Friends of the Past

With Veteran's Day just past, actually at the time I'm writing this it is Veteran's Day, but anyway I thought I would share a "war" story with you.

There was a man named John, and he was my very good friend. He went to Korea, just like me, maybe a year or so before I did and he had ex-wife problems. Just like I was beginning to see for myself. My then wife left me and took my daughter, twice. the first time I went to go get her, the second I did not, and so John took it upon himself to come by, make sure I was ok, he was a true friend. There was a sense of camaraderie in the service that you just can't find very often in the civilian world. We worked together, we played together, hell, we got drunk together... It was a good point in my life. So we were out behind the military housing on a very cramped Fitzsimons Army Medical Center (the whole post was only 1 square mile)

From the picture if you look right, that was where the military housing was (yet to be built). And we had a thing for firing off model rockets. Which is no big deal, unless you have had a few to drink. Then it becomes "look what this drunk fool did" and that is pretty much what we did. On Christmas Day, we got the idea to "daisy chain" rocket engines, that is to have one go off right after another one has gone off. In theory, it works out great, in reality, not so much. The first engine worked no problem, however there was a delay in the firing of the second one, and in that delay, the rocket turned sideways so when the second engine finally did ignite, the rocket was parallel with the ground. And it was headed straight towards officer housing to the left (yet to be built) And the rocket was a 6 foot mean machine...

We never saw the mean machine again, we always snickered that it crashed into some old Colonel's wife's rose bushes or something like that.

But that isn't the only "rocket story", another time, it was during "Reveille" that evening and for whatever reason we were out shooting those dang rockets again...



We shot off a rocket and it looked ok, then a big gust of wind came by or something on rocket came off, and it sent the rocket on a crazy trajectory and came down right in front of the hospital (the big building in the picture). They were folding up the flag and all of that (a special detail that everyone gets do... I always got to fire the howitzer). Why didn't we wait until after? I have no idea... But we all got a bit of a chuckle out of that, And yes, through we were in civilian clothes, we still gave our respect to the flag. We christened that rocket "Rat on Acid". Nobody got hurt or demoted or anything else, the sergeant major of the post did see this particular rocket exercise. While he did not approve, he also did not disapprove it either. I think he was in utter bafflement as to what was going on. Which is always a good thing (right?... maybe) when you do something you might get in trouble for later.

My Name is Bobby

Yep... well not really. You see it was an alias I took on when I was in Korea. Why? Well at the time I was petrified of having a Korean woman show up at my 1st Sergeant's office talking about how she was pregnant. I was 19, and ummmm somewhat married. So I figured I needed an alter-ego. My first foray in sock puppetry maybe?

So I assumed Bobby. Why Bobby? I think it happened one night after carousing, we were in a taxi, headed to a Korean karaoke joint, and this woman asked me what my name was. I told her Bobby. She laughed, I think because Bob or Bobby in Korean translates into rice... but I can't confirm that.

So we were on our way, and for me it was an incredible experience. I was Bobby, not me, so Bobby could do whatever he liked. Yes I know I was bad, adultery is never a good practice, but I was 19, and pretty much everybody was doing it, I know that doesn't make it right, but it is what it is. I am far enough removed from ever doing anything like that now that I can safely talk about it.

This was way before the stroke or the diabetes, this was living life like there was no tomorrow. It was fast women, drinking, and hard work. We worked so hard, and partied even harder, in fact we were known in the medical outfits as "those crazy drunks" or some other variant. I'm glad it only lasted for one year, I don't know if we would have lived if it lasted longer.


So back to Bobby, he had his own theme song. "Run Around" by Blues Traveler. Why? Because there is a part of the song that says "But you" (1:09) and friends turned that into "Bobby-ahn" which is how the Koreans said my "name".



So that is how I assumed an identity that really wasn't me. Through paranoia, teen-aged stupidity, and peer pressure, I was led astray. Ok I led myself, I'm really not one to to blame others when I can blame myself. "Bobby" had one hell of a time. Going out every night, even when I didn't want to, because if Bobby didn't go out, the women would come to his barracks and make him go out.

Long live Bobby. Though I don't think anyone misses him, or really cares, it was hearing the song "Run Around" that made me write about the whole Bobby thing. I could just smell the kimchee, OB beer, and bulgogi/yakimandu cooking. I think I always will.

Two Songs...

Way back, when I was in the army, and in Korea crazy shit happened. My daughter, the teenager, was going through an old CD case, which brought back memories. Hence the thinking about Korea and how crazy it was there.

I have two songs, in completely different genres that most would label "offensive". Why these two particular songs? The first one (Gin and Juice) was in my roommate's CD player, and he played it everyday. The same could be said about the other (Bad Habit) was in the CD player across the hall, and it too was played repeatedly.

Gin and Juice



Bad Habit



Both are loaded with curse words. Although I think Offspring's use of Stupid dumb-shit, Goddamn, Motherfucker probably wins in the contest of... I'm not really sure, but it is a powerful statement, you can't say that and just be kidding around, it has anger inside of it. I certainly would not want to be on the receiving end.

Gin and Juice is a Snoop Dog song, that in and of itself, does it for me. There are a lot more curse words in it, but nothing quite so angry. And while they were having dueling songs (not really, at least I don't think) where was I? Easy, I was at the Main Post Club, listening to the Filipino rock band, with a heavy beer order, or maybe a shot of tequila, drowning my troubles away.

Ok not really, I did become somewhat of a lush, but we all did really. My dorm refrigerator could hold 2 cases of beer, and if it had less than a case, we were low. In fact when I finally came home, I got the shakes, because there was so much alcohol, and to go from having it, to quitting cold turkey, was a little much. But anyway, those Filipino women sounded like shit, that is until you drank 5 or 10 beers, then, they sounded just like the real thing. Seriously.