In the ' bone zone '

And that's exactly how Geno would have put it. He had a phrase for everything, a smart alleck remark for everything, a smile for everything and an answer for everything...and all of us , the remnants of ' F Troop' will miss him and never forget him.

I don't think there's anybody on the planet that has caught more 70 pound King salmon than Geno. He caught two in one day and that one there is the one his family now has on the wall. I came home from fishing when we lived in the small house and went into the bathroom....I came out and said " Geno, there's a *^%$#@*ing fish in my bath tub" !....he gave me that look and said " well,,, you got a better place for him " ?  He had him on ice awaiting the Taxidermist and of course he was right, that was the best place for him.

Geno was 100 % Alaskan after growing up in Montana he came and worked the pipeline boom and then settled into his career as the go to guy for anything to do with Diesel Generation. He worked long and hard all over the state and had me semi- convinced that they really were communicating with outer space at the super secret High  Altitude Research Project  (HARP) that every Alaskan knows about.  One time the company sent him to Seward to to fix something on the Coast Guard Cutter and after he'd been in the engine room for hours and hours he felt movement and realized that they'd put to sea. He got the job done and insisted on seeing the Skipper to let him know it was time for him to ' go to town'. Well the Captain told him that was impossible as they had a mission so Geno mentioned that he'd have to bill them every hour out for his O.T. rate which was well over 100 bucks an hour......he told me later on " ya know Jethro ya just can't threaten the government "...he had a nice two day cruise with the Coasties.

Geno was the anchor of the eclectic bunch of friends who would meet here at Mile 14 and come and go anytime from our unfinished basement full of beds, cots and a toilet with no partitions. Chris Fejes, Keith Holtan, Paul Archibald, Chris Simmons, Jacques Lizin, Mike Cerkovnik, Thad Shumaker and others became known as F Troop. I remember going downstairs one time and the smell got me...I said Geno, this place smells like the locker room at the YMCA...he said " talk to Simmons about that "....

I called him ' Genius ' because he was one. He could fix anything anytime so I always felt safe fishing offshore with him in his Jet boat because I knew that he knew he could take care of things. His equipment was perfectly maintained, always.

He had a zest for life that was boyish in nature. One time as we came back into the mouth of the Kenai from a Halibut fishing the rip tides for about 1/4 mile were easily 6 foot tall. My Bayrunner with just a 35 horse on it and would run out of power climbing the waves and the thought occurred to me that we could easily broach the boat ( called pitch pole )  ( fall off the wave stern first ) ....all the time I was on pins and needles Geno was draped over the front of the boat just like Leonardo DecaPrio in Titanic . He would holler and laugh and well...as we trailered the boat I confessed it scared me a bit and he just laughed....' hehehe it was great wasn't it Jethro '?

He always wore cowboy boots and I mentioned aren't they awful slick on the the ice...he said yup it gets a little sporty.

That guy on the right was the most talented guy I've ever known. Everybody wanted to be around him and I guess I still do. I won't go on about Geno's end because I know for sure he'd want us to laugh so here's a few of Genoism's.

Drop the Laundry.
Like a bum on a baloney sandwich.
Christ hates a coward.
Load test ( when life gets difficult )
Steamer
Grocery sacked ( broken )
In the rain locker
Jump the Jet  ( go to work )

and of course this one he said many times and all of us need it now. ' Cowboys don't cry '.

EUGENE TYLER WAYRNEN

' one hell of a guy '