During elementary school and Jr high my best friend and I were inseparable. We hung out nearly every day and would ride our bikes any day this godforsaken state wasn’t covered in snow. He was this skinny goofy guy that was never bigger then my shoulder.
In Jr high he moved away. Like typical male friends we didn’t really write or keep in touch. He showed up once when he was 16 and his mom was visiting we hung out. No big deal. He had grown somewhat it was weird trying to adjust to the fact he was as tall as me and his voice was this deep rumbling thing. Amusingly you could still here the squeak under it. He mentioned he was going into this ‘delayed entry’ program in the Marines Special forces.
Flash forward 10 years. This huge guy shows up on my doorstep. He asks me how I’ve been. I reply “um fine” no idea who this guy is. He then steps forward and hugs me. I just stand there waiting for the insanity to begin (I have a lot of strange encounters in my life with strangers for some reason. It doesn’t even bother me anymore) “Don’t you recognize me?” I finally did. He just got out of the Marines (Recon something or another) and now this skinny little dork is 6’3" 235lbs of pure muscle. Anyway we chat a bit then he asks me out on a road trip. 1536Miles to Tennessee with him.
I drive out there and we do some stuff together (Cave tours etc) but the best part of the trip was driving down there and catching up. We talked for 22 hours non-stop. However it was (once again) weird seeing how much he changed. A lot of his stories were war stories. Being in the Marines for 8 years in some of the most godawful places in the world. Somalia, Afghanistan, Croatia, Iraq. And hearing him talk about these places helped me understand the horror of the whole situation. It’s one thing watching Black Hawk Down quite another listening to a guy tell you about walking through a Black Market tent city that stretched on for miles full of fear. Carrying various weapons but knowing they wouldn’t do you any good if things went bad. He now has 2 bullet wounds and shrapnel in his back. Nothing too serious makes me think though. He’s been around the world and taken wounds for my country. I’ve had one serious relationship and a string of crappy jobs. Though I’d NEVER fit into any kind of military life I wonder if I couldn’t have done a lot more if I had just tried a little harder.
It felt creepy sometimes knowing he could kill me now. Not just in the ‘oh if we got in a fight this guy would win’ sense, but the ‘this guy could kill me and there is NOTHING I could do to fight back’. Amusingly he was still a bit of a dorkiness. Talking one min about killing a guy with a shovel. The next about some gear he wanted in Everquest. One min talking about how he’s unsure if he’s done more evil then good in his life, the next about being afraid to ask our waitress for her phone number. On Sunday I drove back. I did it all in one shot. Took me 20 hours going about 85mph the whole way. All in all it was a good trip. Helped me see a side of life I’ve never seen before…unfortunately for him he’ll always be my dorky skinny friend.
Anyone else have a story like that? (hopefully a good deal shorter) Questions? Comments?
A friend of mine asked me to shoot with him at our local Uncle Sam’s range. He had a new pistol and wanted me to check it out. He said on the phone that he wanted to bring along a family friend who was in the military. I thought, “All right! A chance to meet someone who has recently been at the pointy end of the stick!” When I arrive, I am introduced to a young lady who is a member of JAG (yes, just like in the TV show). She had a Beretta (her issue sidearm) and I asked her if she was familiar with the piece. She gave me a sly smile and said, “Reasonably so.” We commenced to shooting… or rather, she commenced to shooting - I commenced to staring. She shot that thing like a dang wizard! She confessed that she had asked the unit armorer to “personalize” the pistol for her, but still… Holy smoke! A little slip of a girl shooting like a specops troop. After the range session, over an adult beverage, this young lady mentioned that she had done some “exciting things” in her six year military career. I have no doubt that she could hold her own in any situation.
I too had a friend go in to the Marines. I hadn’t seen him in like three years. He wasn’t skinny like your friend though, he was a rather large guy and out of shape. He came back 6’2", 210lbs of pure energy, all skinny too, but built to kill. This had been a huge transformation since the time he had left, you could hardly recognize him. He didn’t travel too much or see much action, but still, what a difference!
My brother was a Ranger (hence my sig) and he has that badass look in his eyes now (AKA the 1000 yard stare).
He also spent time in Afghanistan with Special Forces there. In fact, they were living in Mullah Omar’s house! Had to build their own swimming pool though- the Mullah wasn’t as into creature comforts as Saddam and his kids.
qts has a good point, of course. Then again, there’s just something funny about not teasing your little brother because he could kill you 9 different ways without drawing a weapon!
My friend seems to have too much of that left over. Whenever we’d go anywhere he’d ‘scan’ the corners and occasionally go stone faced when looking at other people.
Heh whenever I caught him looking like that I’d poke him in the ribs and look stone faced back at him. It’s a wonder he didn’t punch me.
His hands shake all the time though. That bothered me. When I finally asked him about it he shrugged it off saying he’s just used to high stress and so when things are quiet he gets nervous and starts to shake. Makes me wonder what he considers ‘high stress’
I wish I was a better writer to tell how profoundly this has changed some of my world view. I always intellectually understood the war but never had any personal connection to it. It was like a debating game nothing that impacted me personally. It’s quite a shock to talk to someone that’s seen warehouses full of bodies from Saddam. Someone that’s walked into caves in Afghanistan searching for Taliban.
