Click this link, and check out the video I just saw. It is brilliant. It’s about warfare and peace; how to do them, and how to do them right. It’s about 20 minutes long, but I found it worthwhile. When your done, come back and let me know what you thought.

Sometimes I wonder where I would be if I hadn’t joined the Marine Corps. It is always interesting to me to look back on my medium length life and see how decisions I made 10 years ago affect me even today.

In the winter of 1997 I was bored. I was a 20 year old living at home and working for The Good Guys (Electronics store) selling computers. I was good at sales; I just wasn’t good at selling the biggest and most expensive. I was always getting talked to for not “up selling” my customers. Since I knew that most people don’t really need the BIGGEST and BADDEST computers just to check their e-mails, I usually just sold them what they really needed, even if it meant that they spent less. This in turn made me, and the company, very little money, but at least I had a clear conscience.

One night at home, I was surfing the channels and saw an ad for the Marines. I decided then and there to join. It was impulsive and it was careless, but I was sick of not having any future. I wanted a change, and I couldn’t think of any change bigger than joining the Marine Corps.

January 1998 I signed the papers and by April I was in boot camp.

While I was at my first duty station I became engaged and married soon afterward. We both figured that it was stupid to wait a couple years to get married if we were sure about our decision. So, in about 6 months I went from a single Marine living in the barracks to a married Marine living with his new wife in an apartment. The changes just kept coming.

After my 2 years in Georgia, I was transferred to Camp Pendleton in California. My new wife and I weren’t able to get into a base house, so we became roommates with another Marine and his wife. Not ideal, but it was the only option short of living “in the ghetto”.

I was deployed to Okinawa in the summer of 2001. By the second week of deployment I had learned that my wife and I were expecting a new addition to the family. Apparently the parting gift I gave was the kind that kept on giving. I now had to look forward to missing the “firsts” that were so special to an expecting family.

By the end of August 2001 I knew that the Marine Corps wasn’t going to get another 4 years out of me, and by September 12th, I was just hoping that I would be able to get out in the promised 4 I had signed up for. We were going to war. The Twin Towers had fallen, and we soon found out that we were the battalion tasked to bring retribution.

The funny thing about the threat of war is that it is clarifying. It separates the sayers from the doers. It shows who is ready and who is not. I always knew that War was an always looming ghost in the corner. I was not fearful of dying. I was not afraid to fight. My only fear was for my family; my new wife and unborn child. I was afraid that by going to war I was going to forfeit the right of a father to impart love and wisdom by getting myself killed.

We packed everything up (I mean EVERYTHING) and moved to the beach to await our ride from the Navy (they were always helpful like that). Prior to embarking to the beach I recorded a message to my wife and to my unborn daughter. I put in my personal belongings that would be sent to my family if I had been killed in action. I apologized for my absence and death. I tried to convey in my short recording the regret of a dead father. I wasn’t afraid, I was just sad. I still have that recording. My wife and I listened to it together and cried when I returned home 3 months later.

Apparently someone in the Navy had made an error of some sort and, en route to pick up my battalion on that Okinawan beach, realized that they were unable to sustain us. It was some sort of clerical error that left some vital pieces of war fighting gear back at port. I once heard it was our ammunition forgotten, but I never really knew the full story. Suffice it to say that I really didn’t care why we weren’t going, I was just happy that we weren’t.

After I returned to the states, my beautiful daughter was born. Healthy and happy, she was a blessing from day one. I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, and not a moment too soon. Stop loss was put in effect 2 months after I was released. (More info on stop loss can be found here.)

After returning to Washington State I was unable to find work. I applied at many places and eventually started thinking about moving out of state. I was finally able to get a job as a security guard in town but lost it after I failed a UA by accidentally flushing the toilet when I wasn’t supposed to. I was running on little to no sleep that day and just plain forgot. It was more reflex than anything. You go to the bathroom; you flush the toilet. Not in this case, because effectively, I was  fired.

I returned home that day extremely down-hearted. I felt like a failure and was even contemplating re-joining the Marines just in order to provide for my family. Lucky for me though, a week later I was offered two jobs. One was for the Longview Police Department as the Community Service Officer (CSO) and the other was for the Jail. The CSO job paid about a grand less to start and topped out 500 less than the jail started. I was offered top step CSO pay, but couldn’t pass up the ability to make around $1500 more per month after just five years at the jail.

So,… here I am. I have been working at the jail for about 5 years now, and there is no end in sight. I am not completely happy, but I wouldn’t change any of it for anything. I have a great wife and a now two kids. I am gainfully employed with excellent benefits.  It is amazing to me to look back and see how life has changed for me in the last ten years.

To think, I might still be selling computers and single if I had never made the decisions I made 10 years ago. Ooh Rah!

The wife of a friend of mine was badly injured recently. She is currently in the hospital and isn’t doing well. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Lindeman family. Godspeed.