Social Dynamics

If we're going to be living in relative proximity, there will obviously be tension at times. Here's what I don't want: an arbitrary list of social mandates that seek to regulate how we feel, what we say or who we are as individuals. So instead of trying to create regulation, this can be our version of /soc/. Just come here to vent about shit, discuss shit that bothers you, maybe even just talk yourself in a way that would allow us all to get to know you better.

I know this sounds like the beginning of an AA meeting but:

I'm from Florida, I married my high-school girlfriend. My daughter was born before I started my senior year (my wife had already graduated). The job market in Florida is still bad (and has only gotten worse) so I went with my childhood "dream" and enlisted. It was weird, because I was stoked for the military and couldn't wait, all the way until my last two years of High School. It wasn't fear of change so much as it was like I just disagreed with the direction the country was heading and didn't feel like it was worth risking my life for. Regardless, "I had mouths to feed," so I left for bootcamp in June of '09 with an EOD contract.

Now the Navy puts all of its 'special contracts' into the same boot divisions, so everyone in my boot division had a SEAL, SWCC, EOD, Diver, or Rescue Swimmer contract. So I felt like I was stuck in a room of all of the Jocks I had avoided in high school. Navy bootcamp is an exercise in staying awake and folding clothes. There was one "laser" range day (air compressor hooked to a gun for simulated recoil and then fired at a target where a computer shows you a digital readout of how well you did), and then one pistol qual with the M9 (which I was half-asleep during and was 9 points from expert. "Battle Stations" is the final exercise of boot, and it's retarded.

Fast-forward some months to me being kicked form Dive because I failed an underwater-adaptability exercise (ditch-and-don with snorkel and mask). Never once did I panic in the water, I just didn't have a large lung-capacity, so I would run out of air after clearing my mask and was unable to clear my snorkel. So I would sit there in the water for another minute or so, looking down at the in-water supervisor until I came close to passing out (several times). That was never good enough, so I was dropped before an academic review board. Losing your job in the Navy sucks, because it's not like you can just go into the infantry then. Well it was going to be "Seaman Undesignated" for me if I didn't come up with an idea in the next 24 hours (undesignated guys are the people who sleep three hours a night on a ship between cleaning, moving boxes, standing watch, chipping paint and re-painting). I talked the Master Diver into recommending me for SWCC (supposedly an impossible move because Navy policy requires two years between attempts at special programs), so i was on my way to California.

I had no intention of becoming SWCC honestly, it was just a way for me to see some shit, get some cool training and have a second roll of the dice at a new job. In retrospect, I should have tried my best instead of just quitting when i was tired of it (but at the same time, 70% of being SWCC is being a mechanic and a driver, both of which I am not). When I DOR'd (Dropped-on-Request) like 6 months later, I totally ruined our instructor's day (he really liked me, because I always had a joke, no matter how sore our asses were). I was sent to North Island, where all of the BUD/S and SWCC attrites are held.

Lemme tell you, talk about dark clouds, this place smelled like sadness and shattered dreams. It became a game among all of us to figure out how to get the fuck out of the Navy (without dishonorable discharges). I learned the best way is to say that your depression has caused you to begin sleep-walking. NO branch will keep you, because you become un-deployable. Others tried the "I'm suicidal" route and ended up in the ONE part of the military that is wire-tight: the psyche ward. I, and a few others, tried to laterally transfer to the Army (not a difficult thing to do, in fact it's something a lot of people file for near the end of their contracts so they transfer over seamlessly). Now, an Army recruiter said they were in the market for junior personnel who had already been through basic, so they would take us without a job and just send us straight into school....but our command wouldn't release us (because undesignated sailors tend to have high rates of suicide, injury, AWOL and mental-health discharges, and the ones that see it through don't stay undesignated, then get a job as fast as fucking possible, and ships NEED that undesignated fodder). By merit of something being different in my paperwork, I was used as an example for the job classifier to explain to his trainees how to process me = I got first pick of jobs. It was between Submarine Sonar Technician and Mass Communication Specialist. Because I always liked watching the news to see the psychological undertones, thought politics were fascinating and liked writing, I entered the world of the camera guy.

Ft. Meade is weird, because the NSA owns half of it. If you stray too close to the fence running along the golf course (which I can't believe bases even have), men in suits would suddenly appear and demand ID (my wife almost hit a guy in a suit who was running across the road toward the golf course at like 11 at night). The length of my school qualified me for base-housing, thus I was able to live with my family again. School was easy to me, because I was well inoculated to stress by this point, but moreso most of the other Journalists were delicate, social butterflies. So when I volunteered for a Combat Camera position, people were THRILLED to have someone with fortitude

Example: we do this ruck-run to our graduation FTX in our uniforms, but you were allowed to wear sneakers. I did it in armor and boots and yelled cadences the whole time [I never led them, but I never stopped participating], then when the paintball portion came up, I was told to lead one of the student fireteams. We covered the instructors with paint in an overwhelming assault, but it wasn't that kind of exercise, and we all only had a hopper each[plus half of us were camera-guys for the evolution], so we were soon out of ammo. To boot, the other fireteam leader charged off to flank and didn't keep line-of-sight like I told him to. The result was the first class to be captured by the instructors [also the record SMALLEST class of 16 people], but I didn't feel bad because of how fucking sloppy the instructors were from paint, and I knew how much ammo THEY all had.

I was soon interviewed by an LT and a Senior chief whom I would later work for. In the conversation i mentioned something about COMCAM, and they told me they weren't form COMCAM. Turns out, COMCAM (Combat camera) is its own command that whores out to everyone. No, these guys were from the Public Affairs department of Naval Special Warfare Group 2, the umbrella command over the east coast SEAL Teams. I was ecstatic.

