PFCJon
08-29-05, 08:43 PM
So I returned to college this week after basic on a 92 day reserve program and started classes today. I was thinking that, given the fact that there are 181,000 of us out there, most active duty, that I wouldn't be seeing any other Marines on campus, or VERY few if any at all. On top of that, one of today's classes was Arabic. I wasn't really sure how an Arabic professor at a liberal arts college would feel about a Marine taking his class for the purpose of being more affective in combat in the middle east. I went in to class with these assumptions.
So I walk in and take a seat, noticing 2 bigger guys (not fat bodies, more like linebackers) with really short hair. I didn't think much of it, lots of people wear a high and tight, but they both seemed more alert and just different than the people around them. The professor started talking and had us introduce ourselves, our majors, and our reasons for taking Arabic. I said my name, my major, and that it was possible I would be sent to Iraq sometime in the future and I wanted to be able to communicate with the people on the ground. A minute later, he gets to the two guys I had noticed. The first one introduced himself and said "I'm just like him, I'm a Marine- that's why I want to learn Arabic" The second guy spoke up and said pretty much the same thing. After class we stopped to talk for a bit and it turns out that they are both LCpls from my new Bttn. I haven't been assigned to a platoon yet, but I found it incredibly ironic that I ended up in class (on an 18000 student campus no less) with two devildogs who I may very well be digging holes and pulling triggers with. The world can be a small place.
PFC Cross
So I walk in and take a seat, noticing 2 bigger guys (not fat bodies, more like linebackers) with really short hair. I didn't think much of it, lots of people wear a high and tight, but they both seemed more alert and just different than the people around them. The professor started talking and had us introduce ourselves, our majors, and our reasons for taking Arabic. I said my name, my major, and that it was possible I would be sent to Iraq sometime in the future and I wanted to be able to communicate with the people on the ground. A minute later, he gets to the two guys I had noticed. The first one introduced himself and said "I'm just like him, I'm a Marine- that's why I want to learn Arabic" The second guy spoke up and said pretty much the same thing. After class we stopped to talk for a bit and it turns out that they are both LCpls from my new Bttn. I haven't been assigned to a platoon yet, but I found it incredibly ironic that I ended up in class (on an 18000 student campus no less) with two devildogs who I may very well be digging holes and pulling triggers with. The world can be a small place.
PFC Cross