeLuzio: 00:36:25 You only get 10 questions. “Oh, I got this dad, don't worry.” You know how Steve was with that. And the other thing, just like I said on the diaper story earlier, he had no time for that stuff. I mean, he had things to do, man. So that was a distraction. He was confident. He got this thing. And so anyway, I take him down to the motor vehicle department. He applies for his permit. We fill out all the paperwork. And then at the time they had a manual test, all it was a one-page piece of paper with 10 multiple choice questions on it. So, Steve takes the test, he goes over and he sits down at the desk and he fills it out. He hands it in
Mark DeLuzio: 00:37:12 and he looks at me. I got to see the guy correcting the test. We're literally standing over the guy who's correcting his test. He said, “okay, let's see how you did.” The guy has a red pencil, so Question 1, wrong. Question 2, wrong. Question 3, wrong. I looked at Steve and he looked at me and he's now shaking. But he's not one to show it. He's shaking in his pants. Matter of fact, if I had looked, there might even been a puddle on the floor, speaking of diapers. And so, now he's shaking. I'm looking at him. I'm like told you, Steve, but I didn't say that.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:38:12 Of course. My look to him was like, I told you should have studied. You didn't listen. Next seven questions, Correct. He got all seven correct. So, he passes the test, right? He looks at me and says, “I told you I had this, I had this all along. I knew I had this.” I go, “you little shit, you were crapping your pants. Don't give me that stuff.” He said, “I had this man. I had this, I'm cool. I have this.” You know that was Steve. That's Steve living on the edge. And that test was representative, if you will, of Steven in general. I thought that was a pretty cool story.
Let's see, this is back when Steve was 16 years old when this happened.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:39:15 I'd come back, I think from Japan. And I connect over in, I forget where now, maybe Chicago or something or wherever, and I'm flying back to Hartford. That's where we used to live in Connecticut. And I'm sitting there in first-class and of course, who comes sitting next to me, but Rich Eisen. Now Rich Eisen at the time was with ESPN. And now he heads up the NFL network on TV. So Rich Eisen happened to be Steven's favorite announcer on ESPN. Now, first of all, Steven knew more about sports, I think, than Rich Eisen did. I mean, Steven knew so much about sports. I'll deviate for a minute here and tell you that during one of the Olympics, Steven says “that guy sucks. He's no good, but that guy right there,” and he had all the names, all the names of the players, he was talking about the curling team, the curling team!
Mark DeLuzio: 00:40:12 He knew which guy sucked and which guy was good on a curling team. And he knew their names. The kid was unbelievable. I would argue with him about sports all the time, you know, Red Sox vs. Yankees, he was a big Yankee fan. And I'm the biggest Red Sox fan. And I could never win the argument. He knew so much about baseball and baseball is a world of statistics. I think Steven was a walking computer in that regard. He knew every statistic that you can imagine. Anyway, I think he missed his calling. He could have been a great ESPN announcer/commentator. So anyway, Rich Eisen sits next to me and I looked at him and I said, “Oh, you are Rich Eisen.” There are a couple other guys like Mike Terico was with him and somebody else, I forget.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:40:58 I said to Rich, “my son is 16 years old and he's a big, big sports fan. And you are his favorite. I'm not just saying that I'm telling you that he really likes you because of your sense of humor and all that stuff.” So, Steve really liked Rich Eisen. So, anyway, we're talking all the way through, he’s really a nice guy, we're talking about all kinds of stuff, and we talked about his career, how to get started. And we talked about all that stuff. So, the flight’s landing now in Hartford, and he says to me, “Hey, you're going to be picking up your bags?”
