Third post, what a day!

This day will live in infamy!
Have you ever had one of those days?
One where the planets align and everything comes together just right? Where (Add religious icon here) reaches out and personally selects you for riches? I am glad to say that today was one of those days!
It started off like pretty much every other Sunday I wasn’t working, tried to sleep in but could only manage 7am. Hell I’ll take that! It was a beautiful morning, so nice in fact I decided to go for a walk. I get home and realise I’m short on a few things, like any form of food at all, so I guess it’s a shopping trip today.

I shower, jump in the car and crank up some music and hit the road. Now I love to drive. Every chance I get I go for a road trip.
I build Hotrod’s just for the pleasure of driving them, well I try too, I had to sell my last two and my present project isnt loking prosperous. Ok, I hear you say, so what?
Well it’s a nice day, great music and I find I drive right by the shops and out into the hills outside Brisbane! I spent the next three hours with some Led Zepp (Hey, there more than most realise) Wolf Mother, Janis Joplin and Elmore James cruising in the countryside.

At some point I decided to head back into town just aimlessly drifting and found myself near Virginia, an idea pops into my head (Bing!) there is an engine builders nearby that I have been thinking of using to build my next cars motor, I think I may look the place up.
I know its Sunday and it will be closed but I can always see what sort of set up they have. Well I didn’t make it that far, I got a simple Text message, it read.....DUDE, IN TOWN.
I couldn’t believe it!
Sitting at the lights screaming a Homeresque WO’HO!! And waving my arms around I think the people behind me were a little concerned. (They backed away) This is the best news I have had all year, seriously, seriously good news! I pull into a service station and make a call.
‘Dude, where, when?’ were all I asked.
‘Now, airport, come get me!’
oh yes, the gods have smiled on me!
‘Ok, great. So someone you know is in town, hell we all have friends’. Yes, I can hear the thoughts of you reading this!What’s the big deal? Well it’s hard to put into words. As you may remember I was in the Army (You should this is like post 3, just how bad is your memory?)..............So what was I saying?
Oh, that’s right, how do I explain how important this guy is?

We served together; the type of soldiering I was doing at this time was somewhat difficult. I had some time under my belt including 18 months of medical training and almost a year of training to get into this particular unit. I was one of a small patrol, to get here we had to undergo a ‘cadre course’ (Selection course) over 2000 people applied for my course, 12 of us were accepted (To this day and I so very much hope to my dying day it was the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do). Then onto some intense training, more fell by the wayside until 8 of us were presented with what was our most prised possession, the unit ‘Beret’.

I was integrated into an existing patrol as the Medic, for the next few years we did pretty much everything together. Yes, EVERYTHING. On deployments we were the type of unit that operated so far detached from anyone else and under such strong secrecy that most don’t know we were even in theatre.
Hell, my own family dont know what I did.
So...... here come the cliche’s.
I got to know these 4 guys better than anyone I have ever known, one guy in particular became my closest mate. Closer mentaly than any relationship I have ever had with a woman, I guess he could be called my hetero soul mate, (I’ll call him ‘B’) we were closer than a married couple, not many couples had to face what we did, the fear, tension and threat of death on operations. To build on the cliché all 4 of them were the guys that I knew would risk their own life for mine. Without question, without qualification.
I hear people say I am such good friends with X, or I love X so much I would risk my life for them. Easy to say, hard to do. I am proud to say not only did they actualy do this for me but one so very horrible night I got to repay them all. We worked well together, played, lived, ate, slept did everything as a team.
Then things started to go very wrong. On a patrol we were spotted and they opened up on us with a lot of fire power. We had just begun to move down from a vantage point when they contacted us. B was in front of me and about 30 feet away. He was hit in the chest, had he not been there Im sure I would have been hit. I did everything I could for him but he died right there on some dusty shit full hill side in a country not worth the fucking effort to piss on.
B was gone.
We were sent home, given some leave, I ended up hospitalising an RAAF police coporal at a party and did 28 days in Military Prison. Should have been the end of my career in the unit but someone was looking after me. Although I still had three incredible mates to support me I came very close to just pulling the pin and leaving. They of course stopped me and straightened me out, we got a new patrol member and kept on going.
Then in June 1996 I sat on my arse in a Military Hospital having just had a knee reconstruction. In my absence the guys still had to train and they did just that with the rest of the squadron. I had just been released for convalescence leave and was staying at my sister’s house (Her husband is NAVY) when I received a very late phone call. There had been an accident, two helicopters had collided. At that stage they didn’t know how many were killed, they did however know that two of my patrol were among the dead.
Fuck.
There were now only two of us. He was now in town.
I had not seen him in over a year. So there you go, that’s why I was so damn happy, er, why I AM so damn happy! My soul surviving patrol mate was in town! I headed straight into the airport which was not far away to have this smiling retard dive onto the bonnet of my car! So what to two old mates do? Well, not much!! We catch up, have some dinner and watch a movie.
So, we don’t have much imagination but we had fun. I guess the simple fact that we were back in the one place again is enough.
Now its 2130hrs, I have just returned home from dropping him off at the airport for his trip overseas. (He now works for a private military company) And I? I am one of the happiest guys on the planet.The planets truly did align, the hand of some god (If they exist) did reach out and bless me and a good years worth of luck just got used up but who gives a rats??Not I.
I am a happy guy.
AJ.