Shoup Airlines

What To Do?

A very common question being asked these days as we near our graduation date is what I’m going to do when I get home. A valid question and one that I’d most likely ask anyone returning from some form of isolation. In most cases I think everyone would have an answer in the shape of a significant other, a favorite bar, or some creature comfort at home. A culmination of joy that would make the past few months not seem so bad. My answer of late? I have no clue?! And I’m pretty sure it has been bothering me a lot more than the question askers.

Nothing seemed to really scream out as something I have direly missed for the last six months. There isn’t a special someone to greet me, a favorite haunt to pass the time away, although don’t get me wrong, I WILL be drinking my fair share of adult beverages, or a specific creature comfort that I’m dying for. I found this depressing and hoped something would surface before I got back.

Then it hit me last night while we were griping about the DFAC (dining facility) we eat at and how having the schedule we have, we really do get screwed. The variety is always nil and they usually run out of stuff before half the group has even made it through. But I digress. I want a tuna sandwich! Plain and simple. A lot of tuna, a bit of mayo and some lettuce and tomato on wheat, or better yet potato bread! That is something I have completely forgotten about and not seen since I left in January.

I’m telling you, it’s all about the simple things in life.

Lunch Conversations

Strohmeyer: I need a psycho-obsessive girl.

Shoup: Like an obsessive compulsive chick or a shrine building obsessive?

Strohmeyer: Definitely the shrine building type!

Shoup: Oh?

Strohmeyer: That way I don’t have to put any effort into a relationship. She’s just always there, waiting for me. I could do no wrong!

Shoup: The shrine and snips of hair everywhere wouldn’t bug you?

Strohmeyer: Sure, they’d take some getting used to, but they wouldn’t bother me. It’d be worth it just for the reason that if I wanted to go out with my buddies and have a beer I wouldn’t have to explain myself.

Shoup: You do realize this is the same type that would stalk you to the bar, have an argument with her split personality, because the shrine building types always have one or ten, realize she couldn’t stand sharing you with your friends and blow up everyone in the bar, right?

Strohmeyer: Damnit, Shoup!! You always have to ruin my ideas!! …hey, what were you saying about split personality chicks?

The Bitch is Back!

We’re one week away from our FTX (Field Training Exercise) and that means getting issued our favorite piece of equipment again. Yup, the good ol’ reliable M16! I was just SO excited to receive her into my arms and wonder yet again why we have to lug them around the hangar. ‘Cause it just has soo much to do with fixing a helicopter, you know.

The best part is getting reacquainted with that awkward dance in bed, because you can never be more than an arm’s length from the rifle at all times. And I mean AT ALL TIMES!!!!

Next week should be fun as we ruck back out into the boonies and play war games. I’ll be curious to qualify with an M16 A1. Colt seems to know how to make them work good and last a long time. These are the relics left over from Vietnam! Plus I should finally have some good stories to put on here, if I get the chance. Not that anyone reads them of course…