Same Group of Friends Going Overseas?!?
Mood:
Coincidence? Or something more?
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Way back in the day, when I and two of my closest friends were in our 20's, we served in the U.S. Army. We all did our time, went to college, and once again, we're all going overseas.
My friend Rich, half-brother of a close friend from college, went to Ft. Bragg AT THE EXACT SAME TIME as me, left the Army in 1997, went to college and now he's in the Peace Corps in Tanzania.
My other friend Matt, another friend from home whom I slam danced with 1990-1993, who graduated high school two years late, who married and divorced a skank, but now he has the cutest little daughter this side of the Susquehanna - this Matt joined the Army and went to South Korea AT THE EXACT SAME TIME I did. So there's me and this guy I knew from my hometown partying in poolhalls with Korean bargirls. A Wild Coincidence!
Matt left the Army, is still going to college but stayed in the PA National Guard. The poor sap just got orders to go to Iraq. He trains stateside, then flies to Iraq summer 2004 at the Same time I go to China.
My and my friends' adventurous days should have been over - but no. Rich wanted to be a Hollywood bartender, Matt wanted to be a fireman and a dad, and I should have been a college professor.
Instead Rich is in Tanzania, I'm going to China, and Matt is going to Iraq. All of us in government service. Again.
That's weird.
Are there any W.B. Yeats fans out there? One poem of his sums my fears of the consequences. Yeats wrote this about a friend who died in WWI.
AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HIS DEATH
I KNOW that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
THE DAEMON TUGS AT US
My friend Rich, half-brother of a close friend from college, went to Ft. Bragg AT THE EXACT SAME TIME as me, left the Army in 1997, went to college and now he's in the Peace Corps in Tanzania.
My other friend Matt, another friend from home whom I slam danced with 1990-1993, who graduated high school two years late, who married and divorced a skank, but now he has the cutest little daughter this side of the Susquehanna - this Matt joined the Army and went to South Korea AT THE EXACT SAME TIME I did. So there's me and this guy I knew from my hometown partying in poolhalls with Korean bargirls. A Wild Coincidence!
Matt left the Army, is still going to college but stayed in the PA National Guard. The poor sap just got orders to go to Iraq. He trains stateside, then flies to Iraq summer 2004 at the Same time I go to China.
My and my friends' adventurous days should have been over - but no. Rich wanted to be a Hollywood bartender, Matt wanted to be a fireman and a dad, and I should have been a college professor.
Instead Rich is in Tanzania, I'm going to China, and Matt is going to Iraq. All of us in government service. Again.
That's weird.
Are there any W.B. Yeats fans out there? One poem of his sums my fears of the consequences. Yeats wrote this about a friend who died in WWI.
AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HIS DEATH
I KNOW that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
THE DAEMON TUGS AT US
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