There are few places like this place. A place where some fierce words, conveying their perfect ideas through the imperfection of their vessels, means absolutely nothing; the ideas have already been realized.
Some distant Fort. Some near Camp. A young warrior comes up from a final stretch. Staring out at the yellow, and the pink, and the gray, the morning sun rises as distant gulls call and mew. The air is still cool, nipping at his skin. But it won’t last long.
In a few months he will be killed, dead of a traumatic amputation at twenty-two. But on this day, the coming sweat and expansion of crisp, clean lungs turns the body into an electric heat, in motion, kinetic energy, pistons pumping.
The morning PT session coming to an end, his unit headquarters reflects the ascended sun. He knows his home, one clothed in an immense legacy. A legacy whose maintenance, for many, was, is, and will be more important than living.
As the newest members of his unit come into view, he sees them for the soft, unmolded clay that they are, just as his forefathers saw him. He can only hope that these new ones, once seasoned to hard, will hold and exude the grit to cast down the same glare upon the distant generations that will fill the ranks after them. One only has to look to human history, baying that this grit will remain, popping and gurgling over societies’ edges at times opportune and inopportune alike. And if not? Something very special, and very beautiful, will have been lost.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Getting this to print was a whiplash carnival ride of passing faces; excited associates, appalled editors saying ‘no,’ the book biz’s most elite “masculine literature” agent one moment, a sniveling snake-oil salesmen the next. Light and Darkness. At perhaps the bleakest hour, a pen name and gutting almost all things involving the rifle-toter’s vices were pressed against my forehead like the double barrels of a shotgun. In the end, however, I was able to write under my real name and keep the detail changes down to a righteous minimum.
Shoot. Move. Communicate—the blood mixes with the beer.
—Orlando, Florida
The author wishes to acknowledge the following for reprinted material:
Anderson, RB (1988). Parting Shot. Vietnam was fun (?). Retrieved online.
Anselmo, Philip (2012). Interview with Phil Anselmo, retrieved from YouTube: A Converse Decibel Collaboration.
Becker, Ernest (1973). The Denial of Death. Simon & Schuster. New York.
Dyer, Gwynne. (1985). War. Guild Publishing.
Ghiglieri, Michael (1999). The Darkside of Man. Helix Books.
Gray, Alfred. USMC. Retrieved online.
Hemingway, Ernest (1940). For Whom the Bell Tolls. Scribner.
Mamet, David (1997). True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. Vintage Books. New York.
Miller, Henry (1936). Black Spring. Grove Press. New York.
Mockenhaupt, Brian (2007). I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War. Originally seen in Esquire.
Moskin, J. Robert (1992). The US Marine Corps Story. Canada. Little, Brown and Company.p.113
Owen, Robert (1817) The Philanthropist. Retrieved online.
Palanhiuk, Chuck. (2004). Stranger than Fiction. Doubleday.
Poe, Edgar Allan. (1842). Eleonora. Retrieved online.
Rollins, Henry (1987). Burned Beyond Recognition, from Life Time. Texas Hotel.
Speir, Jackie (2013). Letter to Secretary of Defense et al. Retrieved online.
Villon, Frances (1965.1977). The Poems of Francois Villon. The Testament. University Press of New England.p.41
Wordsworth, William. (1802). My Heart Leaps Up.
