1968 Plymouth Barracuda Restoration

I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for your son's service.
I have served as well and did some tours in the Middle East, granted all's I've done is operate trenchers to bury fiberoptic network cables at remote bases at various locations, also repaired and relocated comm. systems.
I've met some of your fellow Canadian troops as well as some Aussies, and we would talk about cars for hours over some beer (sadly we were only allowed 3 drinks off duty at certain areas, other places its forbidden altogether).
Funny story, I remember going to one the DFAC's at Al Udied (Qatar) and walked right past a Canadian service member, he was in a Class A equivalent dress uniform and saw he had 3 golden maple leaves on his lapel. I thought to myself "what the hell does three gold maple leaves mean?" So I just simply walked by him said "good morning sir" he just gave me this look and said "nothing good about it" and walked by.
Well gee, someone pissed in his cocoa puffs I thought.
So then later, I told my Lead Engineer who is a Major the story of what happened earlier and then asked what the heck does 3 maple leaves on a Canadian uniform signify.
He then said; "Well Sarge, that means you just walked past an Army Lieutenant General (O-9) equivalent without rendering proper customs and courtesy" (no salute). Oops, yeah I felt really bad.
Sorry about the story, just one of my fond memories of working with Canadian troops there, as some of the RCAF folks gave me a real hard time about that afterwards. Something like "Man some of the balls on these Yank's totally snubbing off the top Canadian brass in the coalition" and so forth, all in good humor of course.
Again we appreciate your son's sacrifice, and a wonderful job on the car, she's a beaut!