A Hard Life

reported to my unit and found that my orders had been changed. My performance in all my training had ended up drawing the attention of Delta not to be mistaken for Special Forces. I excelled again and was one of the top candidates all through the selection process, oh I was now SGT E-5 don’t know when I was a SPC E-4? I never got a promotion ceremony just handed my new rank and told I was now that rank. I didn’t care as my pay just went up and I was not spending much of anything. I had just turned 19 when I went on my first mission. We were in South America, I was not really good at Geography, so I was not sure which country we were in, we moved around so much and so fast it didn’t matter anyhow. All hell broke out as we just secured the guy we had come for. The guy to my right slammed into the wall behind him as the gun-fire was heard. Something punched my right shoulder at the same time. Then I couldn’t move my right arm and my rifle just hung from my tactical vest. I don’t even remember pulling my pistol. Everyone called me a freak because I could do everything with either hand; write, draw, throw, catch, shoot. I was ambidextrous as the professionals called it. Everyone else just called it weird. So, it was no problem for me to start shooting bad guys with my left hand as my whole right arm was just hanging useless. When my pistol was empty, I just holstered it and picked up my rifle with my left hand and fired one-handed. When that was empty the fight was over. I was trying to reload my rifle when our team medic got to me and found I had been shot in the shoulder, and it had dislocated my shoulder too. The bullet was a through and through which meant it went straight through my deltoid. Small hole going in bigger hole coming out, but not fatal. So, he put my shoulder back into the socket and bandaged the wound. I immediately felt the pain but now could move my arm a little. We had two KIA Jonesy on my right and Arnald three to my left. There were over 50 bad guys dead when we left with our package wounded now but alive.

A month later I found that I now had 5 ribbons on my uniform. Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, Army Achievement Medal x 2 (1 from Basic/AIT top 10 & 1 for Airborne/Ranger top 10), Army Commendation Medal (South America after being wounded I still engaged the enemy and protected my team ensuring mission completion), Purple Heart (nobody wants one). Since I was wounded, I could not go on any missions, so I was sent to school, which is considered light duty. Driver training, commo school (different types of radios) not the Military Occupation Specialty. So, I now had Jump Wings, Driver’s Badge, and expert marksman badge, three across under my 5 ribbons. And 10 days leave. First, I bought a truck nothing special just a little chevy luv 4x4 (had to be 4x4 to park at my unit lol) then I headed for CSU. I wanted to surprise Angel so I didn’t tell her I was coming. I did contact Rose who was sworn to secrecy and allowed into the house and Angel’s bedroom. So, when she came home from classes, undressed, and went to shower, she didn’t even realize I had gotten her suitcase out and attached all the chains again. I of course hid behind her bed when she came in and I realized she had no idea I was there. “Kneel”, I said as soon as she returned from her shower. Her squeal and jump were enough to cause her towel to fall leaving her naked except for her collar still locked around her beautiful neck. The pause was only a few seconds, then she was on her knees smiling so big I was afraid it would hurt her face. Several hours later someone knocked on her door and said dinner was ready and that we needed to eat if we were doing to keep all the noise up. Very embarrassed we dressed and went to eat with the rest of the women.