A Suprise

I was over at Nugget's and he's got a great story about him and his mates dressing up as school girls, attracting firemen, and trying to ditch them by running into a pub... however, it wasn't just any old pub. No, no, it wasn't on a whim, but if you want to know, go over there and read! And while you're there, make sure you read alot. The guy is a great writer, and some of his fiction pieces are incredible.

While not quite as funny, 'least not to me, this story came to mind while reading of his adventures.

My brother and I graduated from bootcamp in '92. We went home on leave, and flew back in... the night before our orders said for us to report to MCT (Marine Combat Training... a month long extension of boot camp, it is, with liberty on the weekends.) There were about twenty guys from our platoon standing around the airport when we got there, and a discussion began.

While some of the guys from our series were already up at Pendleton checking in, most of us wanted to savor every bit of our leave. After checking train and bus schedules, it was decided that we would spend the evening in San Diego partying, and head off to Pendleton in the morning. I'm not sure who asked, but a senior Marine (a corporal, if I remember right) was quick to provide us with the name of a fine establishment. The ex-Navy guy driving the shuttle whole heartedly agreed that this was definitely the place to stay. So we picked up our gear, and headed off to party.

We got checked in, and some guys ran downtown to grab some grub. Some of us headed straight to the hotel bar to help eliminate their overstock of dangerous alcoholic beverages. It was a pretty great time, and no one noticed at first that we didn't quite fit in. That came much later.

My bro R and I were some of those occupying the bar at first, but we headed out to grab some chow. When we got back to the bar, it was pretty obvious that they were a little uncomfortable with all the of the Marines in the place. We just figured that they were afraid that we might start some drunken trouble, so we decided that we would keep an eye out for any potential trouble, and try to head it off. Some of the guys did get a little rowdy, so I got a few of them together, and the next thing you knew, we were playing tackle football out in the street.

Meanwhile, inside, R is sitting at the bar watching the horny guys of the platoon pawing all over the only lady in the place. He looked again, and sure enough, she was the only one in the whole place. About this time the bartender walked over to R and started up a conversation with him. He looked at all the Marines rather nervously, and then asked, "If you don't mind my asking, why would a bunch of Marines choose to stay in a gay hotel?" R just looked at him incredulously, and then busted up in nervous laughter. Luckily, everyone else found the humor in it, also. We'd all had a pretty good time until this revelation...

I learn from my mistakes... I never ran with a pack of "boots" again, and I never asked a senior Marine anything while on leave or liberty. I also decided that if an establishment is named after a pink, long legged bird, it's probably a good chance that it's very open to alternatives.

Posted by That 1 Guy at October 17, 2005 12:11 PM