I kind of debated whether I should write about this, but it’s been bugging me and this blog is as good a place as any to get it out.  That having been said, given the subject matter I will not give any names.

Back when I was in high school I had a couple of good friends who decided during our senior year to join the Marines.  I kind of lost touch with them after we graduated.  One guy I haven’t seen since graduation, the other I last saw in early 1993.  Even though I haven’t seen them I’ve kept track of them indirectly through other friends.

I started hearing pretty soon after graduation that my first friend wasn’t doing too well.  He had trained as a mechanic in the Marine Corps, but ended up leaving under a medical discharge (which was the subject of some unconfirmed rumors that it was more related to attitude than actual medical condition).  Shortly after that his troubles with the law began.  He got into trouble for breaking into a car and a few other fairly small things.  But in 1998 he got sent away for criminally negligent homicide related to a car accident.  He’d always been a reckless driver (as I can attest from many white-knuckled times as his passenger), so while I was disappointed that he’d ended up in that situation I wasn’t surprised.

My other friend seemed to be doing better, or so I though until recently.  He served his tour as an MP and had been deployed to Kuwait in 1991 for Desert Storm.  All things considered I thought that he had it together.  So I was very disappointed to learn that he is currently serving a 10 year sentence for sexual assault of a child.  I did a little more digging and found that this wasn’t his first time.  In 2001 he got 7 years probation for the same offense. 

It really got me to wondering about things, though.  We came from a small town and there were only about 30 people in our graduating class.  That we would have two serious felons in such a small class seems odd.  Further, they had good opportunities and seemed to have started out on the right path only to end up in such a sorry state.