Mark DeLuzio: 00:41:42 I said, “yeah, I have a bag to pick up down in the baggage claim. He says, “I have something for Steve.” I walked down to baggage claim at the old Bradley airport and so he and I are talking and we're waiting for our bags. He said, “Hey, I'll be right back.” So, while Rich Eisen is gone, I take out my cell phone and I call Steve. And I said, “Hey, Steve, you're not going to believe who I just sat next to” and he didn't believe me. I kid around a lot, you know, as you might expect, I kid around a lot with the kids and Steve wouldn't believe me.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:42:28 I said, “I sat next to Rich Eisen from Chicago. We sat; we talked all the way through.” I told him he was your favorite. But so, Rich is coming back from the men’s room. I said, “well, you know what, Steve, here he is. I'm going to put him on the phone.” He goes, “no, you’re not.” Okay. I said, “Hey, Rich, you want to talk to my son, Steve?” “Yeah, sure,” he says. He takes the cell phone. He goes into his announcer voice. He had a totally different voice. When he got on the cell phone, like he would be on TV. He goes into his announcer voice. Normally he was just talking regular. Then he goes into his announcer voice. He's talking to Steve. He's projecting, you know.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:43:12 So I hear, I'm just hearing one side of the conversation. All of a sudden I hear Rich Eisen say, “well, they have to win, man. I'm not going to put them on if they're not winning.” I later found out. He says, “Hey, you have quite the son there.” I go, “what do you mean?” He says, “he was giving me crap about not showing enough Boston Bruins coverage on ESPN.” Here's his announcer idol and Steve's giving him crap about the fact, and he's 16 years old, he's giving him crap. Another insight to Steve and what he was all about. So, not only was he an unbelievable sports fan and extremely knowledgeable about sports, but you could see his character. He didn't care if this was a big star or not.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:44:06 He was going to tell him what he thought, you know? And another story about Steve was at 15 and Scott was 18. We were on a European cruise; Diane and I took the kids over to the Mediterranean. One of the stops that we had on the cruise was Naples, Italy. And I said to the kids, this is where pizza was invented. Let's go into town for lunch and we'll have pizza. Now Scott was 18 years old. Now of course, here in the States, the drinking age was 21. I said to Scott, if the drinking age is 18, you could drink. If we go to a country that it's 18, you can have a beer or wine, whatever. So anyway, we're going to go, Diane and I were going to go into town and find one of those restaurants, sit on the roadside cafe type thing.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:45:03 So we're going in and Steve says, “Hey guys, I don't really feel like going in and I'm going to stay on the ship. Not really sure why, but anyway, we said, okay, well, you know, Steve stayed on the ship. And so, it was Scott, Diane, and me, we all walked into town, found this nice little roadside restaurant. We ordered pizza. And of course, Scott had, I think he had wine. So, I had no problem with that. And that's fine. I'm sure it wasn't his first drink. We finished lunch and we walked back to the ship and we go back to our room and then all of a sudden there's a knock at our door and it's Scott and Steve. And Steve says, Hey dad, “Scott told me how good that pizza was down in town.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:45:48 And I want to go check it out. And I look at Steve, I said, “Steve, does this say dumb shit up on my forehead here. You're not going in there for the pizza.” No dad really. I heard the pizza was really good. And I don't want to miss the chance of having a pizza from Naples where it was invented. All right, Steve have fun. Okay. Scott, keep an eye on him, have fun. So, Scott and Steve go into town and, I'm sure they ate pizza. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that really wasn't the objective of the trip. Anyway, again, that's Steve working the system and working all the angles.
