Forgetting History

 

The week after his eighteenth birthday, Matthew walked to the Marine’s registration office to sign over his life in the service of his country. He had graduated from high school at the top of his class with dreams and aspirations of doing good for others and of making the world a better and safer place. After a thirty-minute conversation with the recruitment officer, twice he carefully read through the documents laid before him and with no further questions, signed his name to learn that he had twenty days before he would be on a bus to training camp in the Midwest.

The thirty-minute walk back home gave him time to craft his thoughts, his arguments, and his conversation with his parents. “It would probably be wise to wait at least half of the time before I leave to lay this out on my parents,” he thought. His mind was sharper and more educated than anyone he knew, his strength, his stamina, and his ability to overcome any physical challenge could not be any better.

He rounded the corner to his neighborhood, ascended his front steps, and entered his home to find his mother waiting for him at the kitchen counter. “Hi Matthew,” she said, “I would ask where you’ve been but based on your slightly sweaty state of being, I have to assume you were out exercising.”

“Hi Mom, yes, you’re right,” he answered. “I needed to get out and burn off some energy. There is nothing better than that dopamine hit when one is bored and not wanting to distract oneself with social media or television. Yes, it was a great workout. I have to say I am terribly hungry. Should I have a snack now or will we be having dinner soon?”

Ten days passed and Matthew worked very hard to keep his secret plans quiet. The weekend came around and he joined his parents in the living room to watch a movie but before the movie started, he shared his plans of joining the Marines, and that he would be on a bus to the East Coast in ten days hence. The day of his departure arrived far faster than he could have imagined, his mother was in tears, and his father was smiling with pride at his son’s decision to be one who would make a difference in the world. The details for his time and location of departure had arrived in the mail three days before.

Matthew now stood at the train station with his ticket in hand, his suitcase packed with clothes and snacks, with dreams growing larger and larger in his mind. In a sea of other young men close to his age, they all squeezed onto the train, engaged in small talk and wondered about the length of their training and possible locations for them after training was complete. The ten-hour train ride finally came to an end, they gathered their luggage, transferred it to storage beneath a bus, found their seats therein and rode for two hours to training camp.

The thirteen weeks of training passed and Matthew found himself on an airplane to Camp Hansen in Okinawa, Japan. He was well over six feet tall, white, and built like a piece of steel, finding himself thrilled at being of service to his country, of helping make the world a better place, and as the plane descended to land, he learned that he would become part of the MP’s in and around the city of Okinawa. The plane landed to be greeted by a bus to take he and his fellow soldiers to the base.

They arrived at the base, they were greeted by those in charge, and were scattered across several barracks, were given assignments, and learned that regardless of who was committing whatever crime, it was their responsibility to diffuse the situation with grace and dignity. Foundationally, their job was to put a stop to any crime or incursion taking place, whether it was being committed by a civilian or another soldier.

Matthew was connected to Alexander, a fellow soldier of the same age and same family situation. They were assigned to a twelve-block portion of town that consisted mostly of storefronts and a few high-rise apartment buildings. The two young men walked shoulder to shoulder in a systematic pattern to cover their assigned portion of the city. Matthew drove his elbow into Alexander’s ribs which was followed by a verbal command to watch a certain young man with a backpack entering a small store.

“Hey, check out that kid,” Matthew said. “He had a backpack when he walked into the store and now he no longer does. We need to follow up on that, come on, stay with me.” The two men hurried into the store, saw the abandoned backpack, quickly retrieved it, ran out of the store to deposit it in the middle of the street. The two young men moved in opposite directions, blocking off traffic with the concern that the backpack may contain explosives. Shouting and motioning for everyone to stay back and clear out the area, the backpack exploded, releasing a volley of shrapnel and nails, essentially causing no damage to anyone or anything.

“Alexander, call it in,” Matthew said. “We just saved a number of lives and avoided serious damage to someone’s store.”

