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A Marine's Tale: The First Days
Posted By: pj-NYkr90<phantomf4@earthlink.net>
Date: 18 July 2003, 9:10 PM
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Saturday, September 12th, 2551
The Marine Corps is recruiting again. I have seen it plenty of times, their little posters and flyers, pamphlets and stands. I always checked the pamphlets out. They tend to be interesting. But what really bugs me is the fact that they 'false advertise'. The pictures depict soldiers in immaculate armor with great food, equipment, and weapons. But from what I read in the papers, we don't have what they say we have. But this time, the pamphlet interests me.
"It is by no means enough that an officer of the navy be a capable mariner. He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. He must be a gentleman of refined manners, liberal education, punctuous courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor."
John Paul Jones
In all reality, the Marines are the Navy's ground forces. So, we all kind of belong to the Navy. But anyhow, if the service is getting so desperate as to start using very, very old quotes, then they must be very desperate. So this'll be the one that gets me to join the service.
I walked to the nearest recruiting station and talked to the gentleman there. "Yo, how do I join?" The man there was pretty old, old enough to be my dad. And the uniform barely fits him. He looked at me and explained, "Check in the box in where you want to serve." He coughed a little, snuffed and then hocked a luggie to his left. Eventually, he commenced his speech. "Then fill out the form, and you're ready to go." "When do I leave," I asked. "Fill it out quick enough and you'll get the next ride," he replied. "When is that?" "Twenty minutes." "Thanks."
I picked up a form and pulled a pen out of the cup there on the table. I took a seat on the bench and then read the form over. I looked it over and read the list. Medic, Rifleman, Sniper, Driver, Reservist, Pilot, Officer, … The list went on and on. I read until one finally interested me. Special Forces. I checked the box and turned the page. They asked a lot of irrelevant questions, like, where did you go to school, what is your skin color, what was your lowest grade, a bunch of stupid shit like that.
The bus pulled up as I finished. I'm not gonna bring anything with me, not a thing. But, now that i think about it, I didn't even tell them to cut off all of my utilities. Now that sucks. I got on the bus, which was in steel clad coloring. The rows were full of people. Black, Caucasian, Hispanic, Oriental, Indian, everything. It's the biggest conglomerate of people I've seen on a bus. I walked down the aisle and found an open seat next to a black man. "Hi," I said as I introduced myself. "Wazzup?" "Nothin'," I replied. "What'd you sign up for," he asked. "Spec Ops," he replied. "Oh by the way, I'm Dunbar, Ryan Dunbar." "Oh, cool, I'm Jon Bynam." "Well, I guess we better become friends, cause I in with you dude." "Sweet. You ever shot a gun before man?" "Yeah, but it was only a .22. Believe me, they suck ass." "Yeah, I know. I shot a .50 cal, and that had a really weak kick man." Bynam and I continued our talk when I remembered that I had to call the utilities and get them cut off.
"Hey dude, you got a cell phone, PDA, somethin' like that?" "Yeah, I got a cell-phone, here, one sec." After a minute, he dug up his cell-phone, a Nokia. I pulled out the little thing you talk into and dialed. I raised it to my ear and heard, "You are out of area." I waited too long apparently. "Man this sucks." I handed the phone back to him and then leaned back into my seat. I'm gonna have to pay for these utilities even though I'm not using them. He leaned back too. "I'm gonna go to sleep," he stated. "That sounds like a good idea." So we both fell asleep in our chairs.
