One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Nathaniel Fick

Цитаты

Sigrlin5 октября 2015 г.
“You can’t volunteer to go to war and then bitch about getting shot at.”
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Sigrlin5 октября 2015 г.
“Howdy, sir. How you doin’ this evening?” Espera said.
“Never better. Tired, cold, wet, hungry. I feel like a Marine.”
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Sigrlin5 октября 2015 г.
I had to be psychiatrist, coach, and father, without anyone suspecting I was anything but platoon commander.
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Sigrlin5 октября 2015 г.
Having slept in my MOPP gear and boots, all I had to do after waking was stand up. [...] Despite the discomfort, this lifestyle hummed with efficiency. No shaving, showering, or ironing clothes. No blow dryers, breakfast, newspaper, or e-mail. Just wake up and live.
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Sigrlin5 октября 2015 г.
“Officers,” he said, “please don’t get yourselves killed. It’s very bad for unit morale.”
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Sigrlin20 августа 2015 г.
“Right. So do nothing, but be prepared to do anything.”
Captain Whitmer laughed. “Seems like a pretty good general rule.”
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Sigrlin19 августа 2015 г.
All through my training, I’d heard sports analogies. OCS was a game. Taking advantage of unrealistic details on field exercises at TBS was “gaming the game.” Winning. Losing. Code words like “touchdown” and “foul ball.” But sitting in that CH-53, racing north into Pakistan, it didn’t feel like a game. It felt like the most serious thing I’d ever done.
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Sigrlin19 августа 2015 г.
“If any of you screw up and get a Marine killed tonight,” he said without preamble, “I will personally put a bullet in your head.”
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Sigrlin19 августа 2015 г.
“Funny you should ask, sir, funny you should ask.” He reached into his pack and pulled out a paperback. In the moonlight, I read “Rudyard Kipling” on the cover. “I’m not much for poetry, but this is almost enough to convert me:
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Jest roll to your rifle an’ blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.”
“If I’m wounded, Staff Sergeant, and you fuckers leave me on Afghanistan’s plains, I’ll put my last bullet between your shoulder blades before I put it in my own head,” I replied.
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Sigrlin14 августа 2015 г.
I wanted to be there, and I tried hard. For the first time in my life, desire and effort wouldn’t be enough.
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