Introduction to Hell

Marine Corps Boot Camp is the time when a teen, or a young adult, is thrown into one of the worst places to be. That kid is broken down into a little crybaby, and then rebuilt into a Marine Corps warrior. I was at the USO in an airport. I asked myself, “What am I doing here? Every recruit around me is basically thinking the same thing. “Holy crap, what is about to happen?” There were some people there, who pretended to act calm and collected, but they were all just hiding their true emotions. In reality, everyone was terrified, anxious and waiting for that minute to get to Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island. So there I was, eighteen years old, just a couple months out of high school, sitting on the floor watching a movie. Some other “soon to be recruits” were playing pool, drinking soda, and eating the free food that was given to us. All of the employees of the USO just had that look of “gosh, you boys are about to have a miserable three months.” It was Monday, 9:25 p.m., I heard “everyone going to MCRD Parris Island get on your feet and get outside right now!” No, it wasn’t a scream, but it was just enough to make my heart race. I jumped up, and I saw the intimidating drill instructor, about six feet tall, muscular, and his uniform looked perfectly sharp, like it was ironed more than three times a day. We all ran outside while the drill instructor signed some paperwork for the USO. We were standing around, looking pretty for several minutes, with no direction
Ramos 2 or any idea of what to do. Then, we heard that voice again. “What you’re going to do now is get in single file line on the side of the bus and have your service record book ready to hand to me as you get on, do you understand?” Some of us had a response of a hesitated “yes sir,” some didn’t say anything at all, and some just snuck in a smirk. “You better open your mouths right damn now, do you understand?” That time, our adrenaline rush just sparked, and we all responded loudly, “Yes sir!” As I stood still in line, something to my left caught my attention. I looked over to see what it was, then quickly looked back forward. “Head and eyeballs straight to the front, boy!” I didn’t say a word because I didn’t know he was yelling at me. First of all, everybody that goes through boot camp, at some point becomes a complete idiot. All common sense just flies away. “Hey turd, open your mouth!” Still, I said nothing, until I saw him approaching me with anger. I was about to go through my first, real ass chewing of my new Marine Corps career. The drill instructor stood directly to my right. “I guess you don’t have to say anything to me, recruit? Screw me, right?” Looking at a drill instructor is suicide, but with my common sense gone, I still did it anyway. “Did I tell you to look at me? Shut your mouth and keep your head and eyeballs straight to the front!” I nervously yelled back “aye sir!” We finally stepped foot on the bus, where we could take a deep breath. “Put your heads against the seat in front of you, and keep it there until you’re told otherwise!” Nervous as we were, we didn’t say a thing. “Okay, I better get a response, say aye sir!”
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We all loudly responded to him as we placed our heads on the seat in front of us, and uncomfortably stayed that way for almost thirty minutes, until we arrived at the island. As we arrived, and our