I don’t post to Facebook frequently. On January 11 this year I posted the following brief message:
So 40 years ago today I stepped off a bus, stood on some yellow footprints, and got a free haircut.I also included this photo:
Two weeks later, I snapped this picture while lounging in my recliner:
It has been years since I laced up the boots I was issued as a 17-year-old recruit at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. Now, before I continue with this trip down memory lane, it’s important that I state my role in uniform. I was a cog in a massive machine. Actually, I was more like a tooth on a cog, in a massive machine. That said, I’m thinking about that time more with the arrival of the 40th anniversary of my enlistment. And with another birthday looming, and the 60th in a couple of years, I can’t help but wonder about the choices that brought me to where I am.
I did not know that, had I remained in uniform, I would still be accruing more retirement pay. I long believed that after 35 years, retirement pay plateaued. Not so. I would now be at the 100% mark, whatever that means, with the enticement of 102.5% after 41 years. I might have an advanced degree, although I doubt it would be in theatre. And I suspect I’d have more gray in my hair, and definitely less hair.
It’s much easier to detail what I would have missed by remaining in uniform than to say what I might have experienced. I would never have worn the uniform shown here:
or this one:
or this uniform of sorts:
And it’s a safe bet that this would not be my Facebook profile picture:
My path with the U.S. Government ended in a practical sense in late 1986, and officially a few weeks later, January 15, 1987. Boots, a few other uniform pieces, and numerous memories are what I still have. Those boots were my “everyday” boots, as opposed to the pair that was reserved for inspections. And they still fit – I just never found a way to make them fit every day.
| Copyright © 2023 by James Knudsen |
James, your statement, “It’s much easier to detail what I would have missed by remaining in uniform than to say what I might have experienced,” is profound, especially since Marines go to war, and war is very, very dangerous….
ReplyDeleteBy the way, were those stage photos posed for? Somehow your face doesn’t seem to express the dramatic character you’re costumed to play.
ReplyDeleteWhat's amazing isn't that the boots fit, but that they are not falling apart. Many of "our boys", a group of teenagers that grew up with our son and many would have rather lived with us than at home, have done their time in the military. I did not; I fell in the crack between Vietnam and whatever next useless, vindictive war fought for profit we were in, I forget. One of them tells me a marine saying is "Never forget that your equipment was made by the lowest bidder." An argument for diligent maintenance if I ever heard one. I recall a line from a novel about the early US Navy where the captain sees Army munitions of which he is in need. "Marine Sergeant, how many of your men are thieves?" "They're Marines, sir. All of them." "We could certainly use some ammunition." "Consider it done, sir."
ReplyDeleteFrom top to bottom - Dad did he me a tremendous favor during the first Gulf War. He asked if there was any chance I might be called up. My contract had been four years active, two inactive, I'm told enlistees are on the hook for eight nowadays. At any rate, I was no longer on any list to be recalled. Dad, in a leading manner, inquired as to whether I would declare myself a "conscientious objector." I immediately replied, "no." I'm still a bit surprised by how quickly the response came, I just knew I couldn't tell the Corps, "no" if they ever requested my help. Also, I was a 6324, UH1/AH1 CNI Tech. That means I was helicopter electrician, pretty safe job in wartime, mostly safe in peacetime.
ReplyDeleteI've played a lot of cops. "Guys and Dolls," "Arsenic and Old Lace," "I Was a Teenage Homo," "City of Angels" why I haven't landed a role on a network procedural remains a mystery. The scripts above are all comedic. And there may be the answer as to why I don't get paid to play law enforcement.
My boots are indeed forty years old, but they've led a life of leisure for about 38 years. Once I was working on helicopters, I wore steel-toed boots. A chopper skid lowering onto a foot would hurt.
The line about the lowest bidder is one I remember from the TV series "China Beach." I think my knowledge of mil-spec equipment is spotty at best. Some of the gear, the pig-skin lined flight boots I found in stairwell, very nice. The green wool-blend socks I was issued in boot-camp, the ones that turned my toe nails green, not so much. I will say that given the Russian Army's very obvious and very public failings over the past year, U.S. military procurement, while far from perfect is, better.
As Marine, I was never asked to steal. The preferred wording is, "Go 'liberate' a mop."
That was my comment, I need to remember to select my Google account or it comes up anonymous. And yes, of course, liberate is a very, ah, liberating and diplomatic word.
ReplyDeleteThanks for identifying yourself, Roger!
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