Tuna In The Brine

It's been a wet month. It's been rainy, and many tears have been shed - i'm glad it will be over in an hour or so. Kim told me the other day that January is always the worst month in the year, and I think she's got a point - my mom always told me that getting started is the hardest part.

I've fought with friends this month, very real, awful sort of fights that adults have, not that we have when we're teenagers. Fights about serious subjects and commitments and they haven't all gone well. Some of those fights are over and we've moved past it. Others... I won't say that friendships are over or lost, but we arent speaking. That sort of thing hurts, especially when, in retrospect, I think we both realize that a lot of us not talking is simply out of anger and frustration because we do care, not because we don't. It hurts that we aren't speaking, but I don't think either of us are willing to make the first move just yet. The hurt is still too fresh - I'm sorry, but I'm hurt and wounded too.

We lost another shipmate. A friend, someone who I saw almost every day- Devin Mellinger, who was my Division Commander. He was found in his car on the side of the road last Tuesday, dead from a heart attack. He was my age, and he would have graduated with me in April. I stepped into line during formation on Wednesday, and I saw Nick in front - then Julian made the announcement. I had heard earlier in the day, during my 7:50 class that morning, but it wasn't real until he wasn't standing there, 6 feet from me in line. It's been a lot harder on me than I thought it would be, harder on all of us. We've lost two of our own this past year, and I can't think of the last class that's had any deaths, let alone two - i'm not really sure what to think or feel right now. Devin was a damn fine friend, shipmate, marine, and human being.

The wind is whistling, the building is infested with ants, its raining cats and dogs, I lost my keys.

Bring on month 2, 2008.

Ben

On Sunday, we lost one of the best guys here at the academy. Ben Daviscourt was involved in a fatal accident on sunday, while the TSGB was in Viet Nam. According to some of the news reports i've seen, he got ahead of the group and fatally hit his head after falling about 100 feet down a slippery, rocky slope on a recreational hiking and swimming tour north of Da Nang. Ben was a good guy and a great shipmate - he had a great sense of humour and one of those guys who was very outdoorsy; the kind of person you want to hang around if he's at the party. In the time that I knew him, I was always impressed by the way he dealt with people. It just came naturally to him.

I can only imagine how devastated our friends on the bear are - you get so much closer to people when you're out on cruise and here at school we're all tripping out pretty bad.



RIP Ben. Your friends and shipmates will miss you, and may your memory be a blessing to all of us that were so lucky to have known you.