GTS-R 001
Enthusiast
Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000149 EndHTML:0000014966 StartFragment:0000000199 EndFragment:0000014932 StartSelection:0000000199 EndSelection:0000014932 [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]To All Viperclub of America Members,
We need your help for a Viper owner and a courageous young man who has given more than most of us for all of our freedom and safety. I personally feel a responsibility to help this young soldier and gentleman. He is a member of the US Army and has now earned 2 purple Hearts, YES TWO!
The Story:
Approx a year ago, a young soldier sent his Dodge Viper to me to convert from a convertible into a coupe. He sent his car to me just as he was being deployed to Afghanistan and his hope was to use his combat [pay to pay for labor and parts to convert his salvage purchased SRT10 Convertible into a coupe. While Nick was in his initial deployment stages he allowed me to use his convertible to develop my coupe rear end conversion for SRT10 Convertibles, which I am sure you have seen.
Well, just as we were getting started with getting parts for his car Nick was blown up by a bomb he was sent to find and ended up in the hospital and received his second Purple Heart. The sad part is, is that, Nick no longer received his combat pay and has been busy recovering. Meanwhile I have been buying all the parts (with my own personal money) I could afford to, to try and complete the job.
Nick is now coming to the point where he will be discharged from the Army and he hopes to someday be able to drive his Viper Coupe. We have a few parts left to buy (tail lights, fasteners, gas cap, hood etc) and we need to assemble and paint his car.
We need to raise approx $6,000.00 to $7000.00 to pay for paint and the last few parts needed to complete Nick’s car.
I have convinced my Local painter to paint Nick’s entire car for $4000.00, basically his labor and material costs, with no margin or profit for his shop, this job would normally be an $11,000 paint job. The remaining amount we need to buy the remaining parts needed to finish Nick’s car.
Nick also need a few other pieces to help make his car a better car,
* New front fenders – the ones on his car now are some ASC rejects that are being sold by a few but they are deformed and do not look good.
* New headlight supports, his are cracked and broken
* New 08 Hood – the car is being repainted , it may as well have an updated hood so it looks the best it can
I have already asked the Viper Parts of America if they could donate and unfortunately they cannot but they can supply parts at the price they can buy them for.
Just as an FYI, last year right before VOI 11, I donated $48,000 worth of parts to be raffled off or sold to the VCA and VPA. Most of those parts were distributed to the various VCA clubs around the country and sold or raffled off to raise funds. I felt this was an important thing to do last year with the uncertainty of the direction of Dodge and with no Viper sales to help in new membership revenue for the club. I now need for the club and its members to PAY IT FORWARD to Nick.
Below you will find a bio written by Nick Giggey and a few pictures, of him in the hospital and receiving his second purple heart. I am copying Nick on this email so you may respond to him directly if you so choose.
Here are some pics of some of the parts I have acquired for Nicks build that are going to the painter this week:
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64979/title/pic-of-parts-1/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64977/title/parts-pic-2/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64978/title/parts-pic-3/cat/500]
[/url]
Thanks and regards
Steve Prescott
Vipair Performance
Nick’s Bio, written by Nick himself,
[/FONT]It all starts in Boulder, Colorado where I was born on 10 Nov 1986. From there I was raised in a neighboring town called Louisville and played all the typical sports any boy would growing up like baseball, football and wrestling. I was raised by the two greatest parents anyone could ask for, my father Charles and my mother Michele. I also have a brother named Adam who is now a Denver cop. Graduated from high school in 2005 wanting to serve in the military before I ventured into my college days, I shipped off to basic training 14 Sep 2006 at Fort Benning, Georgia. I Graduated in December of 2006 as an Infantrymen (11B) and attended Airborne school the very next month in January of 2007 to become a qualified paratrooper. From there I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. Starting as a Private, I trained up to deployment in July of 2008 as a Private First Class headed to Afghanistan.
