Bud L O’Toole–my friend my mentor
Bud L O’Toole
Bud in a show on May 1981 in his Splinter outfit
This was my 2004 post on my Blog ‘Unteroffizer Simon Klaus’.
This is the one of the two photos I have of my friend Bud, in another pic he wore a big cowboy hat made a dark shade on his face.
How we knew each other? Back to the 80s the other source to search for the goodies was the small classified ads on the ‘Guns & Ammo magazine’, always found some individual dealers of the period items, one of them was Bud O’Toole, he was hand printing repro Heer and Waffen SS camo fabric, after few trades we started a friendship for decades, and he came to my home during his Asia trip, (he was carrying a suitcase of V8 juice as his main diet, he survived by V8 and bread during his trip as he didn’t trust Asian food, lost 16 lbs when back home.) as he was wondering how on earth a kid in the east was so keen on German stuffs, we wrote inch thick letters, discussing uniforms and camo details, however later years I was busied on my Army training, business, divorce and chasing women, and too lazy to write to him, but when I tried to contact him all letters bounced back, and he was not using internet at all.
Searching for his news all round later form one of the feedback said that Bud was very old and unable to recognize people. Oh that’s hurt; I was not used to lost friend in this way (I was considerably young then) and not notice that we are getting older and older everyday.
Photo: Wehrmacht Award forum
Photo:Wehrmacht Award forum
Buyer beware of Bud’s camo in 70s, may selling as original.
People don’t like him and call him a new Nazi, as he was sending Hitler birthday cards to people.
This was the Hitler card he sent me, I lost it together with other stuffs.
I missed him a lot, want to show him my collection today. He should be passed away now.
Life is short. He had a good life in his beloved hobby and best hope for him to be rest in peace.
Any news from his is always welcome and appreciated.
Below is the last photo he sent me in his golden years at 1987 still fit and strong.
Here is my request for Bud’s new on Axis History Forum:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=102332
Then I got a feedback for the forum member:
Re: Bud L O’Toole
Sent: 04 Jul 2007 04:49
From: Conley
Simon – Hope all is well – sorry to say – Bud O’Toole at last report was in BAD condition and did not know people he was in his 80s .This was at time of post. I was looking for information on Camo fabric – from him – Thank You, Conley
Another discussion on SS camo, the writer warns:
Buyer beware of Bud’s camo in 70s, may selling as original.
http://www.atthefront.com/german/uniforms/farb.htm
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271989
The Wehrmacht Award forum:
“He was killed in a car park after the show.”
But not matching the message I received. Photos of his hat and helmet cover in case of not log in.
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=385288