I've sort of been in this situation as one of the men. I was in the Navy when I was the LW's age, and I and my buddies used to hang around one of the watering holes near the base. We got to know some of the other regulars there, and among them was a girl our age who had casually dated a couple of the guys in my outfit. So one night, half a dozen or so of us were there, and she was there with one of her friends. We had all had a couple, and for some reason we decided to go back to someone's house and drink some more. She and the friend come along.

We get to this guy's house and it's immediately clear that the friend is not comfortable with the situation. She's standing off to the side, arms folded, looking at her watch, etc. I was not too surprised to see that she had left after an hour or so. By this point everyone was fairly drunk but not to the point of staggering or slurring their speech. Even at that age, I was not much of a party animal, and I was getting ready to go when I saw the girl with an arm around two of the guys, and they were taking turns kissing. I didn't think too much of it at that moment, but as I was headed home, I thought, hmmm.

The next day, I found out that, yes, she had done the deed with both of them. A few days later, I went out to lunch and ran into the girl and we sat down together. I was looking for a way to subtly suggest that maybe getting drunk with a bunch of Navy guys wasn't the smartest thing to do, and said something to the effect of "hey, how come your friend ditched you the other night". Wrong thing to say. Her comments were a lot like some of the folks in this thread - words to the effect that she was a grown woman and could make her own decisions about who she was going to have sex with. She made the same point some folks further up the thread made - if she was a man and had hooked up with two good-looking women, the response would have been high-fives all around. Evidently, she had already had this conversation with several of her friends and was not interested in hearing it again from me.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I don't think it's healthy to assume that men are insatiably interested in sex, and women are only interested in fending off sex. Sometimes, everyone just wants to have a good time. The difference in this story and "Jan's" is that this girl wasn't drinking so much that she literally didn't know where she was, and drunk-dialing her friends to come and find her. That, in my opinion, is where the real problem lies.

I think it's unlikely that the colonel bumped the junior guys because of his rank. People going on leave have a lower priority for transit than those traveling for official business - I'm betting that the colonel was traveling for business purposes, and that's what the bumping was all about.

I'm sorry, but there's no way anyone can diagnose a "patient" based on a letter written by a third party! There is simply not enough information for all these people to pronounce the guy bipolar. In any case, as many folks have pointed out - his medical status is irrelevant. Crazy or not, signing up for the Marines without so much as discussing it with your intended is and ought to be a deal-breaker.

Regarding the chances of actually getting through OCS: it depends. If the guy has been treated for mental illness, and makes the mistake of admitting to that during any part of the OCS process, he's done. If he's been treated, but lies about it, it probably would not be caught. If he hasn't been treated, I doubt the medical screening would be able to catch him unless he cracked up during the examination, which seems unlikely. Based on all that, I'm guessing he can at least get to OCS. Whether he makes it through OCS is another matter entirely. It's a very grueling process, and if the gentleman does have any mental health issues, I'm guessing they'll be revealed. The USMC will not hesitate to drop him if he fails to measure up in any way.

Another question: did he really even sign up? Or is he just saying this to get the LW's reaction? Of course, there's a limit to how much detail you can put in a letter, but there's not much to go on here - when is the guy supposed to report?

The whole thing is too weird for words. If I were the LW, I'd bail.

Listed is listed. That means that the government is required to take certain actions to protect the species. Kempthorne's huffing and puffing to the effect that he's not going to do this or that to protect the polar is so much hot air. He's going to take the actions legally required to protect the bear, or he's going to be sued. And he'll lose. Just like last time.

So this really is good news.

Have I mentioned that January can't come soon enough?

... but this time, your advice sucks. The LW was right - teaching young earth creationism is tantamount to child abuse. The friend will be teaching these children a "scientific" theory that is known to be incorrect, and is setting them up to fail as responsible citizens. While the friend can no doubt make his own decision about whether to do this, the LW need not, and should not, go along with it.