“Alright, I’m on it,” Alexander answered. Within twenty minutes a team of Marine’s arrived and began searching through security footage to identify the young man with the backpack.

“Alright, Alexander, it looks like we’ve done our job and the research team will take care of the rest,” Matthew said. “Let’s keep moving in and around our assigned space.”

The two young men continued their pattern around the city, until Alexander spotted three other Marine’s abduct a young girl from a street corner to drag her into an alley. “Matthew, check that out,” he said. “That does not look good. We need to get over there, take some photos and protect that little girl. Three Marine’s abducting a girl will certainly not lead to a good conclusion.”

Feeling like a finely tuned weapon, Matthew ran ahead into the alley, used his years of physical training, boxing skills, and grappling techniques to disable the three Marine’s. “Alexander, call this in,” he said. “We will need to keep these three here and the girl as well. It is situations like this that make the US military look bad. I’m sure another research team will be here sooner than later.”

Matthew and Alexander became close friends until their three years of service in Okinawa ended to potentially send them both home. “Wow, Alexander,” Matthew said. “Think back to all the good that we have done to protect others, to prevent damage, and to improve the look of the US military in this city. I’m done with my three years of service and cannot wait to see my family, my friends, and my hometown again.”

Matthew signed his final papers which allowed him to be honorably discharged from the Marines and to also receive awards of commendation for his excellent work. The two young men exchanged hugs and Alexander watched Matthew enter the plane to return home while he made the decision to complete an additional three years of service.

Matthew landed at LAX and was greeted by his parents and three friends from high school. Receiving multiple hugs from a teary-eyed mother, he was thrilled at the prospect of eating home cooked meals rather than the bland military food he had been forced to consume the past three years. Within six months of arriving at home, Matthew and two of his friends from high school began their own security service, providing personalized protection for the wealthy and the important.

The transition from military life to being a private body guard was a smooth change, allowing him to continue using his skills in the service of others. As he reached his thirtieth year, he eventually proposed to his girlfriend, in a relationship that had been brewing for the last three years. Six months later, he and she became one after a beautiful ceremony at the local church.

After a two-week honeymoon, Matthew returned to work to share his new idea with his business partners. “Hey guys, I have been thinking about something,” he said. “Our business is doing exceptional with so many wealthy and important people paying us very well for our services. I was thinking that we should start spending time on the streets of our hometown, providing an unpaid neighborhood watch kind of situation. We have the skills and the passion to serve and protect. It would only have to be a few hours on weekends when we’re not busy with doing private work for our paying clients.”

His two partners agreed with him and the new idea was put into action, which brought about an incredible decline in violence, theft, and abuse of those who were vulnerable. All three men eventually grew old, hired other young men to continue their work, to eventually retire, and receive commendation from the city mayor, the governor of the state, the state patrol, the sheriff’s department, and the city police department.

Matthew continued to watch the trajectory of the company that he and his friends had started, to sadly see that it was shut down after twenty years of service without them. Matthew, his two friends and their wives would meet each week to lament the slow decline of the quality of life, the increasing crime and the sad news of their company being shut down.

“This is so sad to me, guys,” Matthew said. “I put in three years of military service, and decades of work in our city to fight against crime and now it seems like all that work has come to nothing. If you go onto social media, watch the news, and look at the people that are considered important, you won’t see any of them doing anything of actual value.”

“Yep, that is the sad truth,” one of his friends said. “Most people aren’t really concerned about truth, justice, or helping others, it seems that everyone simply wants to be distracted. Fortunately, we won’t be around forever to see the continued decline into this kind of nonsense. Should we start up the business once again, by hiring new people to continue the work that accomplished so much?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Matthew said. “We all will need to ask around and see if we can put something together. It would be a crime to simply let it all go. After hiring new men to continue the work, we also need to establish a board of trustees so that the work will always continue. We cannot leave that decision up to the new hires.”