A Quantico Tale

 The other day I was talking to a friend of mine, an active duty Marine I'll call Bob.  Bob's been in about 6 yrs, and had been thinking about staying in, but lately has had second thoughts.  He, and a lot of others, have become disenchanted with the current state of affairs in the military, what with the recent edicts about religious expression and other policy changes that, to him, seem to deny the proud history and significance of the military. It all signals a fundamental change in the role of the military, and, like a lot of other qualified, motivated people, he's rethinking his options.  That evening I was thinking about all this, and that night, I had a dream.

In my dream, I was at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, with my grandson, who's 8.  We were invited guests at a major Pass In Review in honor of the retirement of some General, and we were sitting in the public section, right in front of the Marine Corps Band.  We were all waiting for the ceremony to start, and I was chatting with some guy next to me, who was lamenting the very things that Bob had been talking about. He ventured the question that if all the qualified people were leaving, who would be left?  My grandson, who is a very sharp kid, doesn't miss anything, and, taking in the whole conversation, he said "Grandpa, know what I want for Christmas?"  I said no Wyatt, what?  He said, "I want a GI Joe Affirmative Action figure"….

At that point the dream started to take on a strange vibe, and suddenly, everybody on the parade deck got in formation, and came to attention.  Chesty, the Marine Corps Bulldog, looking sharp in his dress blues, stepped in position in front of the band,  Just then Marine Corps One arrived, the hatch opened, and out stepped President Obama and the First Lady.  I noticed he was wearing a bib, and he kept leering at Chesty.  Right behind them were two aides, one of them was carrying a small Weber barbecue, and the other had a case of teriyaki sauce. They were both wearing  chef hats.  Chesty saw all this, let out a yelp, and took off running, knocking over the trumpet player as he went.  I watched as he cleared an 8 foot fence and disappeared.  Everyone pretended not to notice.   

Somebody brought the President some pizza, and the rest of the ceremony went fine, minus Chesty.  On the way back to the hotel, I got a phone call.  They said that Chesty had come back, and he was fine.  They hid him out until the President and FLOTUS took off.  Michelle did not look happy.  I woke up in a cold sweat, and made some coffee.  Later we picked up Bob and went fishing in Lunga Reservoir on the base.  Wyatt caught a pretty decent walleye.