@Cpat92 Said
Of course I thought it through. I didn't enlist with the purpose to go on a boat. I didn't hate boats originally, but after my deployment I grew to despise them. MEUs aren't necessarily fun. It's fun when we get off the ship for liberty. Try spending a week in the Indian Ocean. It was painful.
Sorry mate, but I kinda figured the word "Marine" was a bit of a giveaway where sea going vessels are concerned. But hey... what do I know..?
The longest amount of time I've spent at sea is on a cruise liner. I rather enjoyed it, but then, I imagine that's a different environment to being cooped up with however many other grunts in a vessel that probably wasn't built with the comfort of the people in it uppermost in the designers minds.
I should imagine the Indian Ocean can get a bit lumpy. I see fishing vessels being tossed around in the South Western Approaches when I'm having my fitness runs and if that's what it's like in coastal waters I can only imagine what it must be like out on the high seas...!!
As for Liberty, well, I used to see how British sailors (and Royal Marines) behaved ashore when I was at University in Portsmouth. Not a pretty sight. Not nice people. I avoided them.
One of the huge US Aircraft Carriers (USS Nimitz I think) came to Pompey during my time there. Too big to enter the harbour it anchored out in the Solent and the Libertymen came ashore by boat. We expected the City to be flooded with US military personnel, but most just headed straight for the train station and went to London. We hardly saw them at all.