Hood's House

HG · Post by HG » 16 Jun 2007 06:04

John, one of the best guys ever. Had so much fun with you whenever we saw each other. Boxing, handstands, races, situps with weights

I hope you stay safe and have a good experience John.

Keep us updated Brad!

cammel · Post by **cammel** » 16 Jun 2007 16:08

Hey, John I hope everything goes well. I dont know when you'll read this but i hope you stay safe. I read those EOD pages and it sounds really interesting but also pretty dangerous. Best of luck and I hope it was the right decision.

-Gray

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 16 Jun 2007 18:57

John's the best! I took a pic of him with some hot chica on Jeremy Mirken's camera.

bob · Post by **bob** » 02 Jul 2007 09:55

We've got some beach pictures that i'll try to get up soon. it was seriously a blast of a trip.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 10 Aug 2007 13:32

Graduation day ! Hoooyah !!

Just received my official orders to what I'm doing once I get out of Recruit Training Command.

"A" School goes as follows:

26 days here in Chicago Naval Base.

60 days at Panama City Floriday.

261 days at Elgin Air Force Base, Florida.

I'll report back in with some other news. I'm going to hang out with the family today and tomorrow and then try to hook up with CiC on Sunday.
So far the Navy has treated me well. I've worked up enough to pay off my new computer and some student loans.

Footbag news:

Haven't kicked anything other than rocks in the street while marching in boot camp. On the other hand, an overweight individual took it upon himself to sew up a ghetto bag: inner lining of shorts filled with buttons. Bad news was I warned him he'd get in shit if he does that even though it was our holiday routine (6 hours of freedom in the compartment), he got in trouble, haha. He was the most overweight individual and was trying to have fun while losing weight, oops, wrong decision.

Peace out.

I miss all my close 295 crew and kicking buddies. Keep some messages coming because I like hearing from you all.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 10 Aug 2007 13:45

Footbag misses you.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 13 Oct 2007 19:11

Done with pool week, here is a video some past class made. Gives you a general idea of what pool week is. Basically learning SCUBA and recovering your gear underwater with a bit of added pressure.

I'll now be moving on from SCUBA into MK-16 rigs and doing sea dives to keep things interesting.

I also just bought my first motorcycle so I'm super excited about that, just plain fuckin puuuumped ! Should be getting it in on Friday.

and I still haven't kicked.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 14 Oct 2007 04:59

Wow, I feel like a jerk having to admit that I haven't kept tabs on you guys over the last couple years. Really impressed with your Navy decision >> that takes great dedication. Good for you! I hope your whole crew is doing great

bob · Post by **bob** » 24 Apr 2008 09:53

hey hey everyone. haha it's been........well a really long time since i've posted. can't recall exactly but i think it was after the beach. I guess i'll give ya guys a little update on whats been happening:

The crew is kind of spread out at the moment even though we still talk to each other on probably a weekly to bi-weekly basis. I'm actually talking to brad now. john is still hitting up his navy stuff (with a few complications, but he's enjoying what he's doing), brad is getting his degree up in morgantown, and i'm still down in huntington working for marshall university as a database admin. I've been trying to make my way back up to parkersburg (where we all started playing together), but i need a job first and that's not an easy thing to get there with a CS degree.

i've been pretty nastalgic lately. thats why i started reading the forums again. just reading out footblog and reading all the fun times. I'm sure it's just been brought on cause i haven't seen any of the crew in about a month and a half. However, we are remedying that with a party this weekend. John can't make it cause of distance, but brad and most of the rest of the crew should be in.

It kinda sucks growing up. everyone moves away. I mean, we still keep in constant contact, but it's just a lot more effort now than "hey, we are all going to simons after school." Everyone seems to have lives now that they have to attend to.

but enough of that sad shit. party this weekend. everyone will be nice and sauced and full of bbq. and that's the crew i remember. maybe i'll take some updated pictures if i can find a camera.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 24 Apr 2008 11:10

I'd like that.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 13 May 2008 19:30

bob wrote:sauced and full of bbq.

Amen brotha !

Well, let's see, no footbag still. I get some urges here and there, but try to keep air footbag to a complete and stealthy minimum. Got through Panama City Dive training , lotta obstacles overcame and graduated that deal. Got to Eglin to learn about explosives and such, but I fucked up a couple months ago by getting a public intox and talking smack to the cops. 0 tolerance is a bitch. Most people get kicked out of this school for DUI, I got it for hoofin it. I vowed not to drink until I received a higher rank, or I accomplished something. Well, I've broken that just recently so I accomplished dishonesty to myself. BUT, to keep consistant with my moto, Fuck It. Over 2 months without alcohol in the system was a pretty good run I thought.

Now I'm leaving this Friday to a far and distant land...60 miles away to Pensacola, FL. Over there I will become a PR(parachute rigger) which is a whopping 28 days of training. A bit shorter than one of the longest training jobs in the Navy. Anyways, the plan is to bolt down and get to the top of the class to possibly get an instant advancement and choice of orders. It seems after that school I can be sent just about anywhere in the world to use my sewing skills to make the world a better place. I don't know a whole lot about PR's other than they repair aircrew safety equipment and other PR's only praise the job compared to most of the other shitty jobs. Hell, if that's the case, maybe I'll learn how to sew footbags. I made a total of 2 in my early footbag life. 1 fell apart and the other was just a sad site.

