The Dirty Thirty

The last couple of weeks have been an adventure. By a couple of weeks I mean eternity and by adventure I mean walking through Hell and being served cold coffee. The drinking in the barracks has gone from a few Marine to mostly all because I guess the main theme here is "You know what? Im bored...want to consume a magical liquid that makes bad memories go away?" I hung out with my clinically alcoholic friend who has recieved "The Drunk" award. No seriously it exists, it's a flipper that everyone who wins it signs their name on it when they are wasted and right something "Meaningful."
Scarim came down for the weekend and we had an absolute blast going from one freezing place to another. We were literally the only ones on the beach. Two black guys and a skinny white guy on a beach trying to make the best of their three day weekend. We went to a Bar called Sharks and Scarim asked for a beer
"Can I have a bud light?"
"Sure can I see some ID?"
"Yeah a sprite will work."
I have a great time when I'm with Scarim, he saved my life in boot camp because his ability to make me laugh was effortless.

Now that I have classed up my time is dedicated mostly to sitting around in my room, talking to myself and then maybe studying if I am not tired from talking to myself. What do I learn about in class? I am aloud to say the following
"I Study weather, Enemy and Terrain." Prety cool hah? Thats left open for interpretation. There is one legend about our school house about the "Dirty Thirty." Not so long ago there was a Navy class in the same building as me and the whole class decided to take Top Secret material out of the classroom and copy this material on some flash cards and talk about it outside of class. The next day all thirty classmates got sent to a different MOS no questions asked. Now, feel free to ask me any questions about my class...
Class is hard...but by the time I am done I will have half a semester of Foreign Policy and Communications under my belt. The class deals with a lot of public speaking so naturally I feel well at home. I have become a Squad Leader and I get along with my aquad because they like to hear my jokes so when I ask them to do something they do it without complaints. There are slightly more responsibilities but it's well worth it to be able to tell someone what to do rather than be told what to do. I love class though, It is the only time I feel like I am actually doing something normal...learning. Everything else is pretty gung ho marine corps do or die or get killed not following the rules. BUT as the good lord said
The one lesson in life to learn is to not try at all that way when you dont succeed there is no let down...or was that Homer Simpson?

The saddest day of his life...

Standing outside in 30 degree weather Ssgt. Millard was starting to realize we were all having remorce on our decision to join the military and spend our Friday nights standing at parade rest for an hour.
"I hate dealing with stupid shit. Maybe if we all got our acts together and realized we should clean our rooms correctly and get to accountability on time we wouldn't have to do this. My wife is pissed off at me for missing dinner. It's okay I will let my second marriage fall apart because of the Marine Corps again...it's okay. I get out of the Marine Corps in 7 years 6 months and 5 days. I am just going to drive on base and turn in my I.D. That will be the saddest day of my life. Why? Because the Marine Corps is a family that I am going to say goodbye to. I will always have that Nephew that makes those stupid decisions that get him in trouble. I will always have that niece that gives her self up to other men easily. But what? They are still family." At this point none of us wanted to hear any of this. It had been my longest week in the Marine Corps and the last thing I wanted was to hear a speach from a guy who punished our 53 man and woman platoon. I went up to my room and was so frustrated with how the week had played out I just sat there and stared at the wall for about ten minutes. I could hear my friend Robert Sanders screaming, crying, hitting the walls because he was so angry. If there is anything that is hard in the outside world it is ten times harder in the Marine Corps...that's why it's the Marine Corps. The lonely factor plays a big role here at NMITC (Navy Marine Intelligence Training Center). All we do is go play pool, watch movies, go on the computer, and most people drink alcohol to make those bad memories "go away." There is not much I can say that will show you exactly how life is here. EVERYONE drinks, they try to justify it by saying life is so depressing here it's the only thing that can get them out and away. That's fine, one day they will see the real reason they were drinking never goes away. I feel that this place is draining on my soul, I am getting completely numb to certain and inevitable situations. That's okay, I will go back to Fairfield and people will say "You've changed man" as if that were the only thing to say. People will look down an ally and see kids shooting craps and they say "Times are bad". See what I am getting at? People are outside of this base going to concerts, falling in love, finding God, getting educated, traveling. Everyone is taking a journey and earning their right to be old where as I am here being forced to have wrinkles in my forehead. Alexander Dumas once wrote "All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope." Now I can not tell you much about our classes but I can tell you that we are professional public speakers. Our first speaches were ice-breakers to tell everyone a little about ourselves. My speach went something to this effect
"On March 6th Craig Schultz went on a date with Jeanne Goodwin and went to a quaint Chinese restuarant in a city by the name of Alemeda. Laughs had been made tears may have been shed but drinks were definitely drunk. Craig Schultz put on his usual performance of being the comedian he was so naturally born as. After dinner Craig asked Jeanne to come back to his place. To make a long story short, Nine Months later they had a son named Spencer. And this is how my life began..."
The class thought I was the funniest thing since Jerry Seinfeld and they all said "Schultz you should have been a stand up comedian." Yes, I should have been. All a comedian does is share his pain with the world through jokes. I guess this is why I have been viewed as "funny" in the Marine Corps. Am I doing fine in Virginia? How did O.J. Simpson do on trial? Well...pretty good actually.