LoBD

My roommate, RJ, and I walked up to the elevator to drop off out enlistment papers, and the wonderful free t-shirt we got. Wow, a cotton and poly blend t-shirt for agreeing to go out and die for our country. I will cherish it forever. I am pretty sure RJ was thinking the same thing, because as we walked into our room, we both chucked them into the trash with a satisfying thump as they hit the bottom of the cheap plastic bucket.

We both sat at the ends of our beds, and stared at the wall in front of us. I think we must have done this for at least 5 minutes, then I turned to him and asked "So, last night as a civilian… It's 4:30, wanna go out and make it memorable?"

"What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"Well, there is a hotel bar. There is the art museum next door. Then there is also a strip club across town, about a 15 minute taxi ride away…"

He looked over at me, with that all telling look in his eye, and as if our brains where connected by an invisible wire, at the same time we both said "Strip club!"

I picked up the phone book and started thumbing through it looking for the taxi companies. As I placed my thumb down on the first listing to mark the phone number, there was a knock at the door. When RJ answered it, three guys we had met at MEPS just before the oath came walking in. Their names were Ted, John, and Al. So I looked back down at the phone book for a listing that said "Vans available", because I knew they were going to want to come with us, they too needed to enjoy freedom while it was still within their grasp.

I made all the arrangements, and they would be here in 20 minutes. As we waited, Al opened up his new Navy back pack, I guess they ran out of shirts, and pulled out a 6 pack of beer. It is amazing how fast you drink when you realize it would be a very long time until you could do it again. Those beers were gone almost as soon as Al threw them to us.

It was obvious that everyone was thinking the exact same thing, because once again after that small moment of fun, the room grew as silent as a library. There really wasn't much to say. We all knew what each other were thinking. We all knew what was coming. Most of all, we all knew we weren't sure if we were doing the right thing by joining the service.

We were all so deep in thought, that when the phone rang, we all got a little spooked.

I picked it up, "Mr. Einstell, your taxi has arrived, and shall I have him wait at the front?"

"Yes ma'am. We'll be down in 2 minutes"

I looked at the guys, and for the first time today, I saw some excitement in their eyes.

I got a smile on my face, feeling like a fireman does when he sees the smile on the face of someone he breaks down a door to rescue. "Okay, guys. Let's go have some fun"