I came across a lovely piece of article by one of my many loyal readers, Leland. He gave me a little piece of insight of military life.
I do hope you enjoy as much as I do!
DISCOVER CHALLENGE
Chance Encounter
World’s 10 Greatest Train Journeys
The many decades of the old steam locomotives will be remembered as some of the greatest years of mankind. Countless movies have been made, books have been written, stories told and retold about murder, romance, mystery, and all taking place on those old Steam Locomotive railroad trains. We have to love them and be thankful, there are still many railroads in use today around the world. Millions of people said goodbye by to their loved ones and never saw them return to train stations all over the world during the war years.
It was a sad loss to man to see the old steam locomotive disappear from use by progress. It was replaced by diesel locomotives. One of the most famous trains was the Orient Express, all other luxury trains worldwide tried to emulate what they were doing. I’m going to leave a URL link here to a website about the World’s 10 Greatest Train Journeys.
Chance encounters are not likely to happen to every Tom, Dick and Mary.That got me to thinking. Why not try to increase your odds of having a very rewarding chance encounter? I do believe it is possible to increase your chances at least a hundred fold by joining the US Military Service. Every good thing in this world or almost everything worth having comes with a cost. Sometimes that costs can be rather high, depending upon what you hope to obtain.This story is about chance encounters. If you do join the military service, you will first have a mandatory encounter. There is no way around it, that might be the price you are going to pay for your awesome chance encounter later, which hopefully will come within a few short years.
Your first encounter will be during your basic training. That will be your drill instructor, a person you will never forget. You won’t have to do anything out of the ordinary or wrong that drill instructor will be right in your face. Each person will no doubt have a very close encounter with him, it is part his job and he loves it. He will be looking right down into your face during this encounter. They must have a height requirement for that reason! With his face inches from your’s he starts screaming, you must be the most stupid thing that your mother ever gave birth to. He will ask, “Do you think you can do anything right?” Then he will step on your shiny shoes and scuff them all up as he moves along to the next man in the outfit. You spent all night shining those shoes to see your reflection in them. This basic training was designed to get the recruits ready to go out and defeat the enemy, or was it to go out and defeat the first person you meet on the street who you can look down at?
After boot camp is far behind you and your training school is completed, your chances of having this chance encounter are starting to gain momentum. You have a very good chance of being sent off to some exotic land on the other side of the world. There will be many beautiful ladies and handsome gentlemen and you will have opportunities for chance encounters during your military years. This can be the most rewarding time of your life. You have to go about it. Slowly and with purpose and doing your best at being a good unofficial ambassador for the United States of America. Uncle Sam frowns on any robbing, raping or pillaging being done by his troops, as some conquering armies have done in the past.
There are many military installations that you might be sent to, that is why it’s very important in your early years to keep your nose clean and walk the straight and narrow line. If you screw up, it can determine your next assignment. You don’t want to end up on one of those bases that are on the don’t go to list. Your odds of finding a chance encounter of any kind there would be about the same as a snowball making it through Hell. Thule Greenland and the Aleutian Islands come to mind, there are now many new bases in desert countries where you have plenty of beaches but no water, alcohol, tobacco, movies, women, and a few other things on the no-no list too.
Many of the troops who end up stationed in these isolated installations pretty much give up on chance encounters. They start looking for purposeful encounters, to say the least. Most of these military bases have a small area right outside of their main gate that is made up completely of nightclubs, bars, and a red light district, with many options available to those not having discriminating taste, who are more and search of relief than romance. The troops don’t have to walk very far and they will find pretty much everything to satisfy their needs.The menu will no doubt include short time, with alarm clock, long time without a clock, or all night stay, something there for everyone. One new arrival asked, “What is that long line standing out in the cold in front of that one building?” When he found out it was for a short time visit he couldn’t believe his ears. He said, “I don’t mind standing in the chow line but that is ridiculous.”
Military life is possibly one of the best places to raise your family, be a career military family. Your family can travel the globe with you and learn a vast knowledge about life in different countries. Most military installations are in well-populated areas, located and situated for the comfort of the service personnel who reside there. There are much more pluses than minuses.
If your chance encounter led you to that person meant for you, bring him or her back, or stay in the country where you met and live happily ever after. A fairy tail ending to a chance encounter in some far away place.
We can all pretend to be with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall on the Orient Express.What great memories! But reality brings us back down to earth and we have to go for chance encounters where they can be found. I do believe serving in the United States Military is possibly one of the greatest places to achieve that chance encounter from your dreams.
Want to know more about Leland and his thoughts? Come and join me as one of his followers at https://lghoelson.wordpress.com.
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