We started our deployment In Kandahar, Afghanistan getting briefs and taking classes on the specific area of operations we would be operating in. Several weeks pass and we finally push out to our combat outpost (COP) in Maiwand, Afghanistan. Our job was to establish and build a new base for future operations and to gather intelligence on the local nationals hopefully gathering useful Intel on any Taliban movement and operations in the area. 08 Jan 2009, it was supposed to be a regular Intel gathering mission in our local bizarre just about 50-75 meters outside of our COP's perimeter. The mission was an overall success without any major issues so we get the word to make our way back to the COP. On the way back at a cross section in the bizarre, a suicide bomber decided to take his life at an attempt to take several soldiers with his. Amongst the injured and dead were two American heroes, SSG Joshua Rath and SPC Keith Essary who gave their lives that day.
We had roughly 8+ Americans injured and were evacuated to Kandahar Airfield for medical treatment, myself being one of them. I had received shrapnel to the right shoulder and ruptured both my ear drums. Before I was evacuated, I had to work on SSG Garcia who lost his right arm and had several shrapnel wounds and SPC SudHoff who was bleeding severely and had several shrapnel wounds as well. There were 10+ local nations injured and 5+ deceased. For my injuries, I received a Purple Heart before returning to duty soon after my wounds healed and completed the rest of the tour as a Specialist. Returning home to United States in July of 2009, we had a great welcoming at Fort Hood, Texas from family and friends. I then moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky in October of 2009 to train and help the next generation of soldiers get ready for the up and coming deployment. February of 2010 I reached the rank of Sergeant and further progressed my training by attending Air Assault school, Sniper Employment Leader Course, Sapper school, and Warrior Leader Course.
After close to a year of hard training and long hours, we were sent off once more January of 2011 to Ghazni, Afghanistan after extending my enlistment contract to complete this tour. Being pushed out to COP Deh Yak just a few weeks after we arrived, we immediately started patrols in our new area of operations. On May 16, 2011 we were informed that there was an IED placed at the Afghan National Police (ANP) Chief's house for an assassination attempt. We deviated from our original mission and moved our patrol towards this site. Having the local nations as help finding this hidden bomb, we were pointed to the corned of the mud wall, we had no signs of an IED or wires that was reported to us. So we continued to investigate the site finding a pile of rocks only a few meters away from where our Intel landed us. Being in charge of our Tactical Site Exploitation (TSE) team, I was in charge of investigation weapons and bomb making caches. We first used a metal detector over the rocks to see if we would get a signature of some kind of dense metal underneath which we did. This was not uncommon because Afghanistan is not a well developed country, bullet casings, nails and other random metal objects are scattered every where. So now that we got a signature hit, it was time to get positive identification on the IED up close and person. I called off my guys and walked over the pile of rocks and lifted the rocks off one by one with the the ANP Chief next me. A few rocks later, I lifted a large rock to only be facing two large metal homemade cans filled with homemade explosives (HME) and ball bearings used for shrapnel. Turning to run away not more than one step away, the IED went off throwing myself and the ANP Chief several meters away knocking myself unconscious and killing the ANP Chief. A minutes later I woke up feeling as if my back and legs were on fire so I began to roll around. I stopped briefly to check myself for sever wounds or missing appendages and luckily everything was there.
I got up looking around in the air filled with smoke and dust looking for a follow on attack only to be confronted with the deceased ANP Chief body and two good friends laying on the ground. I could not hear from my right ear and sever ringing in both with a clear fluid flowing out of them later to be confirmed was spinal fluid. I was also peppered with shrapnel down my back and legs. The hot metal from the IED was embedded into my skin causing the sensation of burning that I felt. After carrying SGT Lake off the blast site to get treated, we then treated SPC Schick from multiple sever shrapnel wounds to the neck and leg before we were evacuated to Ghazni medical center. Once the initial treatment was done there, we were then moved to Bagram medical center for more thorough screening and treatment. Here I had surgery to remove the shrapnel that was imbedded into my back and legs.
