During fleet week Eric and I were at Jake's Grill for happy hour. The place was pretty busy so we pulled up two stools at the bar next to two sailors in town for fleet week. We noticed their glasses were almost empty so we told the bartender to refill their drinks on us. They were genuinely surpised and thanked us for the round of drinks. We spent a couple hours talking with the sailors. Both of them were stationed on one of the smaller ships in for Rose Festival. We asked about their jobs, their thoughts on terrorisim, interesting ports of call they'd been to, their homes, their goals, their families. I couldn't believe how open they both were. More than anything they wanted to talk about their families. Their parents and grandparents in their home towns, and their wives and children waiting for them in their home port. They liked the Navy, but both were looking forward to the time their service was complete and they could be with their families full time.
As we talked other people in the bar were sending them over drinks to thank them for their service...so much so, that they eventually had to turn them down in order not to get drunk. I joked with them about that, saying it must be a problem everytime they visit a US port...trying not to get drunk on all the drinks people bought them. They surprised us by saying...no...Portland is the only city where people bought them drinks. They said anywhere they went in Portland, people were buying them drinks, treating them to coffee, etc. I was surprised. Maybe because my father was a career Marine serving in WWII, Korea and Viet Nam, I just assumed that others were as grateful as I am for the men and women leaving their families to risk their lives to serve our country. It made me very proud of the people of Portland...and very dissappointed in the rest of the port cities these two humble young men had visited and not been given anything less than a very warm welcome.
