After I found out about my friend’s death, I tried to get in touch with one of my other friends that had also known him a long time. I hadn’t talked to him in a couple of years, but I had a pretty good idea where he worked and where his parents lived. I left messages at both places for him to call me back, and he did last night.

He was sad to hear about our friend too. It’s a little chilling to have people in your class dying—I only keep in touch with one other, and I don’t know if he’s gone over there or not, so obviously I don’t keep up that closely with him. I suspect there are more of them over there than just R@y, since our class was about thirty, and probably a third of them have stayed in the Army.

But it was nice to catch back up with my friend, who was one of my first few boyfriends in college. I would have recognized his voice instantly, even if I didn’t expect a call from him. He only lives about an hour and a half from me, but I don’t see us doing more than saying hello every couple of years. He doesn’t stay in touch with anyone else in our class any more.

I miss those guys—we were closer than the average bunch of college buddies due to the ROTC thing. I was the only woman in the class, although there were a couple above and below us. We had a core group of about five friends within it that really hung out together a lot. I still talk to two of them every couple of years, and I know about a third because one of the others’ wives works with him. I suspect the fourth one is raising hay and babies in very rural California, but I’d heard that he stayed in the Guard too. We’ve been out of college for fourteen years now, so some of them probably didn’t re-up, but I know at least one other did. I think he’s a Major now. If I hadn’t made some of the dumb choices that I did right out of school, I could have been one too, although I was always more NCO material at heart.

But here I am, in a civilian’s version of an NCO position, raising kids and living my life safely. I guess it worked out for me in the long run.

Although my annual round of bronchitis is back. The asthma would have eventually kicked me out of the Army anyway. So, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to send myself home to bed.