User:EricWootton

The Crew is made up of two vagabonds.

Two Marines who served in Iraq. Here are their biographies.

Marine 1: Eric Wootton

Hi, my name is Eric Wootton, A.K.A. Hookahdon and I am twenty five years old. I was born in the small city of Yuma Arizona and was raised by two amazing “adults”. At the age of eighteen I packed up my car and moved to Arizona State University to pursue a degree in business and what would have been a boring life doing “Supply Chain Management” for some big corporation in the mid-west. Always on the look out for a challenge and adventure I joined the Marine Corps Reserve so that I could see if I could survive the toughest boot camp in the world. Remember at the time (2000) the world seemed to make a lot more sense on a geo-political level. 9/11 came and went and I knew that my future was going to involve being deployed off to war against our new enemy, Osama Bin Laden.

Well they missed the country and I ended up in Iraq in order to secure the large amounts of WMD that Saddam was hiding there and to liberate a population that didn’t have much say in their government. Luckily I wasn’t from such a country! I was right behind the invading forces providing fuel and at times an extra body on the convoys. While there I met fellow philosopher Robert Seitzberg. We spent most of our days asking questions like “What is really important in life? What will I do with my life if I make it home? And Why are we here?” We dreamed of traveling the world and never taking life for granted again. After half a year I did make it home and became more confused then ever. The media didn’t seem to be portraying what I saw over there. Some people that I had never even met told me that I was a hero and thanked me, other’s who I had never even met told me that I was basically evil and should be ashamed of myself. Add on to that the fact that I hadn’t had a beer or seen a woman in half a year and I can honestly say that coming home is much harder for a war vet then going to the war itself… after all, they train you for one of those.

With only two classes left for a diploma I switched my major from “supply chain management” to political science to get something I needed much more then a degree, answers. Well it took many years but I believe I have a couple of answers and if I ever meet you in person then I’d be more then happy to share them with you. In the mean time I did eventually earn a degree only to find myself in debt and un-able to get a “real” job, which was fine by me since a “real” job was the last way that I wanted to spend my life after the war. I moved back to my hometown and with the help of “Bobby” opened up my first for-profit business, a hookah lounge. It did very well and after only a year I was able to sell it and use the payoff payments to make my debt payments. Plus my long six year contract with the Marine Corps finally came to an end. I was free on two fronts, only one thing left to do, sell all earthly possessions and travel the world!

Two months of CouchSurfing led Bobby and I to the CS Collective in Montreal Canada where we fell in love with everyone that is the CouchSurfing Organization. Casey, Rachel, Jim, Heather, Julienne, Bobby, Nickster the pimp, Nick the juggler, Amylin, Kasper, Anu, Christine, Chris, Rico, Dan, Seb, Marie-Eve, Julie, Paula, Alex, Hungry Steve, Jesse, Danni, Nathalie, Cinderella, Donna the chef I, and Jen the chef II, Casey’s mom, and everyone else… I love you! Thanks for helping me, thanks for teaching me so much about life, love, and the world that I live in. To the CouchSurfers and the Burners and to everyone in the world, this project is for you!

P.S. If you want to learn even more about me you can view my profile on Myspace.

couchsurfing:hookahdon

Marine 2: Robert (A.K.A. Bobby) Seitzberg

He's still working on his bio. It should be posted soon.

In the mean time you can view his CS profile

Or check out his profile on MySpace