Noise in the night
At first we thought someone had fired up a chainsaw outside our fifth-wheel. My wife and I were boondocking on the Bureau of Land Management’s Imperial Dam long-term visitor area (LTVA) about 22 miles north of Yuma, Arizona, and had gone to bed a half-hour earlier. Suddenly, we were jarred awake by a raucous, snarling, grating noise. It revved several times, then faded a bit, and we realized the “chainsaw” was actually an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) down by the Senator Wash Reservoir.
“Who's driving that thing this time of night?” my wife wondered. “Don’t they know about quiet hours?” We lay in bed listening as the driver raced up and down the beach, occasionally venturing up the short access spur that led to the LTVA. The driver would pause at the top of the spur, revving the engine, then roar back down to the beach. The still desert night seemed to magnify the noise, and we had no doubt that all our fellow RVers were also wide awake.
Finally, the ATV shut down and the driver joined his buddies partying by the beach. Their rock music and whooping sounded right next door. All too soon, the ATV started up again and resumed racing about. I inserted earplugs, but the noise shot through like an arrow penetrating cardboard. After a while the ATVer went back to the party, only to restart the machine a few minutes later. And so it went, hour after hour. “Inconsiderate jerks,” I muttered at one point.
Somebody in the LTVA eventually called the sheriff’s office, and around 3:15 a.m. a patrol car arrived to shoo the offenders away. At last silence returned to the night. We quickly fell asleep.
When we got up later in the morning, other RVers were chatting about the incident, and from them we learned some surprising details. The ATVer and his friends were Marines stationed at the air station in
Yuma. They had just returned from duty in Iraq and were “letting off steam,” as they explained it to the officer. Suddenly, our lingering resentment faded. Sure, the soldiers should have known they were disturbing people, but no longer did I think of them as inconsiderate jerks. Marines. Sacrifice. Fighting terrorists in a hostile land far away. They had earned the right to make some noise.
“Who's driving that thing this time of night?” my wife wondered. “Don’t they know about quiet hours?” We lay in bed listening as the driver raced up and down the beach, occasionally venturing up the short access spur that led to the LTVA. The driver would pause at the top of the spur, revving the engine, then roar back down to the beach. The still desert night seemed to magnify the noise, and we had no doubt that all our fellow RVers were also wide awake.
Finally, the ATV shut down and the driver joined his buddies partying by the beach. Their rock music and whooping sounded right next door. All too soon, the ATV started up again and resumed racing about. I inserted earplugs, but the noise shot through like an arrow penetrating cardboard. After a while the ATVer went back to the party, only to restart the machine a few minutes later. And so it went, hour after hour. “Inconsiderate jerks,” I muttered at one point.
Somebody in the LTVA eventually called the sheriff’s office, and around 3:15 a.m. a patrol car arrived to shoo the offenders away. At last silence returned to the night. We quickly fell asleep.
When we got up later in the morning, other RVers were chatting about the incident, and from them we learned some surprising details. The ATVer and his friends were Marines stationed at the air station in
Yuma. They had just returned from duty in Iraq and were “letting off steam,” as they explained it to the officer. Suddenly, our lingering resentment faded. Sure, the soldiers should have known they were disturbing people, but no longer did I think of them as inconsiderate jerks. Marines. Sacrifice. Fighting terrorists in a hostile land far away. They had earned the right to make some noise.
3 Comments:
First - I'm a Marine (Viet Nam era).
They must have been officers because any enlisted Marine knows better: they've been taught to respect others by their company gunny...
By Anonymous, at October 23, 2007 3:20 PM
Gotta agree with the first poster. Service to country doesn't excuse rudeness. Seems to me that members of the service are held to a higher standard.
By Anonymous, at October 23, 2007 4:43 PM
The episode is, in many ways, a metaphor for the "war" on Iraq and the "war on terror." Wake up calls that something is way wrong in the night....
By Airborne Ranger Viet Vet, at November 3, 2007 5:38 AM
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