Bros over Hos
I begin this parable with this caveat: There is a difference between life experience And BASE experience. Allow me to pass along a lesson on both... St. Patrick's day, 2008. I have, for the last year, allowed a young man into my home, broken bread, shared Christmas Eve for his lack of local family, and pretty much offered counsel, experience, advice, and love. I made bandit jumps on short notice without question with him. I call him my oldest son.
We went out on St. Patrick's Day, had drinks, I tossed a fat, belligerent fucker out of a club...etc. Good times.
As the night progressed, it was time for a jump. A Perrine jump. One of a zillion. And, judge me if you will, but my freedom to BASE after a few is one of the reasons I love this sport.
Any of you...if you were to ask me to ground crew your dumb, drunk ass on a BASE jump, I would without question. I may assess your faculties and try to convince you otherwise based on my time spent with you, but I would be there for you. No matter what.
If you went in...I would wait for the cops. I would tell them your name. Your next of kin. Your favorite color. How you wanted to be remembered. I would explain to your family that you were a grown up and in charge of your own destiny. I would protect your legacy...even if I disapproved of your actions.
I wanted to jump. I asked this young man not to jump...but simply to accompany my Blondie while I indulged the spirit. He chose not to. He decided that the fruitless pursuit of pussy in a redneck dive bar in Twinkie Flats was more important than looking out for a fellow BASE jumper and life mentor.
Another friend and local felt the love and chose not only to accompany me, but to jump with me. Had he not jumped...he still would have simply come along. He gets it. Not from BASE experience, but from life experience.
So we jumped. The video is one of the most hilarious in the history of Perrine dipshit jumps. It was fantastic.
There is a fork in the road of life that most of us come to. In the Marine Corps, we called it Bros over Hos.
He made the wrong choice. I have learned from my life that those who make the wrong choice once, will make an equivalent choice again when, say, bullets are flying.
Consider why you are here. I will tell you that I am here because I have found BASE jumpers to be the closest thing to combat blood brothers outside of that arena available anywhere on Earth. I jump with anti-war agnostics (180 degrees to my beliefs) whom I consider family. Whether we have squabbled or embraced, I will choose a BASE jumper's fate over that of a dilletante any day of the week. Even if I don't like you. I am not easily disappointed by those around me. I was bruised to the core.
We are family. Remember that.
not everyone in the marines can be Force Reconn... 
