A veteran’s TikTok has gone viral after he shared a story about an Army recruiter who told him he’d be sent to an overseas post, only for him to end up in Oklahoma. Nolan Marsh, known as @livefromthebus on TikTok, says the recruiter told him he’d be going to Belgium when he joined the Army.
Months into training, Marsh learned his real assignment wasn’t an exciting European city. Instead, he was headed to Lawton, Oklahoma. According to Bro Bible, he immediately Googled the town to see what to expect, and the results weren’t encouraging.
Marsh found a dashcam video tour of Lawton with a caption calling it a place where “dreams go to die.” That’s a rough introduction to your new home. The story took an unexpected twist once he arrived. One day, while out for burritos, he spotted a familiar face among the other soldiers.
The recruiter ended up in the same place.
It was the same recruiter who had promised him Belgium. Marsh summed up the moment in his viral TikTok, saying, “Here we are. Here we both are. Karma.” The video has since earned more than 1.2 million views.
Regular Army enlistments don’t guarantee your first assignment. Recruiters don’t have to show you where you’ll be stationed before you sign because the military’s needs come first. They can suggest what’s “likely,” but they can’t promise a specific location. Like many unexpected life stories that go viral, Marsh’s experience struck a chord with viewers.
One commenter wrote, “Baby I joined the Navy and ended up in Fallon fucking Nevada. There hasn’t been an ocean there for like 200 million years. There’s barely enough water to get a single cloud most of the year.”
Other comments were just as entertaining, with many people sharing similar stories and comparing it to situations where dreams didn’t quite match reality.
This is why anything that sounds like a promise should be in writing. There is one exception, though. If you qualify, you may be able to lock in your first duty station using the Army’s Duty Station of Choice, also known as Option 19. This only applies if the Army needs your specific job at one of the approved locations.
Is Lawton really where careers fade away? That depends on who you ask. Critics say the city feels slow and lacks entertainment, pointing to closed businesses, empty storefronts, and a landscape filled with fast food places and car washes.
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