Surprise, Surprise!

One event of the day was a complete surprise to Spider Wrenn,Golden Knight Alumni Legacy Award Holder. In December at the Golden Knight 50th Anniversary Reunion, Legacy Award Winner Skippy Cassel presented an award to fellow knight Bobby “Spider” Wrenn, who has dedicated the majority of his life in service of the U S Army Parachute Team. Spider has selflessly served the team for decades running the reunions,rewriting the GK Song with the Army Band and sharing the newsletter design with his beautiful honorary Golden Knight wife, Nancy.

Today following the Change of Responsibility Ceremony, SSG Aaron Fiegel asked Spider what he thought about his Plaque above the door of the day room and much to our surprise he said he had never seen it! Well we quickly changed that! SGM Stephen Young announced and congratulated Spider for now being the sole bearer of the Spider Wrenn Memorial Day Room.Spider said, that he was totally speechless and that he had never been hit so hard by anything like this ever in his life.

Following the announcement, I pulled up photographs from the reunion and shared them with Spider and there it was Skippy holding up the elegant black etched marble plaque that was presented to him. The plaque is glossy black with a etched photo of Spider, his wife Nancy landing a “bunny” parachute and Spider landing his world famous “BLACK SPIDER” parachute which they jumped more than 30 years ago.

The plaque displays  the words “You’re the Man!” The bottom of the plaque the famous ledgenary saying, which Spider originally came up with at an airshow years ago, has been said millions of times since through out the “World” by hundreds of Golden Knights. Much to manys surprise,these words the team still uses today were first spoken by Spider, and become our  a huge part of the team legacy. Thank you Spider. “May your days be prosperous and may your nights be Golden”

1 Sgt Schnell, LTC Martin and SGM Young Congratulate Spider

2 LTC Martin and SGM Young along with the rest of the room give a standing ovation to Spider.

3. Spider and LTC Martin

4. Spider and Donna Dixon standing beneath the “Plaque”

5. Spider and Sgm Shacking hands