Happy Independence Day! It's a great day to celebrate the birth of our great country!
Growing up, the 4th was always one of my favorite holidays. My dad was really big into fireworks, and like most teenage boys, I liked blowing stuff up. After I joined the Navy, I enjoyed the festivities the base would offer, and usually tried to pull duty on the holiday. In San Diego in the early '90s, B-List Hollywood celebrities would come down to the base, and we once had
Khrystyne Haje eat dinner in our Wardroom on
Topeka. As we moved towards the end of the decade, however, it seemed that, at least in Groton, the focus seemed to move from "honoring those who serve" to
"an excuse to get civilians on base" -- the holiday became more about providing bodies for extra duty for traffic direction and trying to "sell" the military to a bunch of mullet-wearing civilians. This scaled back after 9/11, of course, but I'm worried it might degenerate into that again. For now, it looks like some bases aren't
doing much at all.
What was your favorite way to celebrate the 4th on active duty? Did you like hanging out on base, or did you use the holiday as a chance to get away from the base?
Read the complete post at http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2013/07/happy-independence-day.html
Posted
Jul 04 2013, 08:48 AM
by
The Stupid Shall Be Punished