Another Steve DeLuzio, I'm trying to put him in an age bracket here.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:46:34 He was a teenager. Well, let me give a little backdrop here first before I get into the actual story. So, anybody who knows me knows that there's a couple of things I'm not really good at. One is being a handyman. I'm known for that in a circular saw story. That's a long one. And then, of course, my golf game. So anyway, I want to tell you that because, I've never had an Eagle in my life. I putted for Eagle because I used to hit the ball really long and once in a while it would end up on the green. And I putted for Eagle many times, but never had one. So, let me turn back to Steve.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:47:17 I've got a business trip going to Ireland in a week and this incident happened before the trip to Ireland. Steve and I are out on the driveway. We had a basketball hoop, and we're playing basketball. Well, anybody who knows Steve, first of all, Steve wasn't a particularly good basketball player and neither was. I was really good at baseball, but not basketball. I was a lousy basketball player. And as Sebastian Maniscalco might say, he is my favorite comedian and he says, “Italians don't play basketball.” So, Steve and I are playing basketball in the driveway and it's getting competitive. And we're talking, you know how Steve talks smack, and I think I do a little of that too. And we were just in each other’s face, right? Anyway, I'm going up for a layup. Remember that
Mark DeLuzio: 00:48:06 Steve was a hockey player, right? Uh, he was a defenseman in his junior and senior years for the high school where they won the state championship in his senior year. And he was one of the captains. Steve led the team in hits. He had more hits than anybody in both years. As a matter of fact, his senior year, he missed five games out of 20 and he still led the team in hits. He missed the games because he had mono. Anyway, Steve was very competitive and very physical. So anyway, I'm going up for a layup. He gives me a check right in the ribs. I mean, he checked me like you wouldn't believe. And I go down on the ground, on my back, gasping for air.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:48:59 And I get up and I have this pain in my side like you wouldn't believe. He broke my ribs playing stupid basketball in our driveway. So, I'm in pain. So, we go in and he says, “Oh dad, I'm really sorry. Yeah. Yeah. My ass, your story.” So, anyway, I'm in pain. Well, you can’t do anything about a broken rib. You have to just let it heal. So, I go in and pop a couple Advils and all that. So, I'm in pain all week. Now I have to go to Ireland. So, what do I do, dummy me? I bring my golf clubs because we're going to be right by Lahinch. Lahinch is one of those famous courses that once in a while I think they play the British Open down there.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:49:45 And it's a really cool golf course. So here I am dummy me with my broken rib. I'm in pain. I want to play this course really bad. So, there's a par five and I hit a really decent, I don't know, maybe 275 and a decent drive. But there's a big berm in front of me. We had a caddy, there was a big berm in front of me and I couldn't see the hole, but he pointed out where the hole would have been. I take out a four iron and I just nailed this four iron. I knew I hit it. Well, I had no idea where it was going. I couldn't see the green, the ball lands on the green and I get up to the green and sure enough, I'm 10 feet from hole.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:50:29 And it's like, “Oh my goodness. Did this happen?” I checked the ball and made sure it was my ball. Yeah. It was mine. I sync the putt. It's a 10-footer and I sink the put. I get my first ever Eagle in my life. As a matter of fact, to date, that is the only Eagle I've ever had. And I'm sitting there thinking about Steve. I was saying, I don't think I would have done this if I didn't have a broken rib. I don't know, maybe you gotta play sick. I don't know. Maybe I could play injured in order to get good. But I really thought when I sunk that putt, the first thing I thought about was Steven, that basketball game, and I said, “I just had an Eagle with a broken rib. And I wonder if I didn't have this broken rib, whether or not I would have gotten the Eagle, you know?”
Mark DeLuzio: 00:51:15 So anyway, that's just how Steve penetrates your life and how Steve was so darn competitive, unbelievably competitive. He did not want to lose.
Another hopefully short story. This goes back to the late 2000s. So, Diane and I took the kids to Scotland and I wanted them to be able to experience playing some of the famous course golf courses over there. So, we played St. Andrew's, we played Carnoustie. We played, all the great courses over there. So, I remember driving from, I think Glasgow into St. Andrews when Steve saw the clubhouse at St. Andrews, he was like floored. Remember, Steve was this big sports fan. So, I'm taking him to the Mecca of golf. I mean, this is where it started. They invented it here anyway, the day that we were supposed to play St.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:52:20 Andrews Old Course, it rained like crazy. So, it got postponed and we're going to play a couple of days later. So, we're in our rooms, nothing to do. It's raining in Scotland, and somehow Steven and Scott found the mini bar in their room and they cleaned out the inventory there. And soon thereafter, there was a knock on our door and they come walking in and they say, “Hey, are you using your mini bar? What kind of question is that? My use of my minibar. What are you going to do, unplug it and take it back to your room? “No, no, no.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:53:03 I was wondering if you guys are doing anything with it.”
