9/30/2013

Marine Corps Basic Training
I graduated from Hardaway high school June3, 1992 in Columbus Georgia. Being raised by just my mom, me and my twin brother stayed in a lot of trouble. We didn’t have a father figure in place, so went thru situations that required a lot of attention from the law. That last time we encountered the law, we were told we had to have a plan for when we got out of school. The lawyer told us in would be good if we told the judge we were going to school or in the military. The plans after this started us on a victory walk to the United States Marine Corps (USMC).
July 28, 1992 I arrived at the recruiting location where we were instructed to be, in Atlanta . It was about 3pm, the sergeants that was in charge of us stayed in uniform which was nicely pressed dressed blues was what they called the uniform. They talked nice to us, getting us ready, making sure we were well feed, asking us how we felt, you know real concerned. So we were to stay in a hotel room that night and the next morning we would be on our way to Paris Island, in South Carolina. It was a peaceful night, my older cousin came by and we hung out for a little bit. The next morning came kind of fast, it was about 3 in the morning all the hotels doors were being knocked on hard,” revelry, moving out’ was what they shouted, so half-dressed already feeling real special right now, I jumped up and was out the door. We lined up to get on these shuttle buses, something like greyhound. The marines in the dressed blues congratulated us and we were on our way. I was way too nervous to stay up for this trip so I passed out.
I felt the bus slowing down consistently; I awoke to see the bus pulling into the base (Paris Island). At this moment I was still half sleep, I noticed up ahead a bunch of guys standing in formation with Smoky brim hats wearing utility uniforms. The bus stopped, the doors opened and all those guys rushed the bus yelling,” YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO GET THE FUCK OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW, YOUR ASS BELONG TO ME, NOW MOVE”! As we crawled over each other trying not to run over any of these guys in uniform; while getting off the bus they directed us to put our feet in the yellow foot prints that were in platoon formation outside the bus. Scared of the next command they were going to give, I stood there at attention without making a move. They were so far up our ass I went to a happy place in my mind, asking myself what the hell I have gotten myself into now. These guys in uniform were drill instructors and they were nowhere as nice as the recruiters were. One of the drill instructors got in my face, with his Smokey the bear hat right at my throat moving it left and right, saying “you think you tough don’t you”! I said at the top of my lungs “no sir” repeatedly! I could only imagine what the next 3 months would be like.
We stayed up for the next 48 hours; doing paper work, getting gear, also getting abused physically and verbally. They took us to the living quarters where we would be staying and assigned us beds that were stacked. We were responsible for the person that slept below or