How is it, that when we did everything exactly right, everything ended up going so disastrously wrong?
I remember the first time I heard about the asteroid, because I was nursing a monumental hangover. Me and a bunch of the guys – and Morris – had just wound up our first liberty since being assigned to Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico. As the Marine's elite Special Ops Division, Force Recon units are treated pretty well just about anywhere we go, and the dives and hot spots of Puerto Rico had been no exception.
I was still trying to rinse the syrupy taste of stale rum out of my mouth when the wall unit started spouting news about the newly discovered Near Earth Object and its potential collision course for Earth. The story was unfolding at Kitt's Observatory in Arizona, where the musty Spacewatch Program was

[This message has been edited by debhoag (edited July 08, 2007).]

don't call it "official leave" even if you want to hint that they had brief periods of AWOL before. I recommend say it was the "end of our first liberty"

"official" leave in the military is kind of different than just having a few days off. It takes paperwork done by each individual solider indicating where you are going when you plan to return etc. Not something that you'd take to hit the local beaches/bars.

Liberty on the other hand is typically a blanket privilege granted by a unit's CO to a unit that is technically restricted to the base when off duty.