My tenure there would necessitate "advanced" video training (only advanced on paper) and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training. I will never tell you what that was like over the internet, that would be immoral (but more importantly, illegal). What I can say, was the worst part of SERE for me was being afraid of failing the class. I was terrified that I would lose my chance at Group 2 if I didn't make it through SERE (which I found out just wasnt true, there are people at Group who never went to SERE). Then, after being released form my bondage during the "Resistance" portion, I returned to my hotel room (after more than a week of being without contact with my wife) to hear her cheery and oh-so-punchable jubilation "Guess what honey, I'm pregnant again." She laughed when i told her how badly I wanted to domestically abuse her at the moment. The pizza that night never tasted better.

Group itself has been a learning experience to say the least. My wife got fixed (so no more kids), my son was born last December, my daughter turned three this year and my best friend from childhood recently failed Nuke School and ended up a GM on a ship that is docked at MY FUCKING BASE. I haven't seen him since I left Florida three years ago. I'm really stoked to hang out with him when I get back home, and he might be a long-term member of this project to which we find ourselves developing the blue-prints for(which would be cool because we would have an armorer). My small arsenal is growing (no homo), I'm able to get 2nd-hand gear from people throwing shit away at Group, I will be able to get more quality training to be able to pass on and I'm considering going into the Coast Guard after the Navy to learn some good anti-piracy shit (and never worry about deploying). Even if I do enlist though, I'm still looking at buying some land and inviting all of my like-minded friends who are having trouble existing in polite society to live there and share knowledge for the adventures of tomorrow.

Life's alright.

Eh well, since we're in a sharing mood.

I like to come here, there and anywhere really with a veil of scarcity to my identity. I don't know why, it makes me feel safe. I used to run around as a kid hiding in trees and the shadows, trying my best to be, I guess, a little ninja. I was pretty good too. I always liked sneaking up on my family and scaring them (hiding behind doors, corners, under the bed, sometimes climbing the roof and jumping down, kid stuff). Ironically, I too was born and partially raised in Florida (Pendrake, FL bro).

Then I moved to PA and things changed. Not really tough, stressful or oppressive, just droll, unexciting and laudable. Keeping it /K/ related, I use to walk around at night when it was really hot or I couldn't sleep. I liked to hide in these alleyways between houses (Allentown, though basically any ghetto-ish city has them) and evade the police, cause I could. I was always a bit anti-establishment, but never had the drive to do anything.

Until dubya got into office. Then I started seeing the economy fall. People loosing jobs faster than usual. Some of my friends becoming druggies, getting pregnant or shipping off to warzones. The few that did stay sane went to college, enlisted or became social recluses. I somehow stayed in the middle, a twisted Venn diagram concerning our disassociated youth.

With times like they are, fundamentalists yelling the rapture is coming, the Mayan calendar, Time Wave Zero becoming ever more prevalent, I feel like nothing really gets me to do anything anymore. Yeah I have a few guns, I have a wealth of info that the depts. would love to get a hold of (for scholarly reasons). I have some gear, and always ready for the SHTF scenario. BUt overall, I'd just like to be a part of something worthwhile, then settle on my tiny plot of land tending to me chickens.

I think we'd all like some sort of peace of mind, but first we'd want to be of something great and memorable.

SO what's up in everyone's lives? Anything cool or shitty going on?

I'm waiting for a day to leave. Estimates right now are the first week of October, but that can get pushed either way. I'm going to buy an Arsenal AK online the day before I leave so that it will be close to pick-up by the time I get home.

Taking two weeks of leave to catch the tail end of the Maryland Rennaissance Faire and get a tattoo at my wife's artist while I'm in the People's Republic.

Attended this big village meeting a few days ago. How big? ~1000 Villagers showed up. It's weird being surrounded by that many people (standing in the middle of the sitting crowd) with less than 30 Americans present, while the CO is presented with a ceremonial turban and robe. That guy from my "BlackHawk Down" photo was there too. I also drank this...drink that was basically a can of liquefied peach rings ( or at least tasted like it)

Well, Its staring to get a little colder out, at least in the mornings around here so Ill probably be going innawoods a lot more, maybe do some overnight camping, or just track animals for the hell of it. Where I live the woods really isnt fun at all during the summer, to get into the woods you pretty much have to hack away at blackberry bushes for a couple hours, and even after you get past the belt of "sharp and pointy plants" your pretty much just gonna trip and fall on your face due to massive undergrowth.
Once it gets cold enough most of the grass seems to disappear and the brambles/stinging nettles retreat from the main trails, and you can actually see dirt instead of a mass of ferns which are usually covering rotten branches over top of random holes.

I think I might take a more OPERATOR approach to my general innawoodsery, usually I just grab something sharp and go for a long hike, but I was thinking of maybe constructing some basic shelters, reading up on edible plants, tracking some of the thousands of deer, or hell, even just camping for a few days with minimal supplies.

So how's everyone doing?

No major developments to report: I've increased how much body armor I have, including miscellaneous pieces of flak. I FINALLY ordered those magnets I said I would a long time ago, so I'll be trying that sling option/supplemental method I described way back when. I bought some good rope, so I'll be trying to set up a rappel point somewhere to practice with the harness I got. I wear minimalist shoes (because I like strengthening my body) and I've found out how to take cheap walmart or combat boots and remove the sole without compromising the shoe's integrity, allowing, basically, lighter-weight leather boots. There's a gun store nearby that actually has AK magazines in stock, so I've been investing in those. Got a break-down survival bow, which is a lot of fun. Oh and I got a tattoo.

I wish there were virginia-fags nearby to do some training with.

Anybody else on here too?:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]