Early this morning at 7am I had a session with Howie Wright from The Law Tigers for an interview spot. Those are the hardest to produce because of time constraints but having done this with Howie over the phone a number of times, I knew we’d be fine and could knock this out.

Since the subject of the spot included Veterans, we dove into his career as US Marine. Having served 10 deployments to the Middle East, his accommodations literally ran over a page I was looking at. He had seen a lot. He told me on one of his deployments to how his platoon leader was a huge history buff and they stumbled upon what appeared to be a pyramid in Iraq. Very odd. This was surrounded by archaeological ruins. Turned out his senior officer knew it just happen to be the burial tomb of Abraham.

Mind blown.

This subject matter of Military life hits close to home as I grew up in a military family. We’d followed my father on numerous deployments, including stateside and numerous overseas tours. So, Howie and I of course hit it off talking about all things military.

Travel. Living in a foreign country and all that entails. Learning about the local customs, culture, and traditions.

My father being stationed to the Pentagon in DC, had us close to some of the iconic military bases like Ft. Belvoir (Army) and Quantico (Marines), which brought a smile to Howie.

We also laughed how my family would go to Camp Lejeune in NC, another Marine Base, that had a long stretch of beach we would visit for vacation. That beach was majestic and pristine, and you could walk along it’s sandy shores but only up to a point.

You had to stop at a huge sign warning people not to pass, because just on the other side of that sign, Navy and Marine planes including the Harrier would be practicing live fire-bombing runs. Yes with explosions, fire, the big boom… the works. Howie knows of it well.

The biggest kick we had as we fist bumped heading out the door after our conversation captured on hard drive for my spot, was when I was walking him out and said, “You know Howie, there’s nothing quite like the smell of Jet A in the morning on a beach!”

Belly roll laughs.

For the uninitiated, that’s aviation fuel. You may smell that any time you go to an airport.

I like Howie a lot and it was fun walking down memory lane this morning with him.

Thank you for your service sir. Semper Fidelis!

Pictured: U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct deck landing qualification aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan during Amphibious Ready Group, MEU exercise in the vicinity of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Aug. 23, 2019. (Picture source U.S. Marines)

#travel #culture #military #aviation #usmarines #writing