esrosedotblog

FROM THE PAST

Charles Manatt, Former Democratic National Chairman, Dies at 75

I was in ROTC summer camp with Chuck in 1956. Quartermaster Corps. Fort Lee Virginia.

We never connected again but I kept track of him over the years and watched, with pleasure, his tenure with the Democratic apparatus including being DNC chair and also the head of Bill Clinton's campaign.

I think Michelle Obama spent some time in his firm or something like that.

It is not unusual to see people my own age felled by a stroke or heart attack.

It's weird.

I notice the age and then pull back and disqualify myself from contention for the big prize. The last one.

When I know or knew someone it is a little more sobering. But not much.

There is some nostalgia, the memory of younger days and then, blam, into the present and back to work.

So long Chuck. You and I had about the same proficiency for the military. Couldn't even shoot straight. But we had a lot of fun trying.

Why were we even there?

In those days of the draft, one alternative open to a college guy was to go into ROTC and sign up for six months active duty and six and a half years in the Reserve or go on active duty for two years and then Reserve for four. Or something like that.

It was known that one could negotiate the Reserve part and I did. I served the time but not very seriously and not in a unit.

That summer when Chuck and I met, the ROTC camp at Fort Lee was filled with people like us who saw this option as the best of a set of bad choices. It also seemed as though my company and platoon had more of us fake soldiers than any other.

We excelled at fooling around.

Always well dressed, passing inspections, gung ho on field exercises, we were, in a way, mocking the reality by taking it seriously in an unseriously way. Irony.

If you look at this official photo of the older Mannatt, you will see a slight glint of a smile that says "even this isn't to be taken too seriously".

Our platoon won the mock battle at the three day bivouac which everyone dreaded but somehow converted into a lark. Camping. Chuck and I were on the CO's staff. Another buddy who couldn't not take it seriously even if he did not.

The conversion of a painful duty into a brilliant experience with intensity and purpose for an ironic end was a great lesson for us.

We would never, ever be in the Army. This was it. So we made more than the most of it.

"If you are stuck in an asshole situation, get over yourself, take it in, have fun. Make it your own. Join others in the fun."

Labels: Democrats, gay military, nostalgia