Randy Fleeman has been the boat driver for Steve Bowman and me the past two days. He's the president of the Cen-Tex (Central Texas) Bass Hunters Club, which has provided all the boat drivers for our crew this week.
Fleeman has seen some action in his 50 years on this Earth, half of which have been spent in the U.S. Army. Fleeman was leading a convoy during the Iraq War in Fallujah, the Al Anbar province city where some of the fiercest fighting took place. His Humvee took a direct hit from a shoulder-fired missile that put him in the hospital for three weeks. Back in the states, he lost two good friends in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, where 13 people died.
Fleeman doesn't mind talking about those subjects, but he'd rather talk bass fishing, more than anything. And he knows it. We don't often get boat drivers as knowledgeable as Fleeman. But when we do, it makes for a fun day – in this case, a fun two days.