Another bothersome thing:
When I was at my first Navy duty station -- Naval Air Station Jacksonville Florida -- my best friend was a guy in my rating (Radioman). We had some good times, I was designated godfather to his first-born son, that sort of thing.
The friendship, since we were in the Navy, faced mandatory separation when he was assigned to Hawaii just after I was given approval to cross-train into the Journalist rating. We bade farewell and promised to stay in touch, but that never really works.
Roughly four years later, after two tours in Italy, I was assigned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel as staff journalist to the senior enlisted man in the Navy (Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy). Among the perks of that job was easy access to finding everyone/anyone in the Navy and where they were located. The mystery, however, was what happened to my friend who was not on any list of active-duty Navy people. He had reenlisted four years earlier for a six-year hitch. His reason was that he was married and was in a "Critical" rating, meaning that reenlistment bonuses were very high if you committed yourself. When I was searching for him, he should have had two years left on that reenlistment.
Fast forward to the years when the internet became common in households, Google became a search engine and then Facebook began helping us find former friends and classmates.
Essentially 49 years elapsed during which time I made occasional searches on Facebook for former friends, but this one friend wasn't to be found.
One day, i received a message asking me if I was the same Ron Pulliam he served with in Jacksonville FL 50 years earlier.
I was. It was my friend. Over the months since that time, we have spoken quite a few times. He has regaled me with details of his three marriages, his children and grandchildren, his jobs and a more than generous recounting of all the Navy experiences he had before he was granted a separation from the service because of a divorce and having children to care for.
Yesterday, i had another call from him. It purported to be a welfare call to ensure I was as okay as my posts, post-Helene, indicated. But, for the majority of hour we spoke, it was a non-stop recap of all his accomplishments/experiences in the Navy, how much he wished he could do it again and many sidebars. I probably had 5 minutes of the conversation.
And now I find myself never really wanting to talk to him again. Whatever our friendship was based upon, I am at a loss as to what it was. And my memories of him never included non-stop self-aggrandizement.
I'd much rather discuss movies, music, some politics, etc.
What does anyone else think?
