Playing Halo 2 online with voice chat often gives me glimpses into parts of this country that my sheltered self normally does not see. Much of what stands out are racist remarks, which I've blogged about. But sometimes it's more interesting. I bring you another edition of Overheard in Halo:
"So get this, man, the day before we were getting deployed to Iraq, we went down to this bowling alley, get some drinks and chill, right? But they kicked this one guy out of the bar because he was under 21. What the fuck, man? He's old enough to go over there and take someone's life, but he's not old enough to get a fucking beer? He was heading out to Iraq the next day."
"Yeah, that's fucked up, man."
Later, while we were in the middle of a game, a conversation between someone else and the ex-soldier above:
Other guy: "So you were really in Iraq? You ever get any kills over there?"
Soldier guy: "Huh? Hey, at one point I went 23 and 2, man."
Other guy: "What?! No, I mean in Iraq! You can't go 23 and 2 in Iraq!"
Another guy on the team: "Yeah, you can go 23 and one..."
(Laughter all around)
Soldier guy: "Oh! ... Well, let me put it this way, man: I don't know if I did, and I don't wanna know if I did. We'll leave it at that."