Mark DeLuzio: 00:53:07 All right. So, they opened up the mini bar, they clean it out. Now, anybody who knew, Steve knew that if you had a chink in your armor, like we all do, he will point it out to you and he'll exploit it. Now one of the chinks in my armor is that I am particular about making my bed in the morning. I can't stand to see a bed unmade. I don't know what it is. If my mother was here, right? My mother is probably rolling over in her grave because I never made my bed growing up as a kid. And her attitude was, “Hey, it's your room. You want it dirty.” My mother kept the house clean. You could eat off the floor. And, in my room, she said, “it's your room. You do what you want.”
Mark DeLuzio: 00:53:55 I don't care. I'll just close the doors. So, I never made my bed. So now, I don't know how I got this bed fetish in terms of having to make my bed. But that's how I am. Steve knew that. So, we're in our hotel room. They come walking in, Scott and Steven are cleaning out our mini bar and Steve sees our bed all nicely made. The housekeeper was in earlier and made the bed. He goes over to the bed and he rips off all the covers. Not only did he do that but he took the pillows and took the pillows out of the pillowcases. He even took off the mat that's on the bed, on the mattress itself. He took that off. He took everything off the bed. The bed had a bed skirt on it, like they do over in Europe and the UK.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:54:44 And he took the bed skirt off. I mean, he totally stripped the thing. And I was rip shit because he knew darn well that it would've gotten to me. And he was busting my chops and that's how Steve was. So, dummy me, what do I do? I go back and I start making the bed while he's still in the room. So, it takes me about 15 minutes to make the stupid bed because it was decimated. I mean he took everything off. Matter of fact, he would have taken the mattress and thrown it out the window if he could have. I make the bed, get it back into condition. What does Steve do? He goes over again and does the same thing. If murder were legal, he would have bought the farm that day. (Just kidding, of course.)
Mark DeLuzio: 00:55:34 I was so ripped at him and he's laughing his ass off. Scott's laughing, they're both laughing.
I think I've heard so many different stories from Steve, from guys like Jesse Garcia and some others that's just how Steve operates over in Afghanistan too, which actually was a way of comic relief. And I think what I was told was it was his way to check in on you to make sure you were okay. He always looked to see how you responded when he would come up and bust your chops? So, he was a leader, that's what a leader does. So, everybody does it differently, but that's the way he operated.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:56:20 So most of the stories that I've told so far have been kind of humorous to give you a little glimpse of Steve's character and all that. Well, this one made me a little bit sad. Steve goes over to Afghanistan, as we all know in 2010, along with Scott, they were both there at the same time, not too far apart, I guess 80 miles or so. Although in Afghanistan, that's a very long way, because of the mountains. But, anyway, Steve and Scott were scheduled to come home. I think that that November, 2010, maybe December, I can't remember exactly which, but anyway, we all know that Steve was killed in August of 2010, August 22nd of 2010 then, Scott was ordered home immediately, out of battle, to come home to be with his family.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:57:22 So anyway, Steve was scheduled to be married the following September in 2011 to his high school sweetheart, Leeza Gutt. Leeza and Steve were going out for like eight years. And so, we had a lot of the plans already made. We had the venue and all that stuff. And Diane was busy with Cosby trying to get everything arranged and all that. Well, one of the things that I had done and I think I've told you earlier, Steve was a big sports fan and a big New York Yankees fan, unbelievably big. I think it was a Yankees fan because he knew I was a Red Sox fan, but Steve always wanted to go with the winners and you can't argue with their success.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:58:15 So anyway, I had arranged to have Bernie Williams who used to play outfield for the Yankees, pretty popular guy, and a classical guitarist. And through a business connection, I know the guy who was president of Don Madeley, baseball bats, and I called him up and I said, Hey, do you have any connections to Bernie Williams’ organization? And because Bernie was retired now and he was just on the circuit playing concerts with his group and classical guitar. So, he says, “yeah, well, I can put you in touch with Bernie's manager.” So, I called this guy, his name was Steve too. And so, I called his manager who was a Veteran, as well. I had arranged to have Bernie Williams play at Steven's wedding.
