OIF 2003 part 2

      In the year of 2003… During my first 12 month deployment, everything was so very different than today’s typical military deployments. There was certainly no burger kings, PXs, or internet cafes around. I have detailed my experiences of the initial three months in my last post, but one thing I didn’t touch on was the basic lifestyle we as Soldiers had to endure during this time. For the first 3 – 4 months there were absolutely no showers or baths to speak of, so naturally our uniforms crusted up from the excessive sweat with huge salt stains spread out all across our clothes. After a while the mere smell of your own body odor would almost cause you to get ill. As June and July approached the temperatures would frequently rise to 120F and beyond. At one point our water supply ran extremely low and the logistical convoys just could not reach our location anymore. During that time we were forced to establish water rations.  It had reached the point where all Soldiers would receive just two 1.5L water bottles each day. We had to clearly write out our names on side of the bottles with black permanent marker to ensure nobody would drink from it. Nevertheless, one night I distinctly remember a physical confrontation between two Soldiers. One Soldier had crept into the other guy’s sleeping area and quietly took his water bottle from under his cot and then began to gulp down almost half of his bottle. Several seconds later the sleeping Soldier awoken and immediately started to yell and pushed the surprised intruder. To which the sneaking Soldier replied “Damn these rules!! I’m a bigger man and I need more water than you!”  Eventually other Soldiers came in and broke the dispute up.  You see, in the great country of America we take it for granted that when we ourselves are parched or our stomach growls we can simply drive to the local convenience or grocery store to fulfill that need. When we have the urge to use the bathroom, there is a porcelain throne for us to sit upon. Why if it’s a little warm just turn on the A/C. Happen to be missing a friend or relative? Then just pick up the phone and dial. This was most certainly not an option for an American Soldier in Iraq 2003. 

A common site in throughout the country.

    My unit was just now getting settled in our second base camp near a small town 40 – 60 miles north of Baghdad. At this point we had moved into pretty decent buildings and even had an interpreter working directly for my company. I happened to be on gate guard (as usual) with another young Soldier one hot afternoon and a lady in what appeared to be in her late 40s slowly approached our entrance. She was dressed in a long dusty black robe and as she walked closer we noticed a crimson color stained on both of her hands…….. It appeared to be somebody’s blood. It was pretty odd to see anyone come towards our gate, let alone a strange old woman. We called up the report immediately on our radios. Headquarters told us to send her away.  When she got about 50 meters from us she began speaking in Arabic, at first in a soft tone and then increasing louder until she was shouting at the top of her lungs.  Fortunately we had an interpreter at the gate and he then informed us what she had said….. “Please help! My neighbor has killed both my husband and two sons.. he has gone mad and is now trying to kill me and the rest of my family.. I need you to come back with me and stop him… for god’s sake!” Watching her closely, we notice her body start to tremble and her eyes became ever so wide filled with pure panic and terror. We updated our headquarters with the newly received information. Over the radio we received our final orders coldly “Send her away… that is not our mission here.” At that point we had to look at this woman in the eyes and tell her… “Sorry, but we can’t do anything for you ma’am.” The look of disbelief and tears that then followed has been etched into my memory forever. She must have come here thinking we were the good guys and that we had to help people in need. On this particular day she happened to be greatly mistaken. Now, I must explain to the readers at this point in time there was no Iraqi Police or military to enforce laws, it was pretty much like the Wild Wild West so to speak.  I didn’t feel good about myself lying down to sleep that night… how could I?

One of the border guards let me hold his AK-47.

     A new month… a new mission. That seemed to be the theme of the year, and now we were off heading towards the Iranian border. Apparently there have been issues of Iranians sneaking into Iraq in order to venture on a holy pilgrimage. Living so close to Iran’s border was a little daunting; the Iran Army would constantly have a show of force consisting of old tanks lined up on their border. Almost as if to say.. “Don’t you Americans dare think of entering our country” The days once again started blending into one another and I truthfully couldn’t tell the difference between a Monday from a Friday. I did however become aware of a new insect affectionately labeled the “sand fly”. A little pesky bug that was so small that it would fly right through our military mosquito netting. I believe they were about ¼ of the size of a regular mosquito. When a person was bitten there was a good chance they would end up developing Leishmaniasis (a skin disease). This is unfortunately what happened to my upper right arm. I would be given an option at this point whether I wanted to return back to United States for treatment or would I rather stay with my unit and finish my deployment. At the time I didn’t want to be seen as a coward or a man that tried to get out of his responsibility so I decided to stay even as lesions begun to form painful bumps on my skin. A decision I would reflect back to multiple times throughout the next six months.

