10

We talked until midnight chow. It was the second night in a row that I would skip sleeping in order to hang out with W___.
After we sat down in the dining room for midnight chow, Gadly -- who I work with at my duty station -- came up to me in the chow hall, asking some work-related question, but quickly turned his attention to W__, sitting beside me.
_Are you the guy who was talking to me outside the MWR?_ he asked angrily.
W____ set his pepsi down on the table, and turned his attention away from the game playing on the tv in front of us. _First of all, I’m not the guy, I’m the sergeant, and yes I’m the one who got on you outside the MWR._
_What’s wrong with you that you’d just walk up to someone and ask ‘where’s your cover and weapon.’ I mean where the f-ck did you get the idea --_
W__ turned his whole body this time, to face Gadly. _-- Are you ever going to address me properly?_
_What by calling you sergeant? F-ck no. Never in my life will I ever address you as sergeant --_
W__ held up his hand, _Okay. You’re done. Have a nice night._
_No, I’m not done --_
_You’re done, have a nice night._
_-- you don’t seem to know who I am; I’m Gadly! No one can talk to me that way! I’ll beat your ass._ But as he was saying these things he was walking toward the exit door for of the chow hall.
His talking to no one in general like that was causing a scene and everyone sitting in the chow hall had become his audience. _No one talks to me like that. I’m Gadly,_ he said loudly to himself, as the exit door closed behind him.
I thought of Joe, I thought of how mental illness crept up on people, how you could never tell who a person really was when they were on this side of the pond.
W__ looked at me and grinned. _The first sergeant said he only needed one more incident. And he just gave it to me. After I write this up, he’s going to be locked up till the end of the deployment, then escorted to the states._
I tagged along with W__ as he sought out his own sergeant in order to let him know the good news that another incident had happened.
Technically I was the witness, and I was glad to have a solid reason to be there, since the fact that W__ and I were friends still hadn’t settled into me yet.
I watched as W__ told his E7 the story, how the E7 was pleased that they could finally take real legal action against Gadly, how the E7 said W__ had done a good job, had handled things well.
After about twenty minutes of this, W__ didn’t notice that the E7 had now taken a posture of waiting for W__ to leave -- it was one in the morning -- but W__ likes to talk, especially when he’s successful at something.
Despite his being promoted to Sergeant W___ still looked like the youngster I’ve always known, with that grin and that puppy dog-like need to be told he’s done good.
To appease the E7 I suggested it was getting time to get W__ packed for his chopper-ride out of the FOB, and W__ agreed.
That night was my first real dealings with seeing W__ as a sergeant. They called me Sergeant, I thought to myself, Even though I wasn’t one. I was simply doing the job -- running troops, getting our unit across the Atlantic, taking care of the soldiers logistically, despite having little training in what I was doing. They called me Chuck, for the first two months of the deployment, but then, for the three after that, they called me Sergeant, out of respect, even the E7s called me Sergeant.
It was when the scandal about my chain of command began to break that no one would speak to me or sit with me in the chow hall, except K___.
An entire unit of joes, who didn’t necessarily get along with each other, all had agreed to call me Sergeant. W___ knows the Army regulations by heart, even the paragraphs and line numbers, he knows the policies, down to the wording. He‘s always been ridiculously smart.
I’ve always felt like a cave man compared to him. I’ll never be as good a Sergeant as him because of that. I know his jobs in the military are pretty simple, they only take a few weeks to learn, while my job took two years to master, but I’m not intellectually oriented like he is, as a Sergeant I’d still be a working man, while he’s more a Professional.
I helped W__ carry his bags out onto the flight line.
Muc___ was there and asked about K___.
_Maybe he only wanted to be friends during the deployment,_ I said, _But not after, who knows._ I didn’t feel hurt.
Conversation on the flight line was easy, fun. Muc__ seemed to find W__ and mine’s stories funny and cool, all our past adventures together.
Finally, the birds were expected and W__ had to go.
_In case I never see you again--_ I said, beginning to walk away.
_-- you’ll see me again--._ he said.
_-- but chances are .. have a good trip._
And with that he was gone.
Both me and House had to be on a convoy and 0500 so I went back to my tent to get my weapon and ammo ready and get my gear on.
It was my third day with no sleep. I guess I haven’t wanted to miss a moment.
During the convoy House remained curled up in the corner of the vehicle. He opened and closed his eyes, like he was deciding whether he might could catch some sleep. He looked at me and smiled, _This is our first adventure Chuck._

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At FOB ___, House stayed with me. As we worked and played he wouldn’t let me put my hand in front of my face when I smiled, always swatting it away. He wouldn’t let me be too nice, jokingly scolding me for my over-politeness. He bought me a dvd set, Flight of the Conchords. He set up our hanging out post deployment, talking about parties, get-togethers, his friends and family. I caught him watching me as a I ate, looking at me like he found me so great.
Forest__ worked with us most of the day, their was an ease to it, the four of us cutting up constantly, us cool guys, playing around all day, to the point of play fighting. I felt like I belonged.
I think about the dreams, of who I really am, and what I’ve experienced.
Something strange happened, and me and House had to suddenly dismount during the convoy back. I took a breath, remembering how normal IEDs and shootings were here.
_Okay so if they come from over there, we’ll flank to the left, and if it comes from over there, we’ll flank to the right._
I looked at him blankly.
_I’m just f-cking with you, Chuck._
Upon arriving back to our home FOB, I checked to see if the flight had taken place. It had. W__ was gone.

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