Just after my surgery, I was presented with my second Purple Heart from General Campbell. From here I was moved to Landstuhl, Germany for traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening and even further advanced testing. I was confirmed with a TBI. After a few days there, we were then moved back to the United Stated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for two weeks to get even further medical screening and mental testing. Finally we were moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky to be put back with our unit and get the remaining treatment we needed. I was inprocessed into the TBI clinic, physical therapy rehab center for my back, and ENT center for more testing and surgery to graft a new ear drum for my right ear and the sleep study clinic for any potential sleeping issues the blast might have caused. In the TBI clinic, I was diagnosed with a memory problem and cognitive disorder which was treated with occupational therapy (OT). Once I got past phase 1 of physical therapy for my back, I started to go to the gym on my own to slowly build strength back from the new exercises I have been learning. In the sleep study clinic, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and insomnia. Time progressed, had surgery, therapy was helping for both my memory and back, and I was starting to feel like myself again. While recovering, I was apart of the unit called Rear Detachment where I was helping other soldiers like myself who were injured or were leaving the Army. Our unit returned December 2011 - January 2012 completing this tour. Now, just a few weeks away from entering the civilian world ETS-ing out of the Army, I have gained experiences and friends that will never be forgotten.
In the photos above are pics from my first purple heart awards ceremony, my second purple heart in the hospital, me after my ear surgery, and a few randoms.
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64976/title/photo2341/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64974/title/photo30/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64972/title/photo110/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64971/title/n1383884015-30384268-4679980/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64969/title/n1383884015-30384258-277221/cat/500]
[/url]
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64970/title/n1383884015-30384261-2331472/cat/500]
[/url]
We need your help for a Viper owner and a courageous young man who has given more than most of us for all of our freedom and safety. I personally feel a responsibility to help this young soldier and gentleman. He is a member of the US Army and has now earned 2 purple Hearts, YES TWO!
The Story:
Approx a year ago, a young soldier sent his Dodge Viper to me to convert from a convertible into a coupe. He sent his car to me just as he was being deployed to Afghanistan and his hope was to use his combat [pay to pay for labor and parts to convert his salvage purchased SRT10 Convertible into a coupe. While Nick was in his initial deployment stages he allowed me to use his convertible to develop my coupe rear end conversion for SRT10 Convertibles, which I am sure you have seen.
Well, just as we were getting started with getting parts for his car Nick was blown up by a bomb he was sent to find and ended up in the hospital and received his second Purple Heart. The sad part is, is that, Nick no longer received his combat pay and has been busy recovering. Meanwhile I have been buying all the parts (with my own personal money) I could afford to, to try and complete the job.
Nick is now coming to the point where he will be discharged from the Army and he hopes to someday be able to drive his Viper Coupe. We have a few parts left to buy (tail lights, fasteners, gas cap, hood etc) and we need to assemble and paint his car.
We need to raise approx $6,000.00 to $7000.00 to pay for paint and the last few parts needed to complete Nick’s car.
I have convinced my Local painter to paint Nick’s entire car for $4000.00, basically his labor and material costs, with no margin or profit for his shop, this job would normally be an $11,000 paint job. The remaining amount we need to buy the remaining parts needed to finish Nick’s car.
Nick also need a few other pieces to help make his car a better car,
* New front fenders – the ones on his car now are some ASC rejects that are being sold by a few but they are deformed and do not look good.
* New headlight supports, his are cracked and broken
* New 08 Hood – the car is being repainted , it may as well have an updated hood so it looks the best it can
I have already asked the Viper Parts of America if they could donate and unfortunately they cannot but they can supply parts at the price they can buy them for.
Just as an FYI, last year right before VOI 11, I donated $48,000 worth of parts to be raffled off or sold to the VCA and VPA. Most of those parts were distributed to the various VCA clubs around the country and sold or raffled off to raise funds. I felt this was an important thing to do last year with the uncertainty of the direction of Dodge and with no Viper sales to help in new membership revenue for the club. I now need for the club and its members to PAY IT FORWARD to Nick.
