I’m on my last domestic flight before leaving the country for yet another 6 month funfest in the Middle East. This past week was spent processing through Fort Benning, which consisted of turning in paperwork, checking boxes and training for the worst (and by worst I mean if I ever have to use this training you’re damn sure I’m not going to survive anyway). With the help of my predecessors I was prepared and able to leave one day early, meaning an extra night at home. Overall this was a very productive weekend despite waiting in long lines and sitting through worthless scare-tactic courses. I say it was productive not because I successfully processed through, but because I was able to befriend a few new people. It all started on the flight down to Atlanta last Friday.
I was ready for my regular flight routine. Fall asleep during taxi and takeoff, wake up in time for the electronic devices usage announcement, pop in the head phones and rock out until the soda cart rolled by. There are a few occasions that this does not happen as planned and this was to be one of those.
There I was sitting in my window seat, iPod in one hand and headphones in the other staring out said window as the luggage handlers loaded the plane. Next thing I know my hopes for having an entire row to myself were dashed as a couple, girlfriend/boyfriend, sat down in the middle and aisle seat next to me. I’m not sure why I always hope for my own row, it rarely ever happens… But no matter, this time my dashed hopes turned into new friends that I hope to continue to talk to in the future. Obviously the timing couldn’t have been worse though…
The guy was from Taiwan, he came to the states when he was a teenager and went to college on the east coast. He was working in Saint Louis now and presumably enjoying his job. The girl was originally from Saint Louis, of course “the question” came up and I discovered she went to the same high school as a lot of my friends. We talked the entire flight, I put away my iPod and rather than listening to Jack Johnson or Death Cab, I instead enjoyed some good old fashion conversation.
They told me about their recent trip to Taiwan and I told them about my future trip to Iraq. We exchanged contact information upon arrival in Atlanta and subsequently began my wait for my flight to Columbus, which became a story in itself. But we can talk about that some other time.
A couple weeks prior to me leaving for Fort Benning a friend of mine from Afghanistan told me a friend of his from the Marine Corps was going to be there as well. I was supposed to get the contact information for his friend but he forgot to pass it along and I didn’t really pester him about it because I would have been perfectly content hiding in my hotel room and being antisocial.
The first morning of processing I was standing in line to check in chatting with a group of other contractors. We were discussing a contractor’s favorite topic, our respective companies or more importantly the shortcomings of our respective companies. I was describing my company in as little detail as possible when someone behind me in line chimed in.
“Insitu?”
“Yeah… Who do you work for?”
“Evergreen”
“Really? Do you know…”
“Yeah, he’s my boy we were in the marines together”
BAM! Instant friendship! How fortunate was I that out of 450 people, the guy I happened to have 2 degrees of separation from happened to be the person right behind me in line? Once again, my guardian angel was looking out for me because in reality I would not have been content hiding in my hotel room or being antisocial. What’s even better is that once I meet one person I generally start absorbing others too. Soon enough our group of 2 became 3 with the addition of an off-the-wall, class clown from Tennessee.
We were like a bad joke… a marine, an army guy and an engineer walk into a steak house… add your own punch line. It made the week go by so much faster and made every minute a lot more enjoyable than it could have been. Even when I was catching my flight back to Saint Louis I thought about some of the things that happened. I think people thought I was crazy because I was standing in line on the jet way laughing, most of which is best left for a face to face chat. Despite the long hours and the hopefully pointless training, the week turned out to be very fun.
So now you find me typing away on my flight back to the Middle East. With 2 vodka tonics down, I’m looking forward to reuniting with some friends from Afghanistan. We’ll be one man down but we’ll still be going strong. Even though the new location is ten times better, I still hope that this experience will be as good as the last.
