Marine

One of my Marine buddy's sent us some old pics from our days in the Suck (Marine Corps) yesterday.  One of them was my 2 roommates Mark H  and Jay H.  A wave of nostalgia came over me all of a sudden.  I sat for a minute and thought about the time I'd spent with those guys.  Mark and I were roommates about half or more of my 4 years.  Jay was a year ahead of us and became my A Chief when I became section chief.  He was my right hand man.  He was a pretty manic dude too, always up to some kind of mischief but a great artillery man.  Mark was a brooding sort of guy from Ft Smith Arkansas who was still madly in love with a gal from home.  He spent a lot of time talking about her.  He also liked to eat the occasional tab of acid.  One day he ate some during the work day and had a bad trip and escaped to our barracks room and climbed the walls for hours he told me later.  Thankfully for him no one missed him that day.

The internet and FB are amazing tools.  In the span of an hour I researched both Mark and Jay.  I found Mark's daughter on FB, friended her and then sought out Jay.  What I found was his obituary.  He passed away last spring.  After some more searching I found his brother on FB and chatted with him.  Apparently Jay died in his sleep after years of using pain meds for ailments he suffered from for years.

One of my main memories was of listening to a lot of Crosby, Stills and Nash and Neil young in our barracks room with with those guys.  Oh and lots and lots of beer and weed too....maybe that was the breeding ground for my love for that music now.....

I need to make sure I continue cultivating the relationships I have with my Marine buds.