By 
A MARINE ON DUTY HAS NO FRIENDS.
Poor Duty.
Duty is as much a part of Marine Corps life as guns and disappointment. Whether you’re single, married, ranking high or low, you can’t avoid it. If you’re young and dumb you’ll be the A-Duty, if you’re an NCO you’ll be the Duty NCO, if you’re a Staff NCO you’ll be the battalion Staff Duty, if you’re an officer you’ll be the Officer of the Day. The Faceless God is the only one who can decide who stands and who rests for duty.
No but really, the duty has plenty of friends, and he keeps them by not being a total blue falcon to his fellow Marines while on duty. A good duty (and everyone’s friend) is a guy that keeps order and security in the barracks without messing up a Marine’s career over breaking some small rule he didn’t even know existed. No one likes a snitch, and most problems can be solved with words over paperwork.
Duty is actually important, because someone needs to be sober in the barracks while everyone else is not. A pack of 150 Marines without any supervision is a dangerous thing, and I’m sure duty was invented for that exact reason.
So the next time your buddy is on duty, buy him a Monster and see how he’s holding up throughout the day. Even the duty needs a friend.
On a side note, I’m really sorry to have cancelled yesterday’s book signing in San Angelo. It was a pure shitshow at DFW on Sunday and I spent about 20 hours traveling between Chicago and Texas, only to end up back in LA at the end of it. The short story is that the flight to San Angelo got cancelled due to some horrendous weather and a middle finger from American Airlines. The next flight wasn’t until Monday night, after the book signing. Without a ton of options I had to cut my losses and head back to LA (I couldn’t afford to just stay in Texas indefinitely). My publisher and the store are currently trying to figure out options for rescheduling, and I’m really sorry for any inconvenience all of this might have caused!
On another note, thank you to everyone who came out to see me in Chicago on Saturday! As well, thank you to Kim Barker and the great people at the Chicago Tribune Lit Fest for setting it all up. I was pleasantly surprised by how amazing Chicago was, especially with all the horror stories in the headlines lately. I’d definitely go back.
THIS SATURDAY you can find me at the Barnes & Noble in Oceanside! I’ll be there starting at 2pm I believe, I hope to see a ton of high and tights and digital camouflaged backpacks.
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