I woke up when the driver started yelling and cursing at us, telling us to get off 'his fucking bus'. We got off and then walked over to a collection place where we stood for about five minutes. We were apparently at a base 'cause there were MPs and fencing all over the area. "Look a his rifle man." I turned and saw this one MP with a long barreled rifle, scope, bipod, the whole nine yards, I mean, the whole enchilada. "What kind of ammo does it use," I asked the guard. "5.56mm soldier. This is the newest rifle, a Remington-Colt HPM-6B. Very nice." "Can I see it?" "You'll get to see one soon enough, it's the new standard." "Please dude, I've only fired a .22 before man." "He ain't lyin' man, he's weak as hell," said Bynam. I glared at him very quickly. "He looked around and said, "Oh fine…" Before he could finish, I was over there and aimed it, got a feel for the gun. I aimed at a bird's head. "Just don't fire it. That thing doesn't have a silencer and if the boss-man sees me letting you fire, he'll get pissed. "Just one shot dude." "Wai…" "Thanks." I gently squeezed the trigger. The bird instantly fell to the ground. The guy looked at me…so did everyone else. "Holy shit."
"Boy, Robinson, what the fuck is you doin' lettin' that goddamned newbie fire a thousand dollar rifle at bird. Man, boy, what the fuck is you. Get the fuckin' rifle back." I turned around and handed it to him. I'm in deep shit and know it. "Nice shot by the way I might add." "Thank you sir," I replied stunned. I thought he was gonna get mad at me. But, alas, I think too soon. I began to walk back to the group when he stated, "Where the fuck you goin' son? I ain't dismissed you damnit." The group started to laugh at me a bit; You know the way sixth graders jest a kid cause he got told by the teacher. I turned around and he started talking again. "Boy, drop and give me twenty." I did. When I got back up, I was breathing heavily and then turned to leave. "I didn't dismiss you yet ass fuck. Get the hell back over here." I turned around and then listened to him. "Where'd you learn to shoot boy?" "Boy Scouts sir." Hey, what can I say, you get to shoot rifles and bows and arrows and then finally you get to camp out in the wilderness. But that was a long time ago. "Ah, we got a Boy Scout in the group (with emphasis on Boy Scout)," he said. I replied quickly, "Yeah, and it'll be the Boy Scout that saves your ass when we get into the fight. That's all I got to say." I gave him a quick salute and then walked away.
This time, he put his hand on my shoulder and then pulled me back. I grabbed his hand, twisted it behind his back, and pushed it up. Then, quickly, I raised my right arm and put it around his neck, then, my left went to his forehead. I had him in a headlock. "Third degree Black Belt, you don't wanna do that again." I wouldn't have released him for another minute, but, I just happened to notice that five MPs had their rifles pointed at me. "Okay," I said as I gently laid him on the ground and put my hands on my head. "Detain him damnit!" His face was as red as an apple. I turned to look at Bynam as they grabbed me and cuffed my hands. He was shaking his head but informed me, "We'll get you out man." So, my first night is gonna be spent in the brig.
Sunday, September 13th, 2551
I woke up on my concrete pallet. I looked at the sun that was coming from the barred windows. I took a piss in the toilet, which looked like hell, was clogged, and moldy. The MP came by while I was brushing my teeth with my finger. (There is no way in hell that they'll be able to get me to brush my teeth with that used, green toothbrush) "Com'n man, you're outta here." "Whadaya mean dude," I questioned. But now that I think about it, that's a really stupid question to ask. They're letting me run free and I'm asking why. How retarded. I ran out of the building and to the barracks where the rest of the guys were.
When I reached there, I stood next to Bynam. He was in a group that looks a lot smaller than the other group. "Why are they there, and we're here?" "We special." "Oh." Before I got to go any deeper into conversation, we moved towards the large ship docked at the Helman's Spaceport.
"How did I get out of their dude." "Well," Bynam replied, "I'm somewhat of a lawyer. He touched you first and I simply played on the fact that you were defending yourself." "Cool. What kind of ship is it?" "Which one, that one." "Yeah, that's the only one I can see here." "Oh, it's a 'first class' freighter, the Antaries."
We got aboard, got situated, and then immediately departed. The Captain informed us that we are off to 'boot'. So, Bynam and me are going to play a game of poker for a while. I've got five hundred bucks from initiating, basically, when you join, you get five hundred greenbacks. Well, it's time for me to waste all of my money in a time-wasting game.
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