retcop

I sure wish the Armory files were archived and accessible. They'd be invaluable to Melissa and family. Not sure if he ever had any activity here or not.

I went to the way back machine and found the armory but all I could do is see snapshots of it at individual times. I didn't see a way to search for anyones activity.

I received an email from his daughter today informing me of his passing. I requested permission to copy and paste it here.

Rest in peace John and know you are missed. When my time comes I hope to meet you at the end of the driveway.

https://www.crainsonline.com/obituaries/...!/Obituary

Dear Tom,
I found your kind letter in my dad's things couple months back getting ready for him to come home from a hospital stay. I thought I would let you know that Dad died a week ago Saturday at home after being diagnosed with advanced throat cancer in November. He had had a pacemaker implanted in August, as he was dealing with heart failure and afib as well.
I know he loved that gun board and all the conversations/arguments/etc. Would you pass the word to those who knew him there? I don't know how long it has been since you've heard from my dad, but it in any case, thank you for your friendship. I was pretty happy when he discovered online forums, as he *finally* understood my "internet friends" he'd been so wary of in the early 00s.
This is the obituary https://www.crainsonline.com/obituaries/...!/Obituary

I should have known retcop or retcop1799 would be his handle! Yes, please, feel free to share what I sent you, and the obituary. We were able to get him a police escort part of the way to Crain's in Cape Girardeau and that was very meaningful. Especially since the 3 guys they sent were all officers with him, gosh, 30 years ago. We blasted Pink Floyd "Pigs" for him.
If you come across any of his writings, I'd love to have them.

Thanks,
Melissa

Sigh……he was so young 😢😢

Seems he got your letter and never responded for whatever reason

I think he grew weary of us not meeting up and taking direct action, just bitching about how bad things have gotten.

I think he grew weary of us not meeting up and taking direct action, just bitching about how bad things have gotten.

😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

Odd to me that a now shut - down forum doesn't care to allow former members to access its archived data. Highly doubt the info was simply "destroyed". Sorry to hear of your friend's passing.

RIP brother.

Damn, that hurts. He was a good guy. The cowbirds lost their #1 foe.

Odd to me that a now shut - down forum doesn't care to allow former members to access its archived data. Highly doubt the info was simply "destroyed". Sorry to hear of your friend's passing.

Thats a failing of the wayback machine, not of the ar15armory forum. As far as the info being destroyed, once it was hacked to the point of no return its very possible that it was unrecoverable, and the space for the armory on the server that was rented was wiped and repurposed for other data. That failing lies at the feet of Neil and Woodsman, and possibly the membership at large since it was known that there were subscriptions tp help pay for server space. I have to wonder though, has something also happened to Neil? I don't remember the exact circumstances of everything that went down with Neil and Woodsman as site admins, whether Neil abandoned it and Woodsman took it over or what.