Tomorrow is the ritualistic Weds. night sushi night at Sushi Siam. So I'll snap some pictures and post up of my last stand. I've managed to refuse sake for 2 months from that place. SAKE BOMB !!!

I miss my crew like crazy. They are all like brothers to me and now I see them a couple times a year for a weekend and maybe a couple days if I'm lucky. Bob is completely right about growing up, it sucks. There is nothing better than having close to no worries and the only thing that matters is you and your buds just chillin out together having the time of your lives. It's crazy you'll never know that until later in life. I know that nobody thought I'd join the military and even I was one of those nonbelievers. But if anybody knows me, I can be unpredictable and just go for it.

My experience thus far has been a great one. I've learned a ton in personal growth and what the military is and stands for. Before this adventure I didn't think twice about a military man that walked by, other than he shouldn't be wearing camouflage in this town. Now I am that man walking in a uniform. I understand that I will be in this job for quite a long time and ultimately I might not return to home. I can't stand the fact that I've lost my EOD contract and have to pick some randomassed job for a year before I can even try to get back in. Some people might even be happy that I'm not in it because of the potential risks that are involved. Screw that, I've never done anything in my life that I've felt so compelled to do and have enjoyed the insights of superiors.

Many instructors at my school have retired and have so many different adventures to talk of, so much information, so much pride, so much respect from everyone else, and I want a piece of that. The job is rich in history from the day it was created and has great respect among other enlisted. What other job gets payed to learn to dive, jump parachutes, detonate explosives, and exercise ? I see so many of the older instructors that have done their time just shootin the shit (never really understood that saying) with each other, and it reminds myself of my crew and I. The best dream I've had since I've joined the Navy was when my friends joined this program and I had them all here with me. The only way I think I could be closer with my friends is if they understood this lifestyle. The only way to understand it is live it. I would have a great deal more respect for them and would feel more as if we were brothers in arms, pretty BA. Not to say I don't respect them, they're all like blood to me, I'd gladly take a bullet for any one of them and smile doing so. They know it, I know it, that's the great thing about good friends that have grown up together.

I know as I grow up and they do the same, we will all slowly branch out. I've already lost a couple friends, not to the casualties of war, but just of becoming an adult and moving on, a sad death indeed. Sometimes I wish I could be back home in my old lifestyle, but on a person level, that wouldn't advance me further or solve my problems. I really miss the contact of them all, laughter always filled the air. That kind of laughter just dissolved any other problems going on, any other stress, and was so accessible and abundant.

I will definitely be safe and sound with this new job that I'm getting into. The risk of death has pretty much went back down to 0 since I just sold my motorcycle and am no longer in the EOD community. I have so much time on my hands to think about how life could be at home. Where the hell I'm going and going to different places not knowing a single soul there. At this point I've pretty much lost my military friends because I'm no longer in the class I was supposed to graduate with. Others have failed out or had medical problems. Now I'm going to a completely new place with no one by my side, almost like I'm back at square one. Oddly enough, I am ready for this all to restart and meet new people. I just keep meeting more and more acquaintences while I know I will probably never meet anyone like my friends back home.

*ramble ramble ramble*

G'night.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 01 Jun 2008 17:58

http://mahoody83.site.shutterfly.com/20

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 01 Jun 2008 18:19

John, whereever you go, the footbag community will always be by your side. I remember our last meeting pretty well; I think it was East Coast Championships 2006. It was great hanging out with you then.

A person's dedication and resolve is what matters the most. Always keep your focus strong, and always look forward.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » 02 Jun 2008 06:40

Pittsburgh misses you more than you know, Hood. Boebags and I are reminded of good times with you fairly often, still to date.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 02 Jun 2008 08:45

Re: your random drunk phone calls.

I miss them... and yet I don't at the same time

Edit:
NYJ isn't the same without the WVC

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 13 Oct 2008 20:37

I definitely drove from Florida to West Virginia to California (3500+ miles). *checks off driving cross country* I brought a footbag and a pair of Rod Lavers with me to my new permanent duty station. I'm now stationed in Point Mugu for 3 years and am going to try to get back to the EOD program in less than 2 years. I went dirt biking for the first time this weekend, successfully wrecked and knocked the wind out of me pretty good, but luckily I didn't hit any rocks when I got my ass whipped off goin bout 25 mph +. Hopefully I'll go surfing for the first time soon, but I hear the water is about mid 60's...a bit nippy.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 13 Oct 2008 20:46

I just wanted to add one of the oddest coincidental oddities.

I was in Eglin Air Force Base and needed to sell my motorcycle because I knew I was going to choose a different job in the Navy and move. So I sold it to somebody that lived in Pensacola, FL. I then found out my new job in the Navy was to be trained in Pensacola, FL. I moved there and parked next to what looked to be my motorcycle at the Pensacola Naval base. It was. The guy I sold it to was staying on the same floor as me in the barracks...wierd.

4 months later I graduate and leave to where I'm at now, Point Mugu, Cali. I leave for lunch and see a bike that is parked and looks like mine. So i pull up to it and check it out. Florida license plate, same modifications to it, and same damage marks to it from where I wrecked it... I found out that day that it was indeed the same bike I sold originally at Eglin Air Force Base. I then hunt down the owner and say oi. I find out that he's staying at the same barracks as me on base, and his room is 2 away from mine...

CRAZY !

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 14 Oct 2008 12:40

johnny boy!