starter wife

Kenny knew my marriage had real problems of significant magnitude before I knew the things drawing me away from my ex husband were issues of actual tribulation. He credits this toward his being the same age I am now when his former spouse left him. Either way, I didn’t see jons abhorrence leading to the abomination of our marriage coming. Not by a long shot. As friends, we just clicked. We met our first day of training, I giddily divulged the contents of the pollard love story, with a twinkle in my eye, and he listened. When my ex husband would argue with me over the phone after a long and tiring day of training, Kenny would listen to my frustrations. He had been there before. In hindsight, he totally and completely called all of my ex husbands actions…and motives. From the “if he isn’t wanting to make love to you, there is something going on”. Because I believed in my marriage, I deduced his knowledge as unhelpful, as it surely didn’t apply to me, my “husband” had promised right before I left home for training that he had never loved anyone as deeply as me, and upon my returning home, he couldn’t wait to start a family, and we would work through whatever issues that got in the way.

Even still, Kenny was my best friend throughout training. He would pack an extra MRE in his backpack because I would forget, and I would pack extra snacks for him because he was always hungry. He was constantly tickled by my presence, and the silly things I would say or do, and he enjoyed my friendship so much, he would jog roughly one mile through countless thunderstorms on numerous occasions to watch a movie with me in the community all ranks center. Just to be the friend I needed. If I ever needed anything, (help with my gear, re assembling my weapon) I never had to ask. Without hesitation, he was both goaded and delighted to be as helpful as both he wanted, and I needed. For the most part, I served as his comedic entertainment, as there was never a dull moment around me (as my friends and family are more than aware of). For the majority of our training, we mostly associated with no one but each other. Wherever sunshine was, Harrell was sure to be, and wherever Harrell went, sunshine was not far behind. If there was anyone at the same table during chow, it was because of mere coincidence, as the two of us typically required only the company of each other.
One day, I went to the all ranks center by myself, and chatted with jon for a few hours. That evening, around dinner chow time, as I met up with kenny, he asked how the all ranks center was. I told him it was crowded, and asked how he knew I was there. He replied with “I know everything you do”. I was admittedly a little startled, but also fascinated at this friends shrewdness and well informed demeanor.

I listened to his daily gripes and frustrations at the training, and he gave me the confidence I needed to get through the downs of training.
One incident in particular sticks out and reminds me exactly what makes him such an amazing friend after any silly argument we have. I’ll elaborate. It was a super hot and humid day in training, and we were split up into several groups. My horrible luck left me with a team of people I still have a hard time getting along with to this day. To sum it up, they made me look like a complete fool in front of our first sergeant. I ended up keeping to myself for the remainder of the day, and I donned my sunglasses because their cruelty actually hurt me so bad that it brought me to tears. I am not sure how he found out, but at the very end of the exhausting training day, we were standing in ranks waiting for our bus and he VERY LOUDLY just lost his cool, and voiced his discontent regarding their treatment of me aloud. To everyone. All at once. He was so irritated, that it almost made up for my being embarrassed to the point of the previous tears illustrated.
One of my favorite photos of kenny and I was taken on that very day. We sat on the gravel backs propped up against each other having our MRE lunch. He had just noticed that he was apparently out of water in his camelback water pouch, and so he just grabbed the straw to mine, and began drinking my water. That photo alone speaks volumes regarding the comfort level of our friendship.
The efficient thing about our familiarity with one another was the fact that we never really even had to ask for anything from one another. Our enthusiasm in regards to what we chose to do for each other was just never a question. For instance, another illustration comes to mind when I recall the liberalism of our friendship. It rained 90% of our training. Though in hindsight, I am sure running was not an absolute requirement, one morning we had to run to combative training, in a thunderstorm. Upon entering the building, he almost immediately spotted me, and took a Ziploc bag from his uniform pants pocket.he handed me a pair of soft, dry socks which came in handy, because we had been running in the rain, and well, my feet were then cold, and pruny….and the entire two hour class was to be taught and practiced on the mats in socks. “um, what are these for?” I asked, and he quipped back with an irritated “uh, what do you think? Your feet are wet,
right? So hurry up and put them on”

He thought of everything, or so it seemed at least. It was a perfect friendship. I was clumsy, and he was amused. I had good intentions, and he was appreciative. We required very little of each other, other than each others presence.
Today I count myself to still be friends with him. His wife left him after 12 years of marriage when he was 27, and he has been through exactly the same things as I am going through. He passes his wealth of knowledge regarding the similar circumstances, and the different methods of dealing with them. He still looks out for me in every way possible, and I am still grateful to have him in my life, if only as a friend. God knows we wouldn’t dare try anything else. lol