Humor in Uniform

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Reminds me of a story: I was a LT and we were doing some training in mainland Japan with their Ground Self-Defense Force. The three USMC rifle platoon commanders from my Company, Echo 2/9, were invited to our Japanese counterparts’ tent for dinner and drinks. An invitation, for obvious reasons (not the least of which was that the Japanese ate “real food” in the field and at that time MREs were still inedible [although they have gotten somewhat better over time]) we immediately accepted.

We’re having a jolly good ol’ time and getting a serious saki and soju buzz on when the Japanese officers’ Major joined us. All is well and rolling rolling rolling – rawhide(!) until he challenges me to arm wrestle against him. I was always more the lean and mean type, and my buddies were built like fire hydrants so no wonder that I was the one who was “called out.” I begged off but the Major would not be denied. We go right handed and had a battle royale, which I eventually won. Then he wants to go left handed, I begged again this time even more feverishly for mercy but he would not hear of it. We go again, and this time I win relatively quickly. The now twice defeated Major barks something to the Japanese LTs in the tent, and then one of them says a bit sheepishly, “Party over. You go home now.”

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33 thoughts on “Humor in Uniform”

  4. Lt Bronze Star was there and witnessed the whole thing. Whether or not he could remember anything the next day is a good question. He and I made the infamous helo-beer run a week or so after this little cross-cultural interaction.

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      1. An old boyfriend suggested that we should go camping; I said, sure, why not? We arrived at the creek at about 3 am, it was pouring rain and about 40 degrees (summer in Alaska, lol 🙂 He threw a tarp on the ground, threw another tarp over us, and immediately fell sound asleep. He slept soundly till morning. I slept in the car 🙂

        I realize that what I just described is nothing compared with what grunts have to go through, but even so, I was given a small taste of it, and I am in awe.

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      2. he wasn’t a gentleman, he was a cad, but a very likeable cad 🙂 He really was a good guy, but a cad just the same 🙂

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      6. Lol 🙂 When did I say that anything was a requirement? 🙂

        On another note, I think you might be both a gentleman and a cad, which is maybe why you make some heads explode 🙂

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      8. You did not. You trained in the USMC, the absolute pinnacle of chivalry, you are awesome 🙂 And when I say that someone is a cad, what I really mean is, he isn’t boring 🙂

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      9. In other words, being both a gentleman and a cad is a good thing: gun to my head, the old boyfriend was both a gentleman and a cad too, I was just giving him a hard time 🙂

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