I Remember Clarke

I served with a lot of people who could be described as "characters" during my time in the Army. One of those who really stands out in my memories was Clarke.

Robert Clarke and I were stationed at the Defense Language Institute, Ft. Bliss, Texas and then later in Augsburg, Germany. He was a one-of-a-kind person who was full of life and lived on his own terms. Here are some things I remember about him:

• He was quite the rebel. I remember once he shaved off his eyebrows just to see what kind of reaction he'd get from the leadership in our unit. It was rather creepy, which I think was what he was going for. He also once dyed his hair red; not the bright red people use these days, but a very natural-looking red. I started calling him "Red" after that, which often befuddled people he met after the red hair grew out
• Another rebellious thing he did: When we were at DLI and doing one of the semi-annual physical fitness tests. Part of the test was a 2-mile run. In the middle of the run, Clarke stopped to pull a cigarette and lighter out of his sock, light up and then continued the run. A bunch of the school leadership yelled at him to put the cigarette out because smoking wasn't allowed during the test. Even though he stopped to argue with some of them, he still finished the run and passed
• Everyone called him "Clarke," even his mother. That was something some people who met him didn't quite believe. It was true, though. His mom once visited him in Germany when we were there and I never her refer to him as anything other than "Clarke"
• When we were at Ft. Bliss and we lived in the barracks, his roommate was Mark. He and Mark would often bicker about things, sometimes even to the point where they'd start punching it out. It seemed they were more like arguing siblings than anything else; but, knowing Clarke I can well imagine he liked to push Mark's buttons to get him going
• When we were in Germany, he bought a crotch rocket motorcycle. He once tried to see how fast he could get to Garmisch and back. I don't remember exactly how long it took him, but I remember thinking, "Holy crap that's fast - I'm surprised he didn't kill himself doing that"
• I don't think he kept it much of a secret, but I did know him to indulge in marijuana from time to time. I sometimes wondered how he managed to elude getting caught in the numerous, random drug tests that were conducted
• He sometimes described his time before the Army as being a professional student. He had attended Texas A&M for several years, but I don't remember if he said he'd ever graduated
• Related to that, I spent one New Years Day watching the Cotton Bowl featuring A&M playing Notre Dame with him and his mom along with some others. I was forgiven for rooting for ND only because I went to high school with their starting quarterback
• I hadn't seen Clarke since our Army time. Once, when I was living in Central Texas, he sent me an email (or mentioned on Facebook) that he was going to be visiting a nearby town. We made arrangements to meet up for dinner, but he never showed. I think that I would have been offended if it were someone else, but with Clarke I figured that it was the way he was. I know that may seem odd, but if you ever met him, I think you'd feel the same way

I'm sure as I think about things I'm sure I'll remember more.