The one that got away....

After speaking with a buddy of mine, I have decided to elaborate on an earlier post where I referenced another Marine who went home on leave and never came back to Ramadi. As before, I won't name him now, let's call him DJ. He, and the rest of the Company and most of the Battalion, knows who he is and will have to live with that for the remainder of his days. As stated before, I returned from Baghdad to arrive at Combat Outpost on April 8th. The two day battle of the 6th and 7th had ended and I was being regaled with tales of combat. That day, DJ received word that his mother was in the hospital and wanted him to come home. He asked a few of us what he should do. I said to take the 10 day emergency leave so he could see his mom, all present agreed. What I didn't know is, he had been making inquiries with the Corpsmen on how to remain stateside. He took the leave and was on a truck that evening. Nearly two weeks went by and we started to wonder, "Where the hell is DJ?" At first, I figured that there had been a transportation issue, no big deal, right? Another week, okay, it's no transportation SNAFU. The Company Clerk makes a few calls on the sat phone and discovered that not only had DJ put in for a leave extension, his mother had been out of the hospital for a week and was doing fine. This information came directly from DJ's father. Another month goes by and we get word that his family had hired a lawyer. The official word was, his mother was still in the hospital and would take months to recover. The word from those that were not able to deploy or had been wounded was that he was sitting on his butt at home taking advantage of the lack of supervision. This news incensed everyone from the Company Commander on down. He never set foot in the Middle East again. When I returned on the advanced party, he was one of those unloading our gear off the truck. I had forgotten about him for months. One look and I wanted to knock his head off his shoulders. Fortunately, for us both, my wife had decided to surprise me by driving to Camp Pendleton to meet me when I got off the bus. I spent a wonderful weekend with my wife and family, allowing me to calm down enough to have him within earshot. None the less, he remained ostracized from the rest of the Marines. The chain-of-command couldn't send him to the Camp Guard Force fast enough. I was outside my room, talking with a few guys, when we saw him walk by on patrol. He was overheard to say how messed up it was for them to not grant him leave with the rest of battalion. Upon hearing that, one of the guys lost it on him. I would have joined in had I not found it so funny. Enough said on that topic.