The invincibility of youth

I was on a dice game Saturday night when a player shouts my name from across the pit.

Now, there's nothing unusual about that. My stick calls tend to carry, and my resemblance to fat white comedians, both living and dead attracts attention. But this group of kids knew me from a few months earlier when they had spent their wedding party on our dice game. They were Navy, schooling in Gulfport but based in Pensacola.

Now school is almost done, but instead of going to their home bases (Virginia and San Diego, evenly splitting the group of eight or so) their graduation meant the start of what they termed an "unscheduled" deployment to Afghanistan. So, party they did anyway.

During a lull about a quarter of the way through the night, I asked one of the kids what they were schooling in. He kinds of gets a serious face and says "EOD."

"For F***'s sake," I say. "Explosive Ordinance Disposal? Why don't you do something easy like BUDs or something?" (BUDs being the training for SEALs.)

After the kid gets through wiping his drink from his nose and laughing, we proceed to tear up the rest of the evening. I wish I could remember all the jokes and one liners from the night, but lots would be lost anyway because for most of it you had to be there.

I wish them well, and I thank them for their service.