Originally posted by Yiliquan1
What precisely is that intended to mean?
If you were JAG, you would be unlikely to have other people get in your way. Military personnel prefer NOT to "get in the way of JAG or anyone from Criminal Investigation"
Your assumption was that I frequented places of questionable orientation. Your assumption was that you know anything about me at all...
EXCUSE ME? You are putting words in my mouth now.
Good lord! I mentioned that the biggest challenge you might face is in the local bar catering to GIs. Hello? JUST WHAT THE HECK did you read from that? Is there any military personnel who has NEVER being to a local bar?? You seem to have read WAY MORE than what I posted. It would be helpful if you would let me know just what you read from it. Then we ALL CAN BE ON THE SAME PAGE HERE.
I am an officer. A noncommissioned officer, a sergeant, a leader of fighting men and women. I have been an Infantryman, a Cavalry Scout, a sniper, a drill sergeant and now I serve as a military paralegal supporting one of the largest military legal offices in the Army. And now you know...
I remember reading you mentioned that you work in JAG now. I thought by that you mean you are a JAG officer.
Assumption #2. My circle of interaction had nothing to do with my military duties. I went out of my way to get away from the installation, to immerse myself as deeply into the local culture and community as I could. My friends were regular, everyday folks with a large array of interests from a wide range of backgrounds. If anything, I was treated much more harshly for having been a service member when my duty status was ever an issue.
The best friends I had over there were expatriates - two Americans (RyuShiKan, and Silent Dan from E-budo), an Irish Brit (Kimpatsu from E-budo), a German (Mark Brecht from E-budo), a Canadian (Jeff Hamacher from E-budo), and a host of local nationals, all Japanese. The expatriates all varied in the duration of their stay in Japan, from only a few years to RyuShiKan's 14. All of them are/were fluent in Japanese, all were martial artists, and all had a rather interesting taste of Japan's invisible side.
And again, now you know.
Thanks for sharing.
First you say that you received poor treatment overseas, then you say as an American you get preferential treatment. So which is it? The only treatment I ever got was from what I earned by showing my hosts I knew how to behave...
As an American
repesenting Uncle Sam, you would get preferential treatment. As an ordinary American, then it depends on how well you adapt to the local way of doing things.
Thanks for asking. :shrug: I'm still waiting to hear details of your extensive background in Asia. With all you have said, it must make for interesting reading.
It would make a novel. WARNING!! Might put you to sleep!!
My grandparents worked for the Crown as colonists. Became landowner during the Japanese occupation in WWII. Riiight. How could you become landowner during the invasion? Better yet, why would the British let my grandpa kept all the properties granted to him FREE by the Imperial Japanese Army, when he was apparently the enemy? Family secret. No one knows (those who knew took everything to the grave). My parents ran plantations, taught at missionary schools. I spent a large part of my childhood ON THE BEACH, TROPICAL ISLAND PARADISE! lol
I started working with the locals even when I was young enough to be their son. It was easier to deal with them if you happened to be the one who paid them. You are talking about people who think nothing of killing, let alone fighting. Everyday, you could scan through the frontpage and there would be several killings. Gruesome pictures were never censored. Unfortunately no one was immune from the harm of lawlessness. We have many friends who lost their lives to this lawless killing. It didn't matter if you were a priest, doctor, lawyer, entrepreneur, teacher or housewife. All are likely victims of robbery, home invasion, piracy, revenge, random crime.
Every house was (still is) literary a fortress. You have bars on every windows and doors. Flood light. Siren alarm. Guard dogs. Most community is guarded. I remember there was this one time, a gang of seaborne pirates were repusled in an attempt to rob one residential community half a mile from our estate. This bunch of nuts ran for their lives with a team of armed guards on their tails. They broke throught the fences and dashed through our house perimeter, triggering alarm and all hell broke loose. My mom was going nuts looking at the alarm system, trying to figure out where the breach was. The neighbors were firing waring shots into the air. You have a team of armed guards screaming their lung out at us, about wanting to enter our estate to pursue the pirates. Of course, we didn't know what the heck was going on. It made for one hell of an argument in the middle night.
Life was cheaper in a lawless land. You treat people they want to be treated. If they were ignorant about their health, there wasn't much you could do but just go with it. You let them eat ration that you know would give them cancer down the road. It didn't matter if you argue with them that the food was contaminated, they were going to eat it anyway. Today, I am ashamed of the way I have treated the locals. I have valued their health and their lives, the way their ignorance have betrayed them. We didn't consider them as fellow human beings. Harsh as that may sound, that was the way things were. We didn't make the rules. We lived with them.
I was at one time associated with an extortion outfit. It was one of those things where one of your buddies was a member of an organized crime outfit, and you got a free ride on protection. No one would give you trouble b/c of your gangster friend. If you want someone roughed up, just give his name to your friend. When you were young and foolish and you lived with the illusion of loyalty and all that, your friends have a lot of influence on you, good or bad.
When you grew up, you became quite a different person. But you still carry a lot of the past as baggage. To this day, I am quite insensitive to people getting pissed. It just seems so petty and trivial the kind of things people tend to get pissed over. When you have lived through seeing people you love died in front of you, because of a decision you made, very little in life seems to matter anymore. So you tend to sneer when people whine about seemingly petty little problems.
I left all that behind and broke all contact with the past. I have a different life now.
I understand that without offering anything specific, this is no better than a tall tale, something to be dimissed as internet BS. So be it. I have more to lose by talking too much than to care about popping up my internet persona at this forum. If people dismiss this story, fine with me. I don't care. Your comment has no impact on my life, whatsoever. lol
