Remembering a friend

My name is George Carson from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’m full-blood Native American from the Otoe Missouri tribe in Oklahoma. I first met Sergeant Arthur Brashear while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany. I called him Red. I was an M.P. stationed in Berlin; Red was stationed in Frankurt, Germany. We both got out around 1974 and 1975.

I came to visit Red at his home in Viper, Kentucky. I took the drive down several times over the years and got to meet many of his friends and relatives. A couple of the people I remember are Pops, Lonnie, Marty and his mother, and Clayburn and Brenda.

Red passed away about a month ago. I had tried to call him a week or so earlier, but I couldn’t get a hold of him. A week later or so I called back, but no answer.

I then had a dream of him on a Sunday, but forgot about it. While drinking coffee here in Tulsa on a Tuesday I remembered the dream, so I called the Brashear’s Funeral Home as I had done in the past to check to see if he was all right. The young man told me that Red had passed away and the funeral was the next day. It was strange that I had that dream of him then remembered it a few days later.

I didn’t get to make the funeral, but I would like the people in Viper to know that he was a very good person and had a very big heart. I know many of the people there knew he had an Indian friend from Oklahoma. I found this out from the little store down the road from his home. They would ask, “You’re Chubs’ Indian friend from Oklahoma.”

I don’t know if this will make the paper, but I wanted to thank all the people in Hazard and Viper for being kind and nice to me when I came there. I was there probably 10 times since 1978.

George Carson

Tulsa, Ok.