Mark DeLuzio: 00:59:12 It was going to be a surprise. I was a little bit worried about this because I was afraid, we were taking the attention away from Leeza and Steve because that was really their day. But we thought they would be okay with it. I think Leeza is one of those people who is not self-absorbed and she would not have had a problem with that. I had Bernie Williams arranged to play at Steven's wedding. We weren't exactly sure how that was going to be done. And when he would play and all that, all those details were going to be worked out later, but Bernie agreed to play. And so of course Steven dies. And a couple of weeks after that, I call Bernie Williams manager and told him about what happened.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:00:00 And he was devastated. And so, he went and told Bernie Williams what happened. I never talked to Bernie directly. He left a message once. But Bernie Williams’ manager, Steve called back and said, “Hey, Bernie stopped his rehearsal and made the announcement to his band when I told him what happened to Steven. And he said, Bernie Williams had tears in his eyes. So, we got a call and Bernie Williams invited all of us to be his guest at his next concert. He was playing down in Greenwich, Connecticut. And he invited us to come down to be his guests at his concert. But we didn't go because there was only two or three weeks after Steven died. And none of us were up for that. None of us were up for doing that.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:01:02 And we just politely declined and thanked him very much and all that stuff. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that story about one of the many things that we're going to miss out on. What would have been, of many things, grandchildren, and all that, I still think what would have been the look on Steve's face when Bernie Williams shows up at his wedding. We'll always have to imagine. I can imagine what he would have said. That's a story about Bernie Williams and Steven DeLuzio. So, it was close, but no cigar.
Another story, I don't know how many people out there believe in the afterlife or the spirit world or anything like that, but I could probably spend a couple hours telling you about the different things that have happened since Steve died.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:02:08 And I am sure that it is not the end, this life that we're in now is just a temporary stop we've got work to do here. And then, I do happen to know that Steve and any of our loved ones are with us today and they're not gone. And, as it taught us in school, energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be transformed or matter, I should say can never, and so I truly believe that he's still with us. So, I have a lot of stories, but I'll tell you one that was mind boggling to us. So, as I have indicted on previous recordings, Steve would exploit the chink in your armor. He would come up and again, that was his kind of way of telling you, he loved you.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:03:01 He would exploit it and so he would come up to me every once in a while, and poke me in my stomach and he'd call me chunky monkey, “Hey, you got to lose 20 pounds.” He says, “what's going on, you’re a chunky monkey.” You called me chunks once in a while; hey chucks what's going on, and he'd do that and that's Steve. If you were bald, he's going to call you a bald. You’ve got to give it back to him. So, anyway, he'd call me chunky monkey and that was a joke between us. And, so anyway, he goes off to Afghanistan. Of course, we all know he doesn't come back.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:03:36 And a month or two after he died, there's a local farm in Glastonbury called Robs dairy farm. They make their own ice cream. It's really good. If you ever get a chance to go there, it's on New London Turnpike. Anyway, we know the people that own it, the lady and the guy who own the whole farm. So, we heard that they had honored Steven with the flavor of the month. So, we go into the ice cream place and we thank her. We said, thank you very much for having this Sergeant Steven DeLuzio flavor of the month.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:04:31 And I said, “Hey, by the way, what flavor did you pick for, for the ice cream of the month for Steven?” She says, Oh, we picked chunky monkey.” I kid you, not. Of all the flavors in the world and that's a remote flavor, she could have said chocolate or vanilla, but that's such a remote flavor. And she said, we picked chunky monkey. So, she did not know anything about the story. She didn't know anything about the chunky monkey story when I met her. I never told anybody except maybe Diane or Scott or somebody like that. But nobody knew about this chunky monkey story at all. It wasn't on the internet. It wasn't in any of the press releases anything else. And she picked chunky monkey. I looked up at this guy and I looked at it and I said, Steve, you son of a gun.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:05:25 You’re still busting my chops from afar.