Wright, Evan. (2004). Generation Kill. G. P. Putnam’s Sons
1 Global war on terror
2 Physical Training
3 Department of Veteran Affairs
4 School of infantry
5 Staff non-commissioned officers: E-6 to E-9
6 military occupation specialty; fancy term for someone’s job
7 Reconnaissance Indoctrination Platoon
8 Landing zone
9 Also “A2”; my platoon in Iraq
10 Observation post
11 A rural area, south of the city of Fallujah, in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq
12 Improvised explosive devices
13 Slang term for paved roads
14 Staff sergeant. Of the enlisted rank structure, working up from E-1 to E-9.
15 Pronounced “Mark 19”: belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew- served, fully automatic grenade launcher
16 M2 machine gun: crew-served, air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun firing 50-caliber BMG cartridge
17 Battle damage assessment
18 M249 squad automatic weapon: belt-fed light machine gun that fires the 5.56×45-millimeter NATO cartridge
19 Amphibious Reconnaissance School
20 Belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine gun that fires the 7.62×51-millimeter NATO cartridge
21 Rocket-propelled grenade: common weapon of enemy in both Iraq and Afghanistan
22 Meals ready to eat
23 Infantry division
24 Reconnaissance Indoctrination Platoon
25 Survival Evasion Resistance Escape
26 Eagle Globe and Anchor: iconic symbol of the Marine Corps
27 Marine Corps Martial Arts Program
28 “Liberty”; time off
30 Special Activities Division
31 Position of attention
32 Force Service Support Group
33 post exchange; convenient store on military bases
34 Outside the contiguous United States; CONUS means within the contiguous United States
35 Marine Combat Training: portion of SOI designated for non-infantry students
36 Plural form for Dependapotamus: a parasitic military wife, generally to the enlisted, whose ratio of labor to benefits is asymmetrical; her normal stratagem is one child per spouse’s deployment or enlistment, whichever is of the greater value
37 Infantry Training Battalion: portion of SOI designated for infantry students
38 Marine short-hand for gunnery sergeant; E-7
39 Killed in action
40 Night vision goggles
41 Quick reaction force
42 Rules of engagement: aside from getting service men killed, it theoretically functions as a framework for order and a moral code in the combat setting
43 Vehicle-borne improvised explosive device
44 Large ground container used by the US military
45 Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System
46 Operation Iraqi Freedom
47 Marine Expeditionary Unit: quick-reaction force, deployed generally via ship
48 Combat Applications Group: AKA “Delta Force,” a tier one asset, and no, you don’t know anyone in it
49 Marine Combat Instructor of Water Survival
50 Special Operations Forces: this encompasses all Spec Ops in the US military; intent on employing and training the smartest, strongest, and toughest individuals to complete difficult missions under the harshest conditions
51 Basic Underwater Demolition School; where Navy SEALS are born/made
52 Air Force Pararescue
53 Private first class: E-2
54 Commanding officer
55 Combined arms exercise
56 Officer of the day
57 Military Police
59 Alpha Two: the platoon I operated in while deployed to Iraq; there were three platoons in Alpha Company: A1, A2, and A3.
60 Battle sight zero: adjusting sights of a weapon to obtain accuracy, as per the individual shooter
61 Executive officer
62 Area of operations
63 Basic allowance for housing: a significant financial and lifestyle perk, and incentive to get married while in the military; also the primary food source for the Dependapotamus
64 Unifor
m code of military justice; the authority in military law and regulation
65 Prisoner of war
66 Olive drab
67 Close air support
68 Military Entrance Processing Command
69 Department of Defense
70 General purpose: large tents usually used to house numerous military personnel
71 There is a third category, and well worth mentioning: the professional soldier-warrior hybrid, the one who possesses the innate characteristics of the Warrior, and who chooses the stability of military life as a career in the vein of the professional soldier. However, there is a distinction between those who see the stability of the paycheck and those who see a calling. Sure the stability is taken into consideration, stated clearly from any professional soldier I have ever spoken to, but to the professional soldier-warrior hybrid, these rare men nations are forever indebted to, the insulating blanket of stability comes in miles behind the passion for the job itself.
72 Helicopter rope suspension training
73 Special Air Service
74 Special amphibious reconnaissance corpsmen
75 Situation report
76 Single-shot forty-millimeter under-barrel grenade launcher designed to attach to a rifle
77 A part of formal military attire; foldable military cap with straight sides and a creased or hollow crown sloping to the back, where it is parted
78 Marine Expeditionary Force
79 Underwater demolition team; tiny, punitive, khaki-type shorts
80 Turboprop transport plane commonly used by the US military
81 Post-traumatic stress disorder