All of the troops that come in to the USO must sign in, but then if they want to use a phone, movie, game or computer we put them on a wait list (if necessary) and then take their ID while they borrow our equipment. Therefore we get to see most of their names. Here at Camp Virginia everyone looks basically the same (athletic build, very short hair, one of 6 or 7 basic outfits) but I've seem some really interesting last names, many with fascinating stories to accompany them. What's interesting to me is that the names come in bunches. Of course we always have a lot of Johnsons, Smiths, Rodriguezes and Gonzales, and this week we've had at least 6 Wilsons while I was on duty last night. A couple of weeks ago we had a Fitzsimmons, Fitzgerald and Fitzpatrick all on the same day; nothing similar before or since. We'll get 3 or 4 Fishers (Fischers) at once and then won't see any for weeks. A couple of days ago there were five Torreses in one evening. I mentioned something and this 20-year old kid said, "Yeah, three of us are cousins. We all joined the army on the same day and now we're all deployed together." How cool is that?? Last night we had two guys with the same (very uncommon) name. I thought someone had messed up our lists, but they were sitting next to each other on the computers. Both Marine corporals, both about the same age, neither knew the other but they both had the same last name. Haven't seen any Bachenheimers yet.
Update: Since then we've had (on the same day and that I remember) two Heimers, two Clevelands and two Justaces, none of whom are related.
On another unrelated but equally important note, I left my soap in the bathroom AGAIN! That's three times!! It's a good thing they pay me well because I'm supplying the population of Bangladesh with Ax shower gel.
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