An Iranian boy spots something tasty in the wire.

     Now, our typical day here on the border would involve scouring the vast lands searching for Iranians that did not have the proper documentation.. then loading them all up one by one onto large civilian trucks until full and driving them back to their own country. I could have sworn I seen the same people day after day and week after week. They were a determined religious bunch. Our sense of security was still at a very high level and I remember one afternoon one of the young men we detained had jumped off the truck and was sprinting straight towards a group of American Soldiers. Sensing something awry I chased him down and ended up tackling him straight to the ground. As it turned out he was simply dehydrated and was attempting to get some water from our jugs before heading back to Iran. This border protection mission would last at least another month.. and then it too ultimately changed.  

The pilgrims are headed back to Iran.

As you can tell the pilgrims consisted mainly of older men and women.

2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom

       A day before my 21^st birthday on March 20, 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom had just kicked off. In less than two weeks I had found myself in a dusty tan tent somewhere in Kuwait several miles off the Iraqi border preparing to do my part to help in the “liberation” effort. 3^rd Infantry Division was already in route to Baghdad.  I was recently married (about 3 months now), and fear completely dominated my mind. I had never been involved in a war before, and I didn’t want to die. I really didn’t know what to expect at this point. I was newly appointed as a Team Leader in my squad and was trying to figure out how I was suppose to act. All the troops at my camp had not been receiving newspapers or any TV news. The inaccurate word of mouth was how we received all of our current events. As I remember there were two chemical attack scares.  Apparently the Iraqi Army had shot a couple of scud missiles into the air, but we were able to shoot them down quickly before any harm could be done. The time to cross the Iraqi border was now approaching ever so quickly.

This young fellow seemed pretty excited

      Crossing from the Kuwait border to the Iraq border wasn’t much of a difference initially aside from the pungent smell in the air. I was rolling with my squad in a M113 (Armored Personnel Carrier) and every 10 or 15 minutes I saw Iraqi kids and some adults waving a welcome in enthusiasm. I thought “wow, these people must actually want us here.” The thought was odd but comforting all at the same time.  Then after about 20 or 30 miles I noticed blown up Iraqi tanks and abandoned fighting positions. I would see a tank fighting positions and then tracks in the sand backing up a few meters, ultimately a destroyed tank. It was as if the Iraqi army was waiting in their fighting position and saw something that frightened them and decided to reverse and run.. but all in vain. Shortly later came the bodies… the disfigured, lifeless corpses that laid scattered about the road. After a couple of minutes I ducked back into the vehicle as it continued to roll forward towards the city of Baghdad. I didn’t want to witness any more death.. I wanted to erase it from my mind as if it were some fictional action movie…. But I couldn’t seem to fool my mind, this was no movie.

   Ten miles from Baghdad our convoy stopped and a radio transmission was heard “ 3^rd ID is still trying to take over the city, our convoy was to standby until this happened, then a Soldier quickly ran over to our vehicle and started passing out grenades while stating “there are snipers ahead, I was told to pass these out.” I reluctantly attached two grenades onto my vest. I kept thinking to myself “what in the world are grenades going to do if there are snipers in the area???” Before long the sun disappeared into the horizon and then the convoy once again continued to trudge towards the city. I guess the city was completely taken over because we were moving right through the heart of it and heard not a sound. For the largest city in Iraq with over 5 million people residing there you could have heard a pin drop. Nobody was on the streets or corners and all the power was shut off… pitch black darkness. It looked very sinister to witness the moon shinning down on those large buildings with not a soul in sight. At some point during the journey through Baghdad I must have passed out due to what I considered a lack of sleep. 

    I awoke the next morning to the thunder of a 25mm cannon exploding onto buildings. I realized that a platoon of Bradley Fighting Vehicles were directly in front of my company and they were engaging in what I figured could only be the “enemy”.  Iraqi Soldiers with weapons scattered around in attempts to defend the half destroyed buildings. I felt my blood go cold.. I felt chills of fear flowing through my body. I was trying to decide if I needed to join in the fight with my trusty small M16 or.... and at that exact moment my Squad leader yelled "Get your head down!" as he pulled me back into the vehicle. The conflict ended briefly within a few short minutes. I then found out we were in the city of Taji. I would be staying there for the next couple of weeks. The first day my squad didn’t have guard duty and I found myself a piece of long cardboard on the back of a truck…threw it down on a stone floor in a tiny side room after pushing broken glass out of the way with my boot. As I laid down I pulled my uniform top close up to me as if it was a small blanket and slept all through the night.