Just another story. I think I've indicated in other recordings that Steve was an incredible sports fan. And in his early days, he started out liking the Dallas Cowboys. But I convinced him otherwise. And he became a big Green Bay Packer fan and he loved Brett Favre. So, I've taken Scott and Steven to a lot of sports venues. One time we went to go see green Bay play in Detroit at the old Silverdome. And it's not there anymore. The Silverdome at the time was the biggest stadium in the NFL, like 80,000 people. And they were playing the Detroit Lions that day. It was 1997. And we got in the day before, flew into Detroit anyway. And the next day I said, “Hey, Steve, we're just going to go to the stadium at nine o'clock in the morning.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:06:16 And we're not going to bring anything. I don't have any kind of grill or any kind of tailgating equipment because we're traveling”. I said, “but I can guarantee you, we're going to hook up with somebody and we're going to experience what tailgating is all about.” It was in the cooler part of the year; I don't know if it was November or whatever. Steve had a Green Bay jacket on and a green Bay Packers hat. So, we know at 9 o'clock in the morning we get out of the car and about a minute later, there's a group of guys. There's like 20 guys standing about a hundred feet away. And now they had this trailer, they had Christmas lights, music, food, all kinds of drinks.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:07:15 They had this whole thing going on. We're talking tailgating to the nth degree. So, one of the guys spots Steven and all these guys had driven down from Green Bay. I think it's like a seven-hour drive to Detroit. Anyway, they've driven down and took this whole gear with them, this whole big trailer. And there's like 20 of them. And so, from afar, one of the guys in the crowd says, “Hey, there's a Green Bay fan.” Now remember we're in Detroit. There's a Green Bay fans all over. He says, “Hey, where are you from?” Steve says, “Connecticut.” The guy looks at the other 19 guys and says Green Bay fan from Connecticut. Let's go guys.” They rush, us. They all run. They pick Steven. Now I'm a New York Giants fan.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:08:10 I want to get that on the record. It's going to be important in a minute. I’m a New York Giants’ fan. So, they've picked Steve up they’re throwing him in the air. They're catching him. He's having a blast. They say, “are you his father?” I go, “yeah.” Are you a Green Bay fan, too?” I go, “yep.” “Come on over.” We went over to there. We're eating, we're drinking. They are playing football with Steve, music is playing. They had a generator running this whole contraption and I said, “Hey, why does that generator have the tags on it still? The guy says, well, it's going back on Monday. You know? So, we were there the whole morning before the game for like two or three hours, we were with these guys just drinking and partying and eating.
Mark DeLuzio: 01:08:57 And they're having fun with Steve. It was a blast. So, we go, we finally have to leave and we have to go into the game. And it was a crazy game. Green Bay was killing them. There were more Green Bay fans in that stadium than there were Detroit fans. I would probably say 60% were Green Bay fans, it was quite an experience. That was the year that Brett Favre and Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. So, that was another experience for Steve, in terms of sports. He was like in seventh heaven about the whole thing. We flew back that night and got back late, but he had a blast. And so that was just another day in the life for Steve DeLuzio.
Scott DeLuzio: Alright, thank you so much for listening to these stories. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen a bit to who my brother was from some of the people who knew him best.
Scott DeLuzio: 01:10:17 Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website, DriveOnPodcast.com. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @DriveOnPodcast.