Below you will find a bio written by Nick Giggey and a few pictures, of him in the hospital and receiving his second purple heart. I am copying Nick on this email so you may respond to him directly if you so choose.
Here are some pics of some of the parts I have acquired for Nicks build that are going to the painter this week:
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64979/title/pic-of-parts-1/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64979/title/pic-of-parts-1/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/Pic_of_parts_1.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64977/title/parts-pic-2/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64977/title/parts-pic-2/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/Parts_pic_2.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64978/title/parts-pic-3/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64978/title/parts-pic-3/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/Parts_pic_3.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]Thanks and regards
Steve Prescott
Vipair Performance
Nick’s Bio, written by Nick himself,
[/FONT]It all starts in Boulder, Colorado where I was born on 10 Nov 1986. From there I was raised in a neighboring town called Louisville and played all the typical sports any boy would growing up like baseball, football and wrestling. I was raised by the two greatest parents anyone could ask for, my father Charles and my mother Michele. I also have a brother named Adam who is now a Denver cop. Graduated from high school in 2005 wanting to serve in the military before I ventured into my college days, I shipped off to basic training 14 Sep 2006 at Fort Benning, Georgia. I Graduated in December of 2006 as an Infantrymen (11B) and attended Airborne school the very next month in January of 2007 to become a qualified paratrooper. From there I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. Starting as a Private, I trained up to deployment in July of 2008 as a Private First Class headed to Afghanistan.
We started our deployment In Kandahar, Afghanistan getting briefs and taking classes on the specific area of operations we would be operating in. Several weeks pass and we finally push out to our combat outpost (COP) in Maiwand, Afghanistan. Our job was to establish and build a new base for future operations and to gather intelligence on the local nationals hopefully gathering useful Intel on any Taliban movement and operations in the area. 08 Jan 2009, it was supposed to be a regular Intel gathering mission in our local bizarre just about 50-75 meters outside of our COP's perimeter. The mission was an overall success without any major issues so we get the word to make our way back to the COP. On the way back at a cross section in the bizarre, a suicide bomber decided to take his life at an attempt to take several soldiers with his. Amongst the injured and dead were two American heroes, SSG Joshua Rath and SPC Keith Essary who gave their lives that day.
We had roughly 8+ Americans injured and were evacuated to Kandahar Airfield for medical treatment, myself being one of them. I had received shrapnel to the right shoulder and ruptured both my ear drums. Before I was evacuated, I had to work on SSG Garcia who lost his right arm and had several shrapnel wounds and SPC SudHoff who was bleeding severely and had several shrapnel wounds as well. There were 10+ local nations injured and 5+ deceased. For my injuries, I received a Purple Heart before returning to duty soon after my wounds healed and completed the rest of the tour as a Specialist. Returning home to United States in July of 2009, we had a great welcoming at Fort Hood, Texas from family and friends. I then moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky in October of 2009 to train and help the next generation of soldiers get ready for the up and coming deployment. February of 2010 I reached the rank of Sergeant and further progressed my training by attending Air Assault school, Sniper Employment Leader Course, Sapper school, and Warrior Leader Course.