"Its "P" for Plenty boys"

    My unit’s future missions quickly became clear. You see...There was a ton of ordnance throughout the country of Iraq. By ordnance I mean “artillery shells, mines, C-4, mortars..ect”  I was in a combat engineer unit and we had plenty of C-4 at our disposal. Understandably everyone was concerned that almost anyone could just walk right up to an unguarded cache and take all the mines or explosives their hearts desired… hence the numerous IEDs that would later follow. It only made sense for big Army to declare that we were to go around the country and consolidate these ordnance caches to destroy them with our surplus of C-4. I would learn later in engineer NCO academies that there are certain formulas for demolitions. At the time there was no formula used.. just the old common rule “P” = plenty. Which means if in doubt just throw more C-4 on it… and then just get as far away as possible before detonating. It wasn’t the right answer, but it was most certainly effective. I would go through the process of lugging around foreign mine systems I never seen or heard of before, throwing chunks of plastic explosives on mortars and other shells just to blow it all up.  After the third week of going through the motions of gathering munitions and destroying them the whole process got pretty mundane. I even stopped taking pictures of the explosion clouds.. it was simply business as usual. Until… our mission had one day suddenly changed.   

Day after Day.. it was the same routine

Its Me....21 year old Team Leader  (June 2003)

Kosovo interdiction / shadowy figure

   During the month of December 2001 I elevated to the rank of Specialist (E-4) which was seen at the time as a glorified private. However, the days following the promotion I started walking a little taller with my bird chest poked out.. It was obvious to all that I was one proud new Specialist.

    I had been informed that my squad (10 Soldiers) were going to be conducting an interdiction mission inside of a small nearby Albania town (population maybe 200). It basically meant that for 24 hours we were going to be hiding out in one of the few tall buildings there… waiting… and watching. For what you ask? Well, for smugglers and war criminals that had been harassing some of the locals to reveal themselves. This mission was unique.. and I needlessly to say was thrilled.

   We must have been on the road for roughly an hour before we pulled our vehicles behind an old stone building in the middle of the night. For this being the heart of the town the entire area was completely blacked out. Everyone in my squad climbed the stairs to the top floor of the abandoned rock three story building. This included a translator that we had all just recently met. My Squad Leader then developed a two Soldier guard roster and it just so happened I had the second shift of guard. So, after a brief hour nap I was awaken with a sharp shove from a tired Soldier who simply stated “Let’s go.. wake up Curet.. it’s your shift”. I laid still with my eyes open for a few seconds.. watching my foggy breathe as I exhaled.   I must have looked like a frozen burrito wrapped up in my sleeping bag.  Unzipping my bag I was able to appreciate how incredibly cold it had been on this abandoned stone floor. I hastily threw on the rest of my gear. The guard position was only maybe 40 feet from my cot. Upon arriving for duty I asked “So, anything I should know about before you guys go to bed?” One of the Soldiers turned to me and said “Craziest thing man, look over there.” He pointed straight into the darkness outside. I didn’t have the night vision goggles yet so I couldn’t see anything he was pointing at. He continued “I swear there was a female on the roof of that building just a minute ago, and she had some sort of music playing as she danced and danced”.  He remove his goggles and smirked at me “That’s wild stuff right?”  I chuckled and nodded. The other relief Soldier joining me finally arrived and the original guards mumbled “Ya’ll have fun.” Then the two tired Soldiers tossed me the goggles and started to head for their cots.

    For the next 10 minutes I stared intently through my night vision goggles at the two story building where this supposed female had been dancing. The building I assumed was maybe a couple hundred feet away.  At the most I saw maybe a stray cat scampering on a roof, nothing else.  The Soldier next to me was busy fighting off the “Z” monster.. struggling to keep awake. Then suddenly I began to hear a faint musical sound from the distance.  A shadowy female figure slowly emerged on the roof top swaying side to side with the music. I looked down at my watch… it was 1AM. I didn’t know what to think, so I just watched and grinned. The whole dancing bit lasted maybe 20 minutes before she disappeared. During this time I had nudged my fellow guard awake, but he didn’t seem to show any interest… maybe he thought I was all in my imagination.

