I thought I would follow up in case anyone else runs into this issue on the world wide web. I (with help) have rebuild the lower unit on the merc by replacing the pinon gear and forward gear and a bunch of bearings. Fixed the issue but it was quite a chore.
I want to give a huge shout out to two peps. The first is IowaBoy (Sheldon) who posted above and who many of you know. With all the political crap and even sometimes arguing right here on this forum amongst sportsman its great to know there are still MANY people like Sheldon. He took the time to chat with me a few times and give me the push to continue my rebuild when I was having a ton of issues pulling my drive shaft. He went as far to offer his place to stay at if I wanted to come crank on the LU at his place. Quite a generous offer and your help and care you showed will definitely be paid forward.
The other is a long time old coworker and fishing friend Greg Krull (also on this forum). He build me a genius homemade drive shaft puller when the shaft was stuck on the pinon in the LU housing. All this just to have my boat ready to compete directly against him in the up coming Saugerama Tournament! What a guy!
I also believe I figured out my issue on what caused all this. When I took apart the LU to troubleshoot then change the drive shaft seals this spring I lost a few cam follower ball bearings (2 of the 3). I thought it fell on the ground as I couldn’t find it in the LU. I replaced them and I completely forgot about it till the LU was finally all apart and there it was in front of the forward gear. They did some damage in there! SMH what an idiot 
Here are some pics of the adventure.
Attachments:

Working-LU-hitting-top-speed-of-34.7.jpg

drive-shaft-bam-bam-contraption-didnt-work.jpg

metal-chunks-and-bearings.jpg

old-forward-gear.jpg

brilliant-drive-shaft-puller.jpg