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P.A.P.E.R.C.L.I.P.
So, Holy Crap. November 12, 2005 - 21:51:32
Yeah. I'm in the Navy. I just keep saying that over and over waiting for it to sink in, and I'm beginning to think it never will. Five years ago military service was the farthest thing from my mind. Flat out no to all recruiters. not really opposed to the military ( although there was that one protest rally i went to, but that was just to meet girls.) So how did i get myself here, you ask? I woke up one day and realised that all of my friends were moving on with their lives and i was becoming the guy that never left home. I was a 22 year old college kick out, no sign of going back, flat broke, living a bad life. Not happy at all. So I stopped drinking for long enough to go and get my ass signed up for the U.S. Navy. And then some other stuff happened, and now I'm here, aboard the USS Thach. Okay, so it's kind of a shit story if i give all background and then just say, "then some other stuff happened." I signed a contract with the Navy, after a very humiliating day wherin, I had one man watch me pee, another one grope me, and then had to walk like a duck wearing just my underwear. Everybody asks about the walking like a duck part. nobody cares about the groping. For the record, The groping was to check for hernias, I think (hope), and then the duck walk was to see if I had bad knees. I'm still not sure why I had to do it in my underwear, though. Then came the most difficult part of all of it. Waiting six months before i left for boot camp. that was rough. I seriously began to question what i was doing, if it was the right choice, all that noise. but then before i realised it, i was at Recruit Traing Command, Great Lakes, Illinois. Boot camp. First night, getting screamed at all night. and then, they stopped screaming. boot camp had gone soft somewhere in the 90's wave of political correctness and respecting people's emotions. Not that I'm complaining, or longing for the days when petty officers could hit you or anything, just saying. So boot camp turned out to be a cakewalk. Then I went to Seamanship training, which was even more of a breeze. . Went home on leave for two weeks, only to find everyone had adjusted to me not being there. It hurt, but at the same time it was good. It meant that I was free to go. not hurt anyone when I left forever. They say you can never go home again, and that's not far from the truth. In my case, it's that I can't ever go back to being who i was ever again. Which is basically the same thing. I've been on the Thach for a week now. It's pretty cool. I have an incredibly simplistic job that really doesn't require much of anything from me and in exchange, i get free room, free food and a generous(crap) paycheck. oh, and free insurance for the rest of my life. but i digress. Look, I guess what it comes down to is that even though the words haven't sunk in, I'm in the navy. And I'm better for it. But i don't want anyone to assume I'm recruiting here. Far from it. I'm just telling the story of how a fuck up stopped fucking up. Out. Winchester - Winchester |