"and she danced"

      The next morning I awoke around 0630 and realized I left my hygiene bag in the HMMWV, so I darted down the stairwell and outside towards our vehicle and almost ran straight into a local female villager. This is the closest I have been to women in the last few months. She appear to be in her mid-twenties. She stood at about 5’6, fair complexion, brown hair and eyes, modestly dressed.  She happened to be feeding some goats that decided to mill around the entrance of our surveillance position. I smiled and bowed my head in an apologetic manner. She replied in a friendly tone speaking Albanian. I then turned and continued to retrieve my bag. As I secured my bag and slammed the door on the vehicle I was startled to see our Interpreter shaving behind the HMMWV. He looked up at me with a smile and said “You, know she invited you up for tea sometime.. she lives right over there”.  He pointed directly at the two story building I was staring at last night. He let out a hardy laugh and shrugged his shoulders before going back to shaving his face.

     Upon reuniting with my squad upstairs I learned of a presence patrol that we were going to be conducting. Everyone was going on patrol except the two Soldiers on guard duty. I personally didn’t feel like walking around for miles that morning. I tried convincing my team leader to leave me behind in event something bad happened…. after all three Soldiers on guard would be better than just two. Oddly enough he listened and told the Squad Leader I would be staying back as well.

     After the squad departed on their dismounted patrol I told the two guys on guard the whole story about what happened last night and also about this morning. They told me I had to capitalize on this lone opportunity, and I had to do it now. I figured… you know what… they’re right. I was going to walk down to her house and see if I could make this “tea party” happen. Then I thought it would seem really intimidating if I went with all my army gear on.. let me just shed that gear off right here.. and walk down there like a normal man. I set my machine gun down, my body armor, helmet, and radio. The Soldiers on guard told me if anything happened to just run out the house and give them a signal. **The whole thing sounds absurd now that I’m typing this down** I then started my way walking to what I assumed was her house.

   As I approached her house I noticed her walking out her door to sweep some snow off her doorsteps. How fortunate I thought this is my chance. She spotted me with a completely puzzled expression on her face. Then I made the universal signal of tea time.. by holding an imaginary tea cup and motioning it towards my mouth. That seem to do just the trick.. her eyes lit up and then signaled me to come in.

    I noticed the first room I entered appeared like a typical American garage.. which was not exactly what I was expecting.  Then I followed her into a second room. As the door opened to my surprise I saw three grown men sitting down near a fireplace in a small but cozy backroom.  The largest man in the middle had a bottle of vodka grasped his hand and was leading a rowdy conversation with the other two men.  It became apparent that all these men were residents of this house and were highly intoxicated. However, they were sober enough to realize I didn’t belong there, and they motioned me to sit down next to them. At this point I was worried about the whole situation I had gotten myself into.  What was I expecting coming here? Are these men going to let me leave? Will my squad leader find out I had snuck out?

    The woman brushed right past me and had a kettle in her hand.. she was obviously making some sort of warm beverage for me. The larger man started addressing me directly and asked me a question. I unfortunately do not speak Albanian. He repeated his question increasing his tone. I just forced a smile upon my face. Then for the third time he asked the same question in a demanding tone this time he forcefully pushed the bottle of alcohol straight into my chest.  I replied with pointing to my American flag on my right sleeve.. and stating in English “I’m sorry I am an American Soldier we can’t drink on duty” Then I threw my hands up in defeat. The men started getting more aggressive in their tone and gestures.. it was at this time I knew I had to get out of there.  I stood up slowly and started backing up towards the door. The men looked slightly offended. I pointed at my watch to show them I was late and had to get going. Then I rotated my fingers in a circle gesturing that I would be returning soon.  I carefully exited back into the front “garage looking” room, and just as I was about to run out the house all together.. the woman came back with a cup of tea in her hand looking at me with a sad expression.  I took a couple steps towards her, and she in turn took a few steps closer to me. She set the tea cup down and held her hands out in front of her and I proceeded to interlock them gently with my cold hands. For a few seconds we stared at each holding each other’s hands. Then I recalled that she enjoys to dance.. and began to sway myself back and forth in an attempt to dance with her. She responded favorable and we danced in circles around the chilly garage room. There was no sense in trying to verbal communicate, so we danced the universal language of attraction. I then pulled her close to me and almost simultaneously our lips met. For the first time that day I felt actual warmth. At that same moment I noticed my squad patrolling through the window behind her.  I instantly ran through the door leaving her and sprinted back towards the guard building.. the guards on duty cheered and fist pumped when they saw me running towards their position. I made it just in time. Luckily I didn’t get caught and nobody reported me. Everyone wanted details on what happened.. so I would tell the story over and over again during the next couple of days. The very next day the mission was complete and it was time to head back to main base. As our vehicle pulled off into the afternoon snow flurry I noticed the woman sadly standing outside on her porch waving and watching me fade off into the horizon… never to see each other again.

