Wow! Just Wow!
This is probably going to be a highly disjointed, rambling entry, because I'm still going off the high of an intense and amazing conversation I had with my neighbor.My neighbor's name is Lou. I don't know his last name, but we end up having these chats by the pool patio of my apartment complex. The chats are invariably long(stretching out for hours), because there is just *sooo* much to talk about. I could be addicted to talking to this guy; his life experiences are mind-blowing. Truthfully, they are less two-way conversations than they are me asking him a lot of questions and him explaining things to me.Lou is a retired triple-tab, if I've got the term properly. This means he was in the airborne, the rangers and the Navy Seals. He was also in the special forces(he'd trained with them before his Navy Seal training, but after he'd finished Ranger school). Apparently having successfully passed all three training programs is exceedingly rare and during his time in the service, there weren't more than a dozen or so people with that honor. He was also part of the MAC(military advisory council) and while I'm still somewhat sketchy as to what it does/did, I think it basically is/was an effort to get the various branches of the military working together.He served for neary 23 years in the military, retiring a few years back, if I recall properly. When he retired, he retired as an E-9. Command Sergeant Major, which is I think the highest rank for the non-coms. In his time in the service, he had traveled to most of the countries on this planet. The stories he has to tell are vivid, rich and engrossing. At first, I admit I was a little skeptical. I mean, he almost sounds like a movie stereotype/hero. Yet, before meeting Lou, I met one of his army buddies and his army buddy, just in passing, had mentioned to me how he'd served under Lou's command in Gautemala(I didn't ask what they were doing there). Later I saw them together it was obvious Lou's buddy(whose name I don't recall), had tremendous respect for Lou. It was interesting watching their dynamic. Talking with Lou dispelled any lingering doubts. His knowledge of countries, including India(he'd been to Bombay/Mumbai once on his way to an op in Malaysia, I believe) was so extensive, so detailed that it could not be feigned. Nor could his attitude; the forcefulness of how he talked, the vivid detail of the experiences was something only someone who has lived through such events could portray.Lou doesn't look like your movie stereotype. In fact, I feel ashamed to say I thought he was just some redneck hick when I first saw him. He's got a mullet, a beer-belly and just doesn't look like what you'd envision an ex-special forces operator to look like. A closer look, however, revealed some very interesting tattoos. His right arm bore two tattoos. One was the Navy Seal Team 1 tattoo(apparently, each Seal Team ends up doing their own variation of the SF tattoo). The other was a rose in flames tattoo; it signified the death of his best friend, who'd died in Somalia during the sametime/event portrayed in the movie Black Hawk Down(Lou was one of several military advisors for the movie).He also speaks a lot of childhood memories. His grandmother had been a Jew in Germany during WWII. She'd survived by hiding her identity, by paying for papers that claimed she was a Catholic. He related to me some of his grandmother's experiences and they were just as engrossing as his own stories.I'm so tempted to try and tape-record our conversations, but I don't think he'd like that. He rarely gives me specific dates or places when he talks about his experiences and I'm guessing he's not supposed to discuss a lot of things. Apparently, the DOD(Department of Defense) still consults with him on certain issues and he eluded to having some ties in the intelligence community. However, he speaks emphatically about how he is done with that portion of his life, that he'd rather they not bother him anymore. Still, I just want to be a sponge, to soak up all he knows, all he's lived through. It's history, in the flesh. You don't get chances to meet people like that often.Our conversations also often run to politics and I feel...vindicated? Glad? Refreshed? Pleased? I don't know... just very satisfied, I guess, that his views and mine run so similar on so many topics. Oh, we're not exactly on the same page on everything. He's a lot more hardcore(you can just feel his military background creeping in when he gets hardcore) on some issues than I am. But I guess I enjoy our conversations, because he's very intelligent and knowledgeable when he speaks about politics and because he *knows* what he's talking about. He didn't sit in a classroom and have a professor explain to him what was going on in Somalia, a professor who has never been there and has next to no personal experiences on the topic(I speak with wrath on this for all the times I've heard professors miscommunicate many key social issues about India, having never been there themselves). He's been there. He's lived it. He's dealt with the local population, the military, and the politicians of those areas. He's got a wealth, a lifetime of experiences to draw from when making his conclusions and it *shows* in the way he speaks, the way he explains his position. Sure, he's rough around the edges, he's no great public speaker, but I prefer that. I'll take depth and quality any day over eloquence.Anyway, I've rambled on this for long enough. He's promised to let me borrow a couple of DOD Navy Seal training tapes sometime in the next month or so; he's getting them from a friend of his in the DOD, I believe. I think they want him to review it and give his input on the tapes. I've been sworn to keep the tapes to myself. I'm sure they're not top secret or anything, but they probably don't want the tapes sold off to some media outlet.I still can't believe this guy is my neighbor. Then again, Navy Seals need to live somewhere too, right?