We sat in silence for a few minutes when he became to look even more uncomfortable. He stared at me for a moment and then asked in a surprisingly defined drawl, “What year are ya?”
“First,” I gave back, smiling.
“Oh yeah, and what do you think of the College?”
I told him what I thought of the College–he didn’t presume I was a Connie, which upset me a little because I figure, to people I don’t know, I’m way more interesting if I’m a Connie. He listened, gnawing on his spit and nodding now and then. When I finished he told me his daughter was a frosh (his words), too, and was having adjustment difficulties. I gave him my sympathies and felt satisfied with the amount of communication we had, but barely after I finished speaking he asked if I have siblings. So I told him I had an older brother, and the man couldn’t stop prying. He opened up his age, his place of residence, occupation, and then he started nabbing at his future. And this is where he found a jumbo can of worms.
I mentioned that my brother was thinking about joining the Navy to pay for medical school. He grunted and frowned at me, “No. Air Force,” he said with such assertiveness I didn’t even think to question it. I sat, lost for words for a moment until he noticed I had nothing to contribute and went on to describe, in detail, the aid plans of the Air Force and how they were superior to those of the Navy. His interest in the subject drew me out a bit and I decided I was going to have to bro it out with this guy. I asked him where he served, and he told me all about Army basic training in Louisiana. And then, without being asked, he embarked on an epic tale of human fortitude and camaraderie in the face of Japanese typhoons. Literally, typhoons, that’s not a euphemism. Here were the bullet points of his story:
He and his comrades was pinned down in a barracks by the Japanese monsoon season for three months.
During these three months he ate nothing but various canned goods.
He was not particularly fond of living in a barracks where the only surplus was grumpy dudes and beans.
But he pulled through by making friends and sharing the suffering.
It’s sort of cheesy, but I left the sauna shortly after this tirade and found that I wanted to join the Army. Eating canned food and playing cards through a rainy day with your buddies sounds like a whole lot of fun. I would never have considered such an option, but that guy recruited the bageezus out of me. I felt like a deer three seconds after getting caught in the headlights, unceremoniously launching toward an unpredicted outcome. So remember people, life changes things pretty quickly if you decide you want it to. Go crazy.