Kosovo village raid

      On November 2001 I had been selected to participate in a Kosovo peacekeeping mission. Before then you could have offered me a million dollars and I still wouldn't have been able to point out where Kosovo was on a map. Anxiously stepping out the military aircraft I noticed a great amount of snow.. like a thick white blanket hugging the earth’s surface. I belonged to the 5^th Engineer Battalion from Missouri and was set for a seven month tour. By this time I was proud to admit I was almost in my 20s. So, at the young age of 19 this would be my very first experience with the Army across the big ocean.   

     Unfortunately the first couple of months proved to be extremely dull… with the only highlight being an outstanding dining facility, which cooked up some mean sloppy joes. When one day while accomplishing the latest mindless task I learned that I had been transferred to a completely new platoon. It was going to be a fresh start. Upon arriving to report to my future Squad leader I inquired what would our mission be. He replied sternly “We are the QRF platoon.”  :Which stands for Quick Reaction Force:  Sounds high-speed right? Well, after talking to other fellow privates in the platoon I realized that in reality I would be sleeping late and playing video games in our toasty warm rooms until someone somewhere decided it was time to call us into action. The platoon was going on day #16 with not one single call. So I happily lugged my bags into one of our platoon buildings searching for an empty bunk, all the while thinking “this won’t be so bad at all… sleeping and games? Oh…I can certainly get use to that lifestyle.” 

    However, fate would have other plans. Less than 12 hours after unpacking and flopping down on my bed a panicky Soldier busted through the door yelling at the top of his lungs “Hurry up! We are leaving in less than an hour!!” Naturally a confused look instantly covered my face. I quickly grabbed my protective gear, M249 machine gun and assault pack and started marching over to the rally location. During this 10 minute walk questions started floating in and out of my head… “What is the mission?”   “Where are we going?”  “I never rehearsed with any of these guys… what is my role?” In the horizon I saw a group of Soldiers gathered around closely in a snowy field.  A short time after the initial linkup I was being marched straight onto the airfield into one of two black hawk helicopters with a total of 17 other Soldiers. As the birds lifted off….I swear I felt completely lost. Hell, I couldn’t even operate the seemingly complex seat belt system. I pretended that I was all buckled in with the help of some moderate acting… and began to stare out the foggy window just trying to make sense of it all.

"What happen to sleeping in late??"

    Thirty minutes of flying later a deep voice loudly sounded off “This is a raid men… quick and efficient just like we rehearsed; don’t let anyone leave the confines of the village.” Those words seem to come from a Hollywood movie…. Is this really happening right now?  Am I about to conduct a raid on a village? What am I looking for? Are we killing people? I ensured all my questions stayed inside my head and just nodded and smiled as if I completely understood everything going on around me. I then felt the helicopter slowly make its descent. Then another voice started to countdown 5….4….3….2….1.. GO!!!!  The doors violently slid open, and the noise from the rotating blades penetrated inside my head until I couldn’t hear myself think.. in what seemed like a mere second the Soldier to my right side jumped straight out of the door… then the man to my left side jumped out… I figured naturally it was now my turn. I stood hunched over by the sliding doors and at that moment the chopper hit an air pocket and right before I jumped out the bird ascended an additional four to five feet as I fell awkwardly onto my machine gun.

  *SWOOSH*  I had just plunged 7ft or 8ft from a Black hawk smack straight into a snowy countryside in the middle of nowhere, Kosovo and to make things worse the wind from the helicopter blades had flung my small assault pack into a nearby tree. It really wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t have a rather expensive camera in that bag. Shaking off my initial soreness I instinctively made my way straight to that tree with a determined look on my face when a large Sergeant snatched me up by my collar and screamed “pull 360 degree security!” and pushed me to the three o’clock position. I got behind my machine gun and laid my body on the frozen ground waiting and watching.  After about 45 seconds Soldiers started standing up and moving into certain odd formations towards a small village that was maybe 50 meters from our initial landing zone.  I just followed the guy in front of me..  Then villagers started pouring out of their small houses with deep looks of concern, attempting to talk and perhaps reason with us with flailing arms. It didn’t matter though… we didn’t have a translator with us.

