A big thank you to LadyCibelle and Techsan for their fine editing and making this story a much better read.
Have you ever thought about all the beautiful women that go out west to be models and movie stars? Where do they all end up? We know there are thousands and thousands aspiring to be stars and they go to Hollywood or elsewhere to make it big. Unfortunately most don't make it.
The ones who do become successful seem to need a shrink or have been married a half dozen times.
My name is Bryan and I'd like to tell you a little about my life and some of my thoughts. As a kid growing up I was rather athletic and liked sports. I went out for baseball, football and basketball. I went to a rather small school so it wasn't that hard to make the team. I was pretty good, but I guess I was far from being college material because I never saw any scouts looking at me. It was still fun playing and it helped get me the girls. I had no problems finding dates. In fact Susan Barstow, the most popular girl in the school, was my girlfriend my senior year.
A little information about Susan; she was an 'It' girl, she seemed to have it all. When she was six years old, she was the mini-queen in our local pageant. She was Junior queen a few years later. Her parents took her everywhere for these crazy contests. She was both our County Fair Queen and our Homecoming Queen. I guess her parents were preparing her to become a star. She was talented. She didn't sing the greatest but she could dance.
She was my girlfriend most of our senior year. We dated whenever we got the chance. Between my playing sports and her aspiring modeling career, we didn't see a whole lot of each other. Her parents didn't try to stop us from seeing each other but we almost always had a chaperon. Sharon, her little sister, usually went with us wherever we went. She had another sister, Brenda, who tagged along once in awhile also. Sharon was five years younger and Brenda was seven years younger than Susan.
I used to give the girls a little money to go to the neighborhood store just so Susan and I could be alone. We only had time to do a little petting before her sisters would return. I liked Susan a lot; what was not to like? We had sex for the first time when we went to the prom. After that we had quickies whenever the opportunity presented itself.
After graduation Susan headed to a big city modeling school near Las Vegas, Nevada. She told me she was going to be a movie star and have everything she ever wanted. I remember her telling me we would be the happiest couple on the planet and live in a million dollar home and drive the fastest cars.
She had dreams and told me she was going to turn them into reality. I, on the other hand, had more common sense. The job market wasn't the greatest and I didn't expect to go to college. I had the smarts but my family wasn't the wealthiest and I wasn't getting any sports scholarships that amounted to much.
I decided to enlist in the service. I wanted to do my share for the country. After the shit people gave the Vietnam Vets, I wanted to show that I was behind our military. My dad had told me stories how he was spit at when he came home. Here he was out fighting for his country and people didn't care.
My dad was proud the day I enlisted. He's a good man with a good heart. He told me some people just didn't understand.
I remember the day I left for boot camp my dad hugged me and said, "Do your best, soldier." It brought tears to his eyes.
The army offered me a career and would put money aside for an education or for whatever reason I chose. About two weeks after graduation I headed out to boot camp. Susan and I got away for an afternoon before I left and fucked each other silly. I was really going to miss her. After all, I was a nineteen year old kid with raging hormones and was saying goodbye to a very beautiful woman whom I loved at the time.
Love for teenagers is a strange word. If we were just lovers and got married and settled down, I guess we might have succeeded, but I had my doubts. We both had our dreams and wants and were going in different directions.
I came home after basic training but Susan was away at college. I missed her. I was going to be sent away to Fort Leonard Wood for my Advanced Individual Training – somehow the Army had seen fit to train me to be a Motor Transport Operator. It sounded impressive but basically I would just be a driver.
The training was great. After all the crap at basic training it was nice to be treated like an adult. I figured that it couldn't be all that difficult to just drive a truck. I was surprised and I guess a little pleased to find out it was pretty complex. Just one thing I would never have thought of was the training of a vehicle crew to be able to complete their mission in combat situations.
After I finished the course I was assigned to the 58th Transport Battalion there at Fort Leonard Wood. I was lucky and just as I was assigned there I was selected as the driver for the battalion commander. It was good duty and I did that for the year I was in Missouri.
During the training phase I was exchanging letters with Susan fairly often for about six months. She told me she was dating since "... we aren't really going together." It hurt but I could hardly blame her. A woman like her was never meant to be alone.
I noticed she started sounding somewhat detached – like she was writing to her brother. I wasn't particularly surprised when I got a "Dear John" letter from her. She blabbed on and on about space, her needs, even her damned identity.
I thought I'd be really upset but then I realized that the only thing she hadn't written about was her selfishness. The more I thought about it, I began to feel relieved. If we had married I knew I would just be an appendage to her ... that everything would be about Susan. Of course, I knew I would always remember her. I even carried a picture of her in my pocket.
The battalion commander was in DC for a week's worth of meetings and I was able to wrangle a three-day pass. I was going to take a bus to Kansas City but I wound up stopping at a Jody bar in Waynesville for a beer – or two. It turned out to be a lot and I woke up in bed with the wife of an MP on duty in Bosnia. I felt like shit when I thought about what she was doing to him, but that didn't stop me from staying in bed with her for two more days.
Fort Leonard Wood was to hell and gone in the middle of Missouri south of I-44. Most of the guys called it "Little Korea." It was hilly and cold as hell in the winter and just the opposite in the summer. I wasn't sad to leave there but I had mixed feelings about going to Bosnia. A lot of the guys had been there and told how dangerous the ancient animosities made things. One story a guy told me was about a guy stopping his car in front of their Bradley Fighting Vehicle and standing there waving two guns at them. They just buttoned up the Bradley and let him shoot until he ran out of ammo, then got out and disarmed him.
One thing I was glad of was that I wasn't leaving a wife behind to go to some damn Jody Bar.
The duty was pretty good but boring. I was assigned to the motor pool to drive whatever and whoever needed driving. We spent a lot of time sitting around pretending to do maintenance on the vehicles. I used my leave time to go around some of the nearby countries. I went to Switzerland and didn't like it. I loved Greece and Italy. Picking up girls for the night was fairly easy as long as I was willing to spend some money on them. I'm sure several of them were at least amateur prostitutes but they did look clean. I tried to stay away from the professionals.
I also took several of the locals to bed. They were so poor they would do anything for some food or money. I felt bad about it but rationalized that if it weren't me it would be one of my buddies. I didn't form any lasting attachments and had no girlfriend at home.
One thing that was typical was the time a girl was taken to a hospital in the Serbian area. They cut the girl's head open and then found out she was Muslim. They made her parents take her from the hospital, with her head still open. I drove a doctor and nurse in an ambulance to take them to one of our hospitals. I couldn't believe that people would treat a little girl like that!
