Security

It’s a strange thing being on a base in these parts.  Security means many things to the average person.  For some at the base, it’s a real contradiction.  Soldiers and airmen in full uniform or street clothes, some with side arms and long guns and some without.  Transients like us with their weapons locked up in triplicate, and Local workers going about their daily routines, seemingly oblivious to it all.  Stores, rec centers, theaters, and eateries are filled with a wide mix of them all.  “Sorry sir if my rifle fell on your foot” says the young soldier.  No problem I said, its all good.  Most around here are pragmatic professionals just getting through the day in the way they feel most comfortable about security, but there are the ones we call the “paranoids”. They are armed and looking for bad people around every corner, fumbling with their weapons.  They probably shouldn’t be here.

  The most interesting are those in gym clothes with either a long gun slung over their shoulder or like one officer we saw with a pistol tucked in his reflective safety belt.  Clearly none of these guys intends to jog, run or lift weights in that get-up.  This odd fellow was checking the clothing turn-in drop off containers, for what wasn’t clear, all the while putting his pistol on the top of the drop box as he rooted through the box, barrel facing us of course.  One of the civilian locals had to remind him that this was probably not good weapon practice.  You think???