Local veteran receives restored car from long-time friend

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. ( WHNT ) — A veteran with a 39-year army career received a gift he won’t forget.

Master Sergeant Bill Bishop was deployed for his third and final time as an Army Reservist before his retirement. A long-time friend of his, Veteran John Blair, made a secret plan to restore Bishop’s 1965 Ford Mustang during his one-year deployment to Afghanistan.

“I did this because Bill was approved to retire, then that was pulled and he had to leave his family for another tour in Afghanistan,” Blair said. “Bill gave up a lot to serve the greatest country in the world. I wanted him to know that his and his family’s sacrifice was appreciated.”

Blair was a long-time co-worker of Bishop at the U.S. Redstone Test Center, located at Redstone Arsenal. Blair enlisted the help of Brad Stovall, the owner of a local body shop, and mechanic Kenny Chenoweth, who also works at RTC.

“John came to me and told me his story, about how dedicated Bill was to the military and I got to thinking, I couldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t for him and all these other people,” Stovall said. “I said you know something? You know he goes out of country for years at a time and doesn’t see his family and we’re over here living it up, so I thought it’s the least I can do.”

The project was set to be completed before Bishop returned from deployment in 2020. However, the project faced many complications, including the lack of available parts due to the pandemic.

Additionally, volunteers who were tasked with fixing the interior backed out. However, an Arab car enthusiast, Greg Greenwood, offered to help. Greenwood and Blair worked long nights to finish the project in June 2024.

Eventually, on June 22, at the monthly Arab Customs and Classics Car Show, Blair and friends surprised Bishop with his Mustang.

“I thought he was messing with me,” Bishop said. “My wife told me she asked John to store the car in his barn so she could use the garage during my deployment. This entire time I felt bad about my car being in his barn.”

Bishop first purchased the Mustang back in 1996, where he worked on it for about 10 years. However, he was forced to put it aside due to a variety of reasons.

“There were other things I was getting reassigned to, family-wise. It would be off and on, I would have to dig it out of the garage, push it into the driveway and work for a bit,” Bishop said. “Since I got the car, I think we added up I was deployed for a total of 48 months, over three deployments.”

Bishop grew up as an Army brat and his family settled in Huntsville while he was in middle school. He graduated from Grissom High School and enlisted into the army and reported for boot camp on July 5, 1984.

“He’s spent his entire life being deployed away from his family, having sacrifice after sacrifice. It was important to me that we do something good for him,” said Chenoweth, the deputy commander of RTC. “We had to return the favors he’s done for us. He’s been committed to this organization, he’s been committed to his family, but it always seemed like there was some sort of obstacle that got in the way of doing something that was important to him. That Mustang had a lot of meaning, it was important to him.”

After years of hard work, hundreds of volunteer hours and donations from supporters, the dream of presenting a restored classic to this Veteran came true.

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