Shipmates

If you've been reading for awhile you know I'm a retired Naval Aviator.  It was a great career!  I got to go places and do things that most can only imagine.  Flying off ships at sea.  Defending the country.  Seeing a lot of exotic places.  Making a difference.  And my wife and family were all in.  I think it was good for them and they appreciated the life.  We all had some great times.  Most of the time that is.  Don't get me wrong, there were some tough times.  Dealing with deployments, separations, the demands of the job, dangers, even deaths in the line of duty were difficult.  But we all pulled together and got thru the tough times.  And that made the good times even better.

But the greatest thing were the relationships, the friendships, the shipmates!  We made wonderful, life long friends.  People you can count on.  People who you might not see for years, even decades, and when you see them again it's just like you saw them last week.

I was reminded of this phenomenon this week.  We had the annual Naval Helicopter Association Symposium here in SoCal and were able to see many old shipmates.  We had some people to dinner who we hadn't seen and hadn't seen each other in literally decades.  And we picked right up where we left off.  It was amazing!  Laughter and reminisces prevailed.  It was great.  So I got to thinking about the life we all shared.  I've now had about 13 years in the private sector and I've never seen the kind of relationships develop that I now cherish from my Navy days.  I'm always very proud of my service to my country.  But I'm even prouder of the friendships that we've developed over the years.  It is a special and unique thing.