Start

As I write this, I am reminded of Ray Romano’s “Everybody Loves Raymond” - the episode where he has to give a eulogy. Today we are finalizing our preparations to go to the field. For my particular part of the military this consists of sleeping on the ground, waking up cold & wet, wearing flack jackets & kevlars, and toting guns around while driving HMMWVs and trying to let people send text-messages to each other.

Translation: We camp out with M16s, bullet-proof vests, helmets, POS “Hum-Vee’s”, and use oversized equipment to do what a cell phone can already do.

The point in all this is that we have a less than comfortable work environment. We have less that tolerable work conditions given that, as a Network Administrator, I hardly administer a network and more often than not become a Radio Operator. The other Admins and I have a sort of bond that noone else can comprehend. We have formed our own small family outside of which everyone is foreign. We will not reenlist and since day one, it would seem we’ve all fallen on black days.

I have seen many do so, however, and every person who has eventually asks theirselves a week, a month, or maybe even a year later, especially after they knew they had a better job lined up “on the outside.” (Yes, this life is prison-like.) They ask:

• “Who concinved me this was a good idea?”
• “What was I thinking?”
• “When was this ever a good idea?”
• “Why did I reenlist?”
• “How could I have been so stupid?”

The answers (in order):

• “You only.”
• “You only know.”
• “You only know afterwards.”
• “Friends…”
• “Brothers.”

If you’ve never had a friend so “best” that he called your mom “mom” and revelled in annoying your opposite-sexed sibling as much as you do, I don’t think you can truly know what this brotherhood is. For us, it is possible to say that it has a value greater than life. Just like every movie, if one true-blood brother goes or is sent to war, so must the other go. It’s not about honor, integrity, riches, glory, or fame. It’s about that other human being who is irreplaceable and invaluable.

My previous post and my lead-in to this one paint a gray picture of the world we live in. I feel that movies made of our lifestyle belong in black and white. Reminiscing and nostalgia aside, what we shared over the last four years in laughter and blood, failure or success, broken bones and broken hearts will never be bad times - never regretable, and no remorse.
We shared our lives. And as we leave this place, we will give some of that up. Those who don’t leave… who can’t leave… I know.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 10:04 am and is filed under Valentine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.