Yeah ... that first trip across the Shit River and into town w/ suitable escorts/guides/protectors WAS the new great American adventure ... !!!
My first time across Shit River was in 1977. Tossing pesos off the bridge into the river for the kids to fight over, monkey meat, balaut, buying your LBFM out of the bar, LBFM's were all 95lbs and could turn 3,000 rpms, no AIDS no rubbers, the 12:00 curfew scramble, hiding from the PC after curfew, rocking all night and humping hills all day until you fall out, junior enlisted going UA until their money ran out, Phillipino house bands, the Fisheye Club, the Wagon Wheel.
"I love you no shit GI. Buy me drinkey"
"God Dama you GI you bullshit. You no butterfly!!!)
I shit you not the very first thing I saw after crossing shit river for the first time was an LBFM with a knife in her hand chasing a sailor down Magsaysay screaming something about "you no butterfly".
Marine Corps Heaven.......