Sad Farewells

In the past few weeks the unit I’ve been working with, VMU2, for the past 6 months has been turning over to the new unit, VMU3, which just arrived. I’ve been told that it’s rare that the marines have to say good bye to the contractors. What makes things even more difficult is that most of them are saying that we are the best crew of contractors that they’ve worked with.

I came into country about a month after VMU2 arrived. Since then I’ve basically cohabitated with them, at one point even staying in the same tent. We ate together, we played together and we essentially lived together for over 12 straight hours a day. The only time I didn’t see them was while I was sleeping and that was because we stayed in different places. I don’t even think married people spend that much time with one another and thus from these long hours we developed a type of bond that very few people share.

You start sharing stories with each other that you don’t tell other people. You open yourself up more than most people do in their regular relationships. Someone will start into a personal experience and after they’re finished someone else has something similar to share. It’s like the story book opens and it’s written in 50 point font with someone.

Now that VMU2 is leaving, I guess I can equate what I’m feeling right now to losing loved ones. The days are bland and boring kind of like the days after breaking up with someone. Even though I can go eat dinner instead of going to the gym with my friend, the food isn’t even as good as it use to be because the company is no longer there. There’s only one other person who’s been here as long as I have and the change is noticeable in him too.

It’s just been an ongoing barrage of handshakes and hugs. It seems like every hour there’s someone else to say goodbye to. And despite the trading of phone numbers, facebook pages and email addresses, deep down inside you know it’s probably going to be the last time you see them. One of my friends said “You know how people say they want to keep in touch but they don’t? Well, I really want to keep in touch.” Unfortunately I’ve never had an experience where people so far apart, living such different lives have been able to successfully keep in touch without a great deal of effort from both sides.

I realized last night that more than likely in less than 2 years all the people I’ve met here and befriended will become little more than familiar faces. Those movie script clichés where you say “Don’t I know you from some where?” when you see them out in public. We’ll all go on to live our regular lives. But if we’re fortunate enough, fate will bring us together when we least suspect it and if our friendship was truly as strong as I believe it is, we won’t follow the script.