After close to a year of hard training and long hours, we were sent off once more January of 2011 to Ghazni, Afghanistan after extending my enlistment contract to complete this tour. Being pushed out to COP Deh Yak just a few weeks after we arrived, we immediately started patrols in our new area of operations. On May 16, 2011 we were informed that there was an IED placed at the Afghan National Police (ANP) Chief's house for an assassination attempt. We deviated from our original mission and moved our patrol towards this site. Having the local nations as help finding this hidden bomb, we were pointed to the corned of the mud wall, we had no signs of an IED or wires that was reported to us. So we continued to investigate the site finding a pile of rocks only a few meters away from where our Intel landed us. Being in charge of our Tactical Site Exploitation (TSE) team, I was in charge of investigation weapons and bomb making caches. We first used a metal detector over the rocks to see if we would get a signature of some kind of dense metal underneath which we did. This was not uncommon because Afghanistan is not a well developed country, bullet casings, nails and other random metal objects are scattered every where. So now that we got a signature hit, it was time to get positive identification on the IED up close and person. I called off my guys and walked over the pile of rocks and lifted the rocks off one by one with the the ANP Chief next me. A few rocks later, I lifted a large rock to only be facing two large metal homemade cans filled with homemade explosives (HME) and ball bearings used for shrapnel. Turning to run away not more than one step away, the IED went off throwing myself and the ANP Chief several meters away knocking myself unconscious and killing the ANP Chief. A minutes later I woke up feeling as if my back and legs were on fire so I began to roll around. I stopped briefly to check myself for sever wounds or missing appendages and luckily everything was there.
I got up looking around in the air filled with smoke and dust looking for a follow on attack only to be confronted with the deceased ANP Chief body and two good friends laying on the ground. I could not hear from my right ear and sever ringing in both with a clear fluid flowing out of them later to be confirmed was spinal fluid. I was also peppered with shrapnel down my back and legs. The hot metal from the IED was embedded into my skin causing the sensation of burning that I felt. After carrying SGT Lake off the blast site to get treated, we then treated SPC Schick from multiple sever shrapnel wounds to the neck and leg before we were evacuated to Ghazni medical center. Once the initial treatment was done there, we were then moved to Bagram medical center for more thorough screening and treatment. Here I had surgery to remove the shrapnel that was imbedded into my back and legs.
Just after my surgery, I was presented with my second Purple Heart from General Campbell. From here I was moved to Landstuhl, Germany for traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening and even further advanced testing. I was confirmed with a TBI. After a few days there, we were then moved back to the United Stated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for two weeks to get even further medical screening and mental testing. Finally we were moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky to be put back with our unit and get the remaining treatment we needed. I was inprocessed into the TBI clinic, physical therapy rehab center for my back, and ENT center for more testing and surgery to graft a new ear drum for my right ear and the sleep study clinic for any potential sleeping issues the blast might have caused. In the TBI clinic, I was diagnosed with a memory problem and cognitive disorder which was treated with occupational therapy (OT). Once I got past phase 1 of physical therapy for my back, I started to go to the gym on my own to slowly build strength back from the new exercises I have been learning. In the sleep study clinic, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and insomnia. Time progressed, had surgery, therapy was helping for both my memory and back, and I was starting to feel like myself again. While recovering, I was apart of the unit called Rear Detachment where I was helping other soldiers like myself who were injured or were leaving the Army. Our unit returned December 2011 - January 2012 completing this tour. Now, just a few weeks away from entering the civilian world ETS-ing out of the Army, I have gained experiences and friends that will never be forgotten.
In the photos above are pics from my first purple heart awards ceremony, my second purple heart in the hospital, me after my ear surgery, and a few randoms.
http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64976/title/photo2341/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64976/title/photo2341/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/photo2341.JPG%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64974/title/photo30/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64974/title/photo30/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/photo30.JPG%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64972/title/photo110/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64972/title/photo110/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/photo110.JPG%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64971/title/n1383884015-30384268-4679980/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64971/title/n1383884015-30384268-4679980/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/n1383884015_30384268_4679980.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64969/title/n1383884015-30384258-277221/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64969/title/n1383884015-30384258-277221/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/n1383884015_30384258_277221.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64970/title/n1383884015-30384261-2331472/cat/500]
![](http://[URL="http://gallery.viperclub.org/showphoto.php/photo/64970/title/n1383884015-30384261-2331472/cat/500%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://gallery.viperclub.org/data/500/medium/n1383884015_30384261_2331472.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url")
[/url]
