I was a Marine Corps brat, actually a very well behaved Marine Corps child, born in December 1976 at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, CA to SSgt Jonathan R. Field and his wife, Lora.  I am the oldest of three boys.  My brothers’ names are Nathan and Ryan.  We moved around every three years or so until my Dad retired from the Corps in Oct of 1990 with 22yrs, 10 months service.  At that point, we settled in Stanly County, NC where I finished elementary school, attended high school, and eventually went on to graduate from Pfeiffer University with a BA in Communications.  I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps 20 Dec, 2000.

As it was explained to me at the time, Naval Academy classes had been abnormally large and I ended up waiting 11 months for orders to The Basic School.  I reported to Alpha Company, class 1-02 on 19 Nov, 2001.  It was there in Quantico where I learned all there was to know about being a Marine Officer.  I learned all the requisite acronyms and nicknames for everything from military procedures and hardware, to body parts and clothing items.  Most importantly, I learned the importance of busting curfew, not adhering to the established dress code, staying up too late, getting up too late, using the F-word for everything, and consuming exorbitant amounts of brewed and distilled liquids.  There was also a little land navigation, long walks with big backpacks, and playing with guns thrown in for good measure.

I met a lot of interesting people there too, a few of whom became my best friends.  Early on, I started hanging out with this big funny guy across the hall who had a last name nobody could pronounce, or spell.  The kind of name that I could only imagine earned him special recognition at OCS.  I have no doubt that he became known as “alphabet soup” or “venereal disease.”  His name was Venettozzi, but I just called him Vinny.  It wasn’t long before he started telling me about his background, where he was from, some of the other people that he knew at TBS.  He mentioned one guy that he’d met at OCS who happened to be from the same town, Pensacola, FL.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t all been placed in the same platoon.

One afternoon, after having slept through a rough day of class, Vinny and I went to meet this friend of his.  I remember him saying, “Be careful not to break his hand when you shake it, he’s old.”  “His name is Trostle, Trostle the Fossil.”

The next six months are kind of blurry, but the three of us grew to be pretty tight.

We graduated in June, 2002 and being Air Contracts all went to Pensacola where we rented a house together.  Needless to say, the beer drinking and late nights escalated with lots of time spent at the Seville Quarter.  Vinny and I spent lots of time riding our motorcycles while Trostle played Everquest and would sometimes break out his vintage 1985 Van Halen glasses and go to the beach with the wave runner.   It was a good summer, but in Nov I got orders to Corpus Christi, TX for primary flight and had to leave Pensacola.

Eventually, we all decided to leave the flight program and get real jobs in the Corps.  Vinny went to Camp Lejeune and Trostle and I wound up at Camp Pendleton together.  Naturally, we ended up renting together again and resumed the partying.  We attained VIP status at the local Chili’s and Hooters by frequently attending “happy hour.”  We always thought of Vinny and customarily gave him a call from the bar to see how he was doing and to remind ourselves that we were still tough enough to endure his berating and name calling.  Vinny went to Iraq for a year, so Trostle and I had to find other ways to amuse ourselves in the meantime.

Ducati motorcycles became an interest that Trostle and I shared and we dragged knees and foot pegs up and down Palomar Mt on a routine basis.  We also discovered the thrill of putting his Jeep in 4WD Low and practicing wide open throttle launches in our own neighborhood.  This went on for a few years until Trostle had to go back to Pensacola and I was finally awarded with my trip to Iraq in Jul, 2006.

I returned to the States in Feb, 2007.  Vinny found a billet to fill in Pensacola where he and Trostle then turned the tables and started making harassing phone calls to me.  In May, I decided to separate from the Corps and took a job near Los Angeles.

In Feb, 2008, my fiancée and I left CA and went to Prattsburgh, NY where we were married on 5 July.  We now reside outside of Mobile, AL.

Well, that’s the story of how Trostle the Fossil and I became pals.  Vinny ended up at Camp Pendleton, CA in June, 2008 somehow.  Maybe one day he’ll wise up and come back east so that the three of us and continue the chaos that we started back in ’01.  Until then, Trostle and I will keep this whole thing together by making a few calls from the bar, of course…