Sometimes, it’s amazing what memories the mind will present themselves in the foreground of our consciousness. After a lot of years have gone by, I started thinking about a group that I used to be a member of that was very special to me for a lot of different reasons. In that light, let’s take a short trip back through time and visit with some very special people I used to know.
A long time ago (mid 80’s), in a land far, far away (Korea), there were four friends named Bruce, Mike, Wendy, and Troy. These four individuals worked in the same place, and lived in the same barracks. All four were of a certain age, and all were good at their jobs. When they weren’t hard at work defending freedom in the Republic of Korea, they formed the core of an elite drinking unit not often seen in the history of humanity. Collectively, they were known as De Paw or The OB Patrol.
These four shared similar tastes in music and fun, and if you saw one of them, you generally saw all of them. When they were not occupying their normal seats in the infamous and now defunct OB Club, they were out and about terrorizing other bars in the Taegu metropolitan area. They drank like fishes, stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, and laughed constantly. The humor was never what anyone would call politically correct, although none of it was ever vicious.
Each of these individuals was a little different than the others, but in spite of those differences, they formed a friendship, a bond, that some people failed to understand. Their First Sergeant was both amused and annoyed by their antics, although deep down he knew that the mischief they caused was merely harmless fun. The trouble they caused was never serious, and they always kept him guessing about what they would do next.
The night when Troy was on Charge of Quarters and had to bail the other three out of jail for taunting the military police with calls of “Book ‘em Danno” as they charged out the gates swinging open bottles of whiskey. The Halloween when Mike and Troy, after getting thrown out of the Hollywood Club, stole every single beer glass the club owned out of their storage area. The infamous “Pool Party”, where the four of them bought a childs wading pool, filled it with water, then sat around it drinking “Jungle Juciea”, a vile liquid that was approximately 95% alcohol. ”Table Surfing” at the OB Club. Thunder runs. Bruce’s physical training test, where Bruce completed his two-mile run and proceeded to puke approximately 50 gallons of beer into the potted plants in front of the Post Chapel.
These incidents, and many more like them, made these intrepid warriors Legends in Their Own Time.
And so much for my attempt at spinning a magical story.
Bruce, Mike and Wendy were my best friends. Back in those days, we were pretty much inseparable, and closer than brothers and sisters. In the 23 years since we parted ways, I’ve come to realize that they were probably the best friends I’ve had in my life up until now. Throughout the years, when life has thrown me some curves or has decided to shit all over me, my mind would sometimes think of them, and regardless of the circumstances, I would have to smile. We were all young and little crazy, and got into some situations that I still can’t believe we made it through without going to jail or getting our asses kicked.
Thanks to social networking sites, three of the four of us have reconnected, and I’m looking for the fourth. We’re now learning about what the others have been up to in the past quarter century. For me, I think it’s cool to reconnect with old and dear friends, and see what direction their lives have taken. We’ve all gone down different paths, but from what I have gotten from Bruce and Mike, all of us look back on those times with fondness. Crazy,fun times, but also very special.
The OB Patrol: Too Hip – Gotta Go.
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