In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Out of Reach.”       

I was once in a place where I considered it as a working vacation; the environment was good, lots of fresh air, free housing, three meals a day plus a meal at midnight. All sorts of recreation like a free state of the art gym, lots of trails if you’re into running, and if you like to fish and hunt they had their own areas full of deer and wild ducks and lakes to fish. Golf courses and they even have a ski slope and if there isn’t enough snow, they have a snow making machine. Did I mention the cabins for rent, or if you have an RV they actually have an RV park. There were much more recreation activities available then the ones I mentioned. Well, I can hear the questions. Where? Well the place is West Point Military Academy. What! Yes, West Point Military Academy… I shit you not. A group of us from my unit C-btry 1/258 Field Artillery volunteered to be deployed there as part of Operation Noble Eagle. The initiative to secure the sensitive spots in the U.S after the 9/11 attack (https://truegeorge.com/2015/09/17/911-circus-at-ground-zero/). Apparently the U.S government felt that the future commissioned officers were a legitimate terrorist target and asked the State of New York to station the National Guard to secure the training and living areas of the cadets. When we got there we discovered the whole atmosphere was not the uptight military setting as portrayed by Hollywood and unfounded rumors, but a laid back college campus where a lot of rigid military customs were relaxed. The above mentioned recreational stuff is open to all members of the military and their families I also found it to be a well-known secret. But on a whole that year was amazing. Yeah, I had to occasionally put up with the bullshit that came up once in a while when our unit’s senior non-commissioned and commissioned officers acted like dicks; formations; details and Company runs with the regular Army Military Police; on top of that worked a twelve hour day; all of it was not as stressful as being a New York City gov’t bureaucrat. No worries about paying rent; no worries about spending money on food. Almost everyone brought brand new cars. I lost a ton of weight even my abs was showing. I had a total of three girlfriends and split my time going back and forth to New York City and Upstate New York. This was the life I could have lived forever. Being around good things, good people and did I mention three girlfriends. However, all things can’t stay the same; this moment came and passed, there will never be a time like this again. Nothing in life needs to be changed we lived and we must move on…..

FDDA