Moments of Honesty

"Honestly?" I'd rather hear more stories of honesty biting people in the ass.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Couldn't be further from the truth, actually.

PS: Hi, racin. Still in pussy mode, I see.

Additional Spam:
Aw, no stories, guys?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Jessykins <3

Hahaha FUCKIN' DISSED. Man, nobody likes you, Eric.

Now, now, 8 whole people and up won't get me down. It's like a victory each time I get a diss and none of them actually come in and share their little magic tales of daring wonder like we were all back in elementary school talking about values and shit.

Some serious elementary school shit right here, lemme tell you.

I got left behind at the vehicle wash racks right toward the end of my deployment in Iraq. There's this huge thing in the Army about never leaving anyone behind, always having accountability. So I was pretty damned pissed to be left behind the last weekend of October 2007 after letting folks know I was headed to the rest area while we waited for our ride back to another base camp in Kuwait.

Turns out what had happened was the Sergeant who was supervisor for the folks from my unit said that he was "up" on numbers without having actually taken a headcount. It was some serious Home Alone shit when they got back and realized they had left me back at the racks.

Now, the thing about this was that I had told my own folks I was gonna be at the break area. You could not imagine the attempts made by several folks in my chain of command who so wanted to bust me for negligence but couldn't because of the fact I told damn near every person in the wash crew where I was. It was a pretty good laugh at my expense, but I have to admit that the fact that no one who actually had to be held accountable at that time wanted to just man the fuck up and tell me to my face "Hey, we fucked up."

Granted, that Sergeant tried to make amends, he never went whole hog in admitting that he had just left me without taking a head count. There was always a "But you should know the flow of your fellow team members" and shit. I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion while sitting on your ass for nearly 3 hours waiting to get picked up from another base camp in a non-hostile zone, but there you go.

Well... actually, there was one guy who fessed up.

Sergeant First Class Symonds. Pay Grade E7, working toward his retirement in the US Army. I'll never forget that man, from the time I worked with him at an out site earlier that year during the deployment to what little contact I had with him during my short month at the wash racks in Kuwait. He did his best within the military system to take care of his people, directly or indirectly in his command or, in this case, authority. While he wasn't directly in charge of me, he seemed to be the only one to realize the gravity of what had happened that day where I was left behind.

The potential ramifications of what would have happened if our Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major would have found out would have resulted in a few reprimands and even a few demotions. Possibly my own if I hadn't done what I did to cover my own ass at that time.

When people you would supposedly die for/with/etc, leave you for the sake of, all things, a few hours of down time... it doesn't say a lot about the military you're in and the people you serve with. And that never sat well with SFC Symonds. He pulled me aside that evening and, fighting back tears of all things, told me that it wasn't my fault and that it was a fucked up situation I was put in. That it was an embarrassment to the United States Army and the people who called themselves leaders to just take off and leave someone just to get home a little faster.

"I know what a lot of people are trying to spin this as, but it wasn't your fault, and I'm sorry you went through this."

People aren't honest because it's fucking sunshine. They aren't honest because they want to get back at someone. People emit honesty and act sincerely because they have a sense of character and worth that's actually worth more than a cheap fucking smile at the end of the day or a worthless gesture.

I like hearing about people who get fucked over being honest not because I want to see someone fucked over, but because it reminds me that this isn't some limp-wristed, fatalist shit to tell the truth and be honest. I got all of that garbage when I was a child. You do it because you're paying forth something better to your fellow man than cheap sentiment, it makes society better when you're real about what honesty means.

So fuck anyone who thought I wanted to get a cheap internet laugh outta people.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.