A friend posted this link on Facebook. A random comment on that post reminded me of this story.
One night while I was in the military I was traveling through an airbase. I stopped in at a local bar for dinner. Their tables were full so I took a spot at the bar to eat.
While I was eating a man in civilian clothes sat next to me. A few minutes later someone came by, congratulated him and bought the man a beer. I mostly ignored it. As the two stood there talking a second man walked up and bought the man another beer. They walked away and we started chatting as I finished my meal.
While we were talking, another guy came by and congratulated the man before offering to buy him a beer.
When he left I grinned and asked the guy if he was getting married.
“Nah,” he chuckled and said, “I work on the base, we had a plane go down today and they just wanted to say thanks”.
“What? Did you pack the parachute?”, I asked laughing.
“No, I’m just the guy that inspects the ejection seats…”
Oh. Right. Cool.
I offered to buy him a beer too but he said he had plenty and slid one of his down the bar to me.
No moral… just a story…
Just a cute story, Jinks. Thanks.
cjh