Thomas Arnold was a man with a firm grasp on history, probably because he watched the History Channel almost constantly.

"That's why we have two TVs," said his wife of 22 years, Shirley Arnold.

Thomas Arnold died March 18. He was 58.

He passed that love of history to his oldest son, Eric Arnold. Whenever Eric saw a show on the History Channel that he thought his father would like, he'd call him and make sure he was watching it.

"Our birthdays were only 10 days apart," his son explained. "We're pretty much alike. We like the same stuff. He was easy to shop for at Christmas."

The other thing that connected father and son was their service in the military. Thomas Arnold served in the Navy and the Marines and was in Vietnam for a period of time. His son served in the Navy during the early 1990s.

But no one is sure exactly how long Thomas served. His daughter Kerri Arnold, who also served in the Navy, said he told her that he served as a machinist mate third class aboard the USS Topeka for a time.

The family knows that he was wounded at some point and was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for a while. But he wouldn't talk about the painful memories, and his service came before his children were born and before his marriage to Shirley, his second wife.

When they married he had terrible dreams and would wake her up with his screaming, Shirley said, but he never told her what the dreams were about. "I know very little about Vietnam."

She said she thinks he was part of a secret military group toward the end of his service, which may be part of the reason why he avoided specifics. He talked to his son Eric the most about his time in the military, but even Eric doesn't know any details. "He didn't tell me how long (he was a prisoner) or where he was," his son said. "He would talk about places he went and friends who were on the ship he was on."

After the war Thomas worked as a policeman in Nebraska and Texas. He divorced his first wife in the late 1970s and married Shirley in 1981. Both Eric and Kerri, his children from his first marriage, came to live with him after they turned 13. Thomas and Shirley would later have two more children, Lindsey and Franklin.

The couple actually met in Spokane, where Shirley grew up. Thomas had moved here after his divorce and was working as a security guard at the Washington Trust building downtown, near where Shirley parked her car. The couple dated for more than a year before he got an offer to work on the Odessa, Texas, police department. He asked her to marry him and come with him.

"Tom was a cop, through and through," his wife said.

She recalled one day when he was off duty and spotted a stolen truck that he'd been looking for. "We were in my little Firebird," she said. "He took off after them. I was holding on for dear life in that car."

During his off hours Thomas indulged his love for model railroading. His father and other family members worked as railroad engineers, and Thomas could often be found next to railroad tracks, watching the trains come in.

His daughter remembers the elaborate models he had set up while living in Texas. "We had a two-car garage," she said. "You could only park one car in there because the other side was this huge train land."

The family moved to Spokane in 1990 when his wife's parents got sick. He worked for Honeywell for a few years, where he lost part of a finger in an equipment accident. "He was trying to show a guy what not to do," his daughter said. "He really showed him."

He was laid off and was inspired to find work as a security guard again after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He was doing that when he died.

This summer he planned to go to his 40th high school reunion and pass around pictures of his grandchildren. During his 30th reunion he was the only one there without any, and he was pleased as punch now that he would have four of them to show off.

"When he'd come over, the kids would run over and grab his legs," his son said.

"He loved his grandkids," his daughter said. "He didn't get to enjoy them very long."

When his wife began to clean out his drawers, she found 10-year-old check stubs and scraps of paper with phone numbers on them, but no names. "He saved things like screws," she said. "Where do these screws go?"

That was dad, his daughter said. "He just could not throw anything away. He had clothes from the `70's that he refused to get rid of."

His death was unexpected, though he'd had health problems over the years. He had open heart surgery at the age of 35. He smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and had developed breathing problems. He stopped breathing and died after a coughing fit caused him to pass out.

"It was a total shock when it happened," his son said.

Just a few days before his father died, he'd dropped by his son's apartment for a visit. Thomas tossed out his usual "See you later" as he went out the door.

"I gave him a hug and told him I loved him, which I didn't usually do," his son said.