Today
is one of the most important events of my life. I will be reunited with a group
of men that I haven't seen in almost 7 years. Some of this countries finest
Soldiers. Although all of them won't be in attendance due to most of us still
actively serving our military and government. One of our brothers lost his life
earlier this year. This will be an opportunity to not only celebrate his life
but to celebrate that we still have ours to live. Most of us have kept contact
through Facebook and phone calls but have not physically seen each other since
2005. I left the Army the very same year after we returned from Iraq. To be
honest, I never thought I would see any of them again and would have been
perfectly fine with that. The tour in Iraq drained the life out of me as I'm
sure it did to many others. Unfortunately, you could never turn your back on
your brothers. Men that have seen you at your best and worst. Men that covered your
ass when shit got intense . We did our job and we did it well, but most
importantly we did it together. We are the great men of 1st Platoon (Vipers).
Some of our brothers aren't ready for this epic journey and completely
understand and will not hold it against them. For us who are, we make the trip
to Las Vegas and recharge the bond. The very same bond that kept us
together......and alive. Most of us have never talked about that part of our
life but what better time than now. To share it with the very same men that
were apart of it...apart of what made you who you are today. I'm not sure what
to expect out of this trip or how it will turn out. A good man once said,
" You miss all of the shots you never take". Today I will take my
shot.
Well
I landed in Las Vegas safely and so did my luggage. My hotel of choice for this
Vegas trip would be Circus Circus and I hopped in the cab and headed there.
First thing I will say is looking at it from the outside you think to yourself,
"Man....this is a ShitHole". The inside is a lot better and the room
I stayed in was up there with the Marriott and Hilton and so was the room
service. I only paid like 60 bucks a night and I would recommend this as a
cheap but good place to stay. The only problem is that its almost at the end of
the strip. My old platoon sergeant Mark called me and told me we would be
meeting at the Lynyrd Skynyrd Bar-b-que restaurant inside the Excalibur Casino
in about an hour. So I catch a cab there and walk into the restaurant and take
a seat. In walks Mark and my old platoon leader Nate and they all looked the
same way they did 7 years ago. The 3 of us take our seats, order drinks, and
pick up right where we left off from 2005. We caught up on old times and talk
about or tour in Iraq. I couldn't help but notice that out of a platoon of over
30 Soldiers, only 3 of us showed up. I can't speak for Nate and Mark but I was
totally disappointed with that. Granted I understand that some are deployed or
cant get away from their jobs. The bottom line is this, some people said they
were going to come and didn’t and we got over that fairly quick. On another
note the Restaurants food was pretty damn good and all the waitresses wore
cowboy boots and booty shorts except for the one taking care of our
table....She was pregnant. After we were done eating we went over to some of
the tables in the casino to gamble a little bit. The 1st table of choice was
craps, and let me tell some of you this, if you have ever shot dice (Craps) in
the streets, it does not work on casino tables. The employees don't like our
bad habits and will give you the, "this guy must be cheating cause he's
doing dice tricks and saying things that rhyme" look. After we left that
casino we walked around a little bit and ran into some guys from England. If
you have ever seen the Episode of Family Guy where the Clam (Local Bar) closes
down and some guys from England bought it? Well that’s how these guys looked
and talked . The one ring leader of the group always seemed to have an extra
watery mouth and the hardest thing he
had to do every day was keep control of it. They all had that extremely deep English
accent. The accent sounds amazing if your James Bond or Victoria Beckham but
not if you look like characters off of Austin Powers. So no shit there I
was...Check Liver Light on and my Bladder on full. My bladder tells me it’s
time to find the nearest bathroom and my feet lead the way. I go right into the
women’s bathroom walking fast as hell pulling out my garden hose getting ready
to water the grass. Soon as I got into a stall the bathroom attendant says,
"Hey, you better put that thing away and get outta here" There were
some other women yelling something but it sounded inviting as I put my hotdog
and pork and beans back in my pants and picked up a 8 minute mile pace running
out of the bathroom. What I will say is, from the time I walked in the bathroom
til when I came out all happened in about 6 seconds flat. At around 5 am something interesting happened.
You know when your car gets really low on gas, fuel light comes on, and the
instrument panel shows you how many miles you got until your car breaks down?
Well my body told me I had 20 minutes to get back to the room or it would break
down. I mean you gotta think we had been drinking since 2pm that day and it was
5am the next morning. So I stumble into the room and dive on the bed. I start
to here that liquid sound in my stomach every time I roll over. Into the
bathroom I go fingers down my throat with a mental thought of 2 Girls one cup
meets a dirty china town buffet with flies on the food and that works. Not a
fucking ounce of food in this toilet just straight captain morgan. I hop right
in bed and pass the fuck out around 530am. Wake up around 12pm and order a
pizza and lemonade. 20 minutes later someone knocks on the door and the food is
here. "I can bring it in and put it on the table for you, " the hotel
lady says. I take the pizza, soda, and pay her all before she could finish that
sentence. I dont really remember what happen later on that night. I know I went
and got an Iphone at one point during this trip. We also took a trip down to
the old strip to see the Pawn Stars place and the older casino's. Mark says to
Nate, "We should just walk to the old strip". Me and Nate look at
each other with the ,"We dont feel like walking face" Mark convinces
us to walk anyway. The old Strip is pretty good. The average age down there has
to be at least 75 years old. Also dont ever walk to the strip, walking there
looks like a scene out of the movie, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome".
Once you actually get there your good and I would recommend you go here if you
ever go to Vegas. I know one of our nights here we called it quits at a pretty
decent time. I remember the cab driver telling me about a strip club called,
"Sapphire". I figure sense it was only two blocks away I could go
there by myself and hang out for a bit. That place was stacked pretty damn
well. They had nothing but 8 through 10's in there. Just imagine going to a night
club to dance and your squeezing through the crowd. In this case the crowd
happened to be strippers. Strippers at the bars drinking, strippers giving
other strippers lap dances, Strippers using strippers as furniture while
getting a dance for another stripper lol. You remember when Michael Jackson was
in his prime and performing on stage? Do you know what would happen to him if
he would have jumped into the crowd? Well thats what happens when you walk
around in Sapphire. I was scared to sit down because every time I did a 10 when
try to come sit on my lap. And I don't mean sit like how you used to sit your
ass cheek on one of grandma's legs either. I mean sit on your lap and
potentially become pregnant sit on your lap lol. I did two laps around the
club. You know what’s funny is whenever I would see a 10, I would put my head
down and not make eye contact. They are trained very well there and know
exactly what to say and do. The men there walk around in a zombie like trance
being pulled by the strippers. They say they have well over 200 women a night
there and if you counted it would be pretty damn close. So our last night in
Vegas we decided to go to a dinner buffet. As I'm in the line getting food I
look behind me and Mark has a plate and mouth full of food as well as a slice of
pizza in his hand. We all sit down and halfway through Nate loosen ups his belt
to make room for desserts. We pounded our faces with tons of food. What’s
interesting about coming to Vegas this time is the trip wasn't really meant for
fun. It was more so to recharge the bond that was formed years ago on the
battlefield. For me, it was an important piece on the path to accepting and
letting go of things that happened in Iraq. Even though we didn't spend our
whole entire trip talking about these things, just being able to be around them
and reminisce was all I needed. Watching them make fun of each other just the
way they did years ago was priceless. There was never a quiet moment and no
matter what we did or where we went in Vegas, It was just good to be together
again and that my friend is priceless.