    What would happen next would be the knocking/kicking down of doors… searching houses and restraining the non-supportive residents. Apparently the mission was to locate illegal weapons and war propaganda referencing the Albania / Serbia tension.  With big deer eyes I was wandering from house to house trying to provide some sort of assistance to my new platoon..  I felt as if I was in a video game rooting out the bad guys.  Honestly, I had no idea how to act.. I just mimicked other seasoned Soldiers around me. We eventually located over 100 illegal weapons and numerous war propaganda posters in four separate houses. In relation the entire village comprised of maybe 38 houses.. and it didn’t take long to sweep through them all systematically. Time literally flew by for us. What was in fact hours seemed like minutes then I received word that the mission was declared a great success and was nearing its end. A Military Police Company moved in the area to provide security of the 8 detainees and large pile of weapons.  My platoon then consolidated and once again boarded the Black hawks which were headed back towards base. Yes… if you’re sitting there wondering…I never did get my camera back. However, I gained a sense of belonging and even a slight feeling of accomplishment. I climbed in the chopper sat and replayed the recent events in my head while watching the static electricity flirt with the blades in the darkness of the night…  My stomach grumbled.. The thought of a sloppy joe at this point seemed absolutely delightful.   

The Beginning

       Starting from the beginning…..The year was 1999 and it was a typical late summer day in Slidell, Louisiana. The rain lazily sprinkled down from the dark gray sky as I aimlessly wandered into a small local plaza near the less than desirable trailer park I had been residing in for the past several months. I didn’t want to ruin my only pair of good shoes so I decided that traveling barefoot would be best.  Minutes later I suddenly found myself across the street from an Army Recruiter office.  I thought to myself “hmmm…  why not?” After all I considered myself a grown man at the old wise age of 17 and maybe it was time for a change in my life. As I pushed the door open I immediately met what would be my future recruiter who greeted me with an infectious smile plastered on his face.  At his desk, I began to pour out my need to find adventure and a purpose in this world as he actively nodded and ensured me he could make my dreams a reality. The next day he came to my house with a new pair of shoes in one hand and papers in the other. Well, that pretty much sealed the deal.. in a matter of days I signed the contract that would ultimately take me on experiences across lands I could never even begin to imagine.    

"Ummm.... Can you get me into the Army?"

     I had a typical rough childhood, and Burger King had been my sole employer for the last 18 months.. That’s right I was dedicated to the King, but it was definitely time for a change I thought as I boarded the old military bus headed straight to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. 

     I didn’t really know what to expect from the first day of Basic Training, but for some reason I didn’t foresee all the intense up close and personal yelling / spiting.  I kept telling myself “it’s OK.. these guys can’t hit you, so it won’t be that bad” That is until day 4 when in a room of thirty Soldiers a Drill Sergeant leaped over two rows of people to grasp my jaw with his mammoth hand and proceeded to slam my head into a stone wall. I had apparently smirked while filling out some random military documents, and that was most certainly not going to be tolerated. After that incident I became pretty scared to say the least.  Another incident occurred on the 8^th week.. right before graduation all the recruits were learning how to properly fold our dress uniforms. The Drill Sergeant stated “OK, Privates, fold the left sleeve over the right”.  As I began my fold I felt an intense pressure on my head and multiple colors quickly followed. When my vision gradually started to come back into focus I saw one of the Drill Sergeants roaring at me at the top of his lungs “LEFT OVER RIGHT!!!”  I must have foolishly folded right over left. What was I thinking right?  That night I tightly wrapped myself up in my sheets while lying in bed and quietly shed a few salty tears thinking about how much I missed my old life as a civilian in Slidell, Louisiana.  As it turned out I did eventually complete basic training successfully and even was awarded a certificate for “Most Improved Soldier”… I guess those beatings worked…  (small side note: two of the three Drill Sergeants got brought up on assault charges 18 months later and received a court martial, turns out they were treating the whole platoon like punching bags)  I went on to AIT to become a Combat Engineer… sounds glorious doesn’t it?   And that readers is where the stories start getting interesting….

 

(December 1999)