old navy

On Sunday I got an e-mail from an old Navy buddy I keep in touch with, but hadn't seen for over 15 years, and the only reason I know it's been that long is because the youngster was a non-entity then. He flies for a company that sells flying time to different corporations or people with huge amounts of money, like a rent-a-corporate jet.

The e-mail said he was flying into St. Augustine (same airport the bike ride begins and ends at) around midnight and, if there were no schedule changes, would be here around lunch time.

We did manage to meet for lunch, and it was so good to see him again. We've both gotten a bit older, but I've definitely changed/aged more. He still has all his hair, and looks like he can still fit into jeans with a 28" waist. He runs quite a bit. I'm not exactly a slouch, but he's definitely got me beat in the fitness department. It was great to catch up though. The last time I saw him he had one son. That son's in college now, and he has two more. We talked about things we've done since the last time we saw each other...old friends we still keep up with.

The military does that, to some extent. It puts you with people you share some trying times with, and you depend on each other, and it builds lifelong bonds, and I'm grateful for that. It wasn't until I started this paragraph that I remembered, in 1983 the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon was bombed as we were coming into port in Israel, and we had to fly up to Beirut to help bring in doctors, medical and fire fighting supplies. You could see the tracer bullets flying, and it was pretty damn scary. The guy in the seat next to me when we flew up there....was the same guy I had lunch with yesterday.