I come from a military family.
My father was in the Air Force for 20 years.
All his brothers and all my mom's brother's served in the military.
My mom's father served in WWI.
There are Purple Hearts and PTSD.
None of these people will eat mutton.
We have always talked about "Happy Memorial Day" but I am not going to say that this year.
DFH vs Marine
As many know, I am a DFH: a dirty f*cking hippie.
I am anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Republican, anti-fascism. I smoke pot (sometimes) and believe another world is possible. I don't think this country should be an Empire - I think we're supposed to be far better than that.
A DFH.
In the last several months - since my treadmill broke - I have taken up a form of running practiced by the guy who lives across the street from me. He runs everyday, without fail, rain or shine , hot or freezing.
He moved in several years ago and for various reasons we never spoke until about Obama's winning of the 2009 election.
We had said hello a few times but the day after the election I asked him, at the end of one of his runs, "How about that spiffy new president" and it became clear, quickly, I had stepped in it. "Obama's going to ruin this country!"
My neighbor, the Running Man, is ex-Marines. Hardcore Marines. He belonged to a special branch that was tasked with a variety of classified and covert operations. Wild shit. Jumping out of helicopters into the ocean with a backpack and a machine gun stuff; invading behind enemy lines, like in the movies. He was a gunnery expert as well as....competent, shall we say, with a Bowie Knife. When he shakes my hand, it feels like my whole arm will be bruised.
Long and short, I have begun running with him regularly, 3-4 days a week. The conversations should probably be recorded sometimes: he is a professed rightwinger who voted for Reagan twice, think George Bush was given an unfair rap by us lefties, watched FOX and thinks both O'Reilly and Hannity are legitimate talking heads.
In return I have explained the concept of "Dirty Fucking Hippie" to him, much to his amusement. He grasps that I am quite liberal but over the past few months of running and talking he calls me "the only liberal that could ever be my friend" and tells me I'd have made a good Marine.
So we run about 35 minutes at a time with about a 6-8 minute cool-down walk and we talk and talk and talk. We talk about Obama, global warming, and the state that America is in currently with the country so bitterly divided about things such as he and I discuss in a civil manner. (He did admit that however much he fears Obama is "too far left" "he is cool".)
His first conversations began with things like "Everything I have done for my country I have done because I have believed it was the right thing to do" peppered with "there are things I have done and seen that I am not comfortable with", one of those things being assisting with an effort in the 80's to provide arms to the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan.
One of his stories began "I got shot with a big-bore weapon in the mountains of Afghanistan and they had to give me methadone to stabilize me for the trip down the mountains where I could be put on a medivac helicopter", said, of course, like I might say "I went fishing in Florida last week...."
He told me how he went into the Marines at 19, scared half to death at Paris Island and making it through boot camp and on into more strenuous training topped off by "Hell Week", which just sounds like so much fun.
He talked about how once one become a special-ops soldier like he was "you can't show weakness and complain about problems. They'll clip your wings so fast. Can't have soldiers who are "iffy" hanging around this sort of unit". I told him I like my line of work a little better. In therapy, if I have a really stressful day, I can ask for a hug. He laughed so hard.
Another time he was telling me about having to get a psychiatric evaluation and how pissed off it made him. He seemed incensed to be asked if he had thoughts of killing himself. "I'm a Marine #$%&$#%!! it! I'm not going to kill myself!" Then he asked if I had thoughts of killing other people: I told him ' Not unless I am getting paid for it!" And I burst out laughing.
Memorial Day
He came over a couple days ago and talked about Memorial day.
He talked about all the soldiers he knew and respected who have died. His unit was often dropped in behind enemy lines to wreak havoc and secure a landing area for a larger military invasion. He's seen many men killed in front of his eyes. He leans over and rests his elbows on his knees and looks at the floor and talks about how Memorial Day is a big somber thing for him.
And really, I had never heard it pitched like this before, after all the years of hearing war stories from uncles, I never heard it described like he did and it hit me. Uncles always talked about their war experiences like they were in previous lives, they didn't seem particularly somber about it.
My running buddy talked about an incident that occurred back in the late 1970s when arriving back in the US in San Francisco and a bunch of "hippies" had gathered and were throwing things at them and spitting on them. He remains very perplexed by this.
I tell him I have heard the stories about that and have always assumed it was part of a backlash due to reports about My Lai and the American troops that massacred women and children there.
He replied by saying that the Viet Nam police action created some ares of lawlessness and that bad apples and lawlessness aren't a good mix in war. We talked about how people seem to overlook the fact that when those troops were shooting women and children, other US troops put themselves in harm's way to protect the innocent from the out-of-control soldiers. My running buddy adds "they weren't Marines".
He feels - very strongly - he has fought and laid his life on the line for Americans, even those who protest what he and others have done. "People have to be free to say what they think and that's what I fought for. I wouldn't have it any other way".
So this year I am not wishing him - or any veteran -a "Happy Memorial Day".
I am saying "Thank You."
Oh... Netroots for The Troops