The train was a half hour late into Minot. I don't have a watch so I am not sure if we made up time and got to Whitefish on schedule. I think we did. While our stop in Havre seemed shorter than normal, our later stop in Shelby was longer than normal. Besides once I got home, by the time the clock reset itself to the correct time, the time was 10 pm, which leads me to believe the train arrived on time into Whitefish by 9 pm.
The train was fairly empty. Initially the main train attendant had me go down three cars to board. After I did so I decided to check the car several cars up closer to the middle of the train. I had been placed near the end of the train and that meant a longer walk to the depot once the train arrived in Whitefish. The second car had few people on board and I even saw a woman going to Whitefish who I had seen earlier in the Minot depot. She said the train attendant told her to board this car. So I went back to the first car and told the train attendant I would be moving up two cars. She was fine with it.
My car had an odd smell to it and Amtrak needed to take the car out of service for a bit in order to do a deep cleaning of it.
I pretty much slept or read magazines and seldom looked out the window at the landscape. I do remember seeing in the night the large number of red lights on top of the windmills west of Shelby. Later it was pitch black by the time we reached the mountains.
A strange bearded 30-something guy sat at the end of the car. When he wasn't wandering up and down the aisle with his ipod's earphones in his ears, he was explaining his shirt choices to various people. I think he wore three or four or five different shirts that day. Later, as he passed by, he made a snarky comment about the two military men's conversation.
For the entire trip one of the military men saw in the seat behind me. Then the last two to three hours of my trip another military guy stopped and started up a conversation.
The guy behind me was an ex-marine who had left the service last year after a five year hitch doing mainly aircraft maintenance. He was 23 years old. The second guy was an Army ranger on his way to being stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. The ranger was in year five of an eight year commitment. He was 22 years old. The two had an interesting conversation comparing and contrasting their two branches of the military, the weapons they had a chance to fire and the helicopters their branch of the military used and ones they had flown in.
The Army ranger talked about his tour of duty in Iraq several years ago. When he was 20 he was in a firefight where the U.S. servicemen were outnumbered. Because the ranger had injured his foot several days earlier his best friend was the person who kicked in the door instead of the ranger. The best friend was shot up and killed when he entered the room. The ranger got his friend (200+ lbs not counting the body armor) and carried him out of the room and back to the Humvee. Apparently a side effect of carrying his friend was the ranger's Kevlar body armor got twisted around on his body. Under fire the ranger was shot. It wasn't until he reached the Humvee and deposited his friend that he noticed blood. A medic came over to help him and the next the ranger knew he woke up in the hospital. Apparently, since the Kevlar vest was twisted, a bullet got through and bounce off one of his ribs. He was sent back to the U.S. to recover and also got a purple heart medal. He never went back to Iraq as his unit finished their tour of duty and came back to the U.S. before he went back to active duty.
Both men had killed enemy solders and agreed that it annoyed them greatly when people who weren't in the military wanted to know how many people they had killed. They didn't mind talking about that part of combat with other solders but did not like talking to others about it as they wouldn't understand having never been in battle.
I noticed the marine didn't talk much of his combat experience keeping his comments mainly about military life, his likes and dislikes. The marine thought many of the people he worked with were lazy and complained and whined, and a number were overweight. He liked the job but not the people so much and that is why he left the service. He described himself as a 'by the book' kind of guy.
The marine loved flying and got his pilot's license for small planes before his driver's license as his parents wouldn't let him get a driver's license until he was 18. Right now he was taking time to enjoy life before deciding what to do next. He was smart and saved his pay and now has enough money to live on for a while. This train trip was to go from Seattle to Chicago for one day to wander around Chicago before returning to Seattle. Four days on the train for one day in Chicago. Ya, he has time to burn.
Both were six foot five inches tall and looked military.
Other comments:
- neither liked serving in Iraq. One couldn't tell friend from foe and the locals were not trustworthy.
- They didn't care for crowds as the enemy would mingle with crowds and then toss explosive devices from the crowds and the military had no way to fight back as they couldn't shoot into the crowd. The enemy knew the military's rules of engagement and limitations and used them well.
- Iraq was too hot
- the marine didn't like serving with women in his unit as they would get pregnant so they would be sent back to the U.S. He also had a female military pilot come on to him but she was several levels in rank above him which made a relationship between them a no-no. Being a 'by the book' guy he was the one who turned the relationship down. The ranger liked serving with women, but I believe that was more due to his being young and horny.
- Neither felt it was good to have a girlfriend or wife when in the military both for the reason it was hard on the women when the men were deployed overseas, and because the relationship had a hard time surviving when they were overseas.
- it was hard for them to readjust to life in the U.S. after being in Iraq. The ranger talked about how jumpy he was and how he didn't like crowds for some time after returning. He also declined consoling as he felt he didn't need it. I think consoling should be mandatory for people returning from a combat tour of duty.
- The ranger thought he would be going to Afghanistan soon and didn't really want to go.
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