1. Noticed that in a lot of your stories you were in a bar drinking...is that a large part of your trips overseas? No, that is a large part of being a drunk! Well, the thing of it is is that most of what we do is just really boring--it is hard strenuous difficult but boring. So yes, if your in the field enough interesting stuff happens but mostly its getting eaten alive by bugs and hiding from people that aren't there. It took us 14 hours to drive 120 Ks in afghanistan and we were going as fast as we could---perhaps you'd like to hear about it? So anyway, you get out of the field and my generation headed to the bar. Particularly if you are working with foreign nationals--it is pretty much a must.
And what about when in the US? Are guys on the Teams really big drinkers or is most of that fiction? Most guys in the Teams are big everything--doesn't matter what it is 100 miles and hour. Incedently, that includes family community and church activities, for those who so choose. A lot of guys don't drink at all--and just about noone has real drinking probalems--too hard a life for that. But if the party is on--it is on 110%
1a. What is the weirdest thing you have ever drank and from where? I don't know that it was weird, but we were drinking rum with our Columbian counterparts and it was horrible--but you couldn't let on that it was horrible cause that would have insulted them---waking up the next morning I think I should have just insulted them. Though back when I was an Ensign, Junior officers could still attend Chiefs initiation. I was my new Chiefs defense attorney. I was accused of lying and told I could either confess or drink truth serum--I drank the truth serum which was some combination of cottage cheese tobasco, worchester, egg, pepper and other things I could not identify. Told I was aparticularly good liar I was ordered to drink it again--and again----then they threw out my testimony and found my Chief guilty anyway
2. So I laugh at the term Frog Hog...was it really that bad? No, Frog Hogs are wonderful--if you are single. It is one of those terms that is endearing unless you really mean it. But alas, legend far exceeds reality---And were women like that everywhere? Well---the boys general seemed to have a pretty good time---problem was that everyone knew we were in town for about two days (unless you are talking Va BEach or Coronado) so it wasn't like there was a lot of mystery about it
3. Where were the hottest women? Currently Martha's Vineyard. Before that Virginia Beach. Seriously, I tend to appreciate women for there intellect the strong sense of values and professionalism.
Columbia, Palma, and right here in the ol' USA
4. How long is your "Honey Do" list?That makes the assumption there is an end to it.
5. Did you iron your own uniforms?If there was not an Admiral or a General involved there was not an iron involved---and even then it was touch and go.
6. What is the crappiest place you have slept? Ft Lauderdale Municple Jail---30 guys, one working toilets two unworking toilets and six iron racks--yeah buddy no doubt about it. You don't really sleep---you just kind of rest--so it is hard to say. Spent about 72 hours in a swamp and that sucked. Weeks on end in the jungle but you kind of get use to it. Spent a week on the mosquito coast in Honduras---that was terrible--everything that flew or crawled bit, had no fear of repellant and sought only to die for one precious bite of flesh---yeah that rival Ft Lauderdale--that one was about two weeks. And the best? Headed there in a few hours! Aside from that, I forget the name of the hotel but it was a five star hotel in Bahrain--went there for some medical stuff after a helo crash and that was sweet! (Didn't make it to any of the palaces in Iraq)
7. Longest time without a shower? Well, its been about a month now----probably a month or so.
8. Best beer you have had? Well I went to Germany, Scotland, England--hard to say. There was a great beer in Columbia but I forget the name. Caleb maybe? Worst? a black label I stole from my parents house when I was about 14--neither of my folks drank so it was about 15 years old--and I didn't know it wasn't suppose to be that bad---errch
two best whiskeys--one after I finished Hellweek and one after my leading my first raid
9. New Mustang or Old Mustang? If Old, what year? Or do you even care? I don't ride horses
10. And I applaud you for hanging out with a bunch of women...but with one of them being my wife, I have to ask if you are nuts? I suffer from lost traumatic stress syndrome--if I don'tdo something dangerous I start to get wiggy--nah, I just stopped in cause I thought it was a hoot that an article about my BUDS class launched such an empire--but, it helps me write some stories and think--which is not a rquisite in my job