Chapter 19

Waking up, I knew I was going to be completely beat by the end of the day.

Our PT session was more stretching than anything else, and after chow, we got formed up for our road march.

Before we set off, we were made to drink a canteen of water. SSgt Sulong kept berating the guy who fell out on the last road march as the example as to why we should constantly drink water.

The temps were about the same as the previous road march, though there was a good constant breeze the whole time.

We were about a good two thirds of the way when I decided to take a look behind me. There were large gaps between the groups in our formation. I had a feeling there were going to be a few guys having an issue on the 20k road march.

I needed the break when we hit the halfway point as I knew that I’d have a few new blisters to deal with. The line of Marines continued to spread out as we made our way back to the Squad Bay. When we reached the Parade Deck, SSgt Sulong waited another ten minutes for all the groups to get back into formation.

“You idiots need to do better. Too many of you jackasses need to pick it up or you’ll never meet the time limit for the 20K road march that’s coming up. Go get chow and then get your asses back out here. You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

Lunch was rushed but nowhere near as bad as Boot Camp. I was ahead of everybody else as normal. As I made my way out, Sgt Castillo was waiting off to the side of the doorway just laughing. I looked at my watch and there were only about four minutes left. I watched him make his way inside and knew this would be interesting.

There were about ten of us outside as we heard Sgt Castillo yelling and screaming from inside of the Mess Hall. You saw guys start streaming out a minute later. Sgt Castillo followed them out, still yelling the whole way. Once everyone was formed up, he dropped the hammer.

“So, you pendejos think you can just do what you want. You were told fifteen minutes. Only a few of you have any sort of brains. We’ve punished everyone for the sins of a few, though not today.”

He let that sink in as he packed back and forth. Stopping in the center of the formation, he let the punishment be known.

“Everyone turn your head to the left.” I noticed that there three deuce and a half’s sitting between the buildings.

“You pendejos see those vehicles. Everyone was going to be transported to your next exercise. Well, that’s not going to happen now. Everyone that was outside the Mess Hall before the time limit please make your way over there and get in the back of one of the vehicles. The rest of you are going to take a nice walk with me. And don’t even think about sneaking your dumb asses into the back of those vehicles. I’ll fuck your ass up if you try.”

I made my way over to the first deuce and a half. It took me a minute to hoist my weary ass into the bed of the vehicle. I guessed it was probably a mile or two to what looked like a little village.

When we stopped, we were directed to unload the ammo cans out of the bed of the vehicle. There was a group of instructors waiting on us who then made sure that our blank adapters were attached and tight. Then it was load magazines with blanks and wait on a set of bleachers.

SSgt Sulong explained why we were here. This was going to be a quick introduction to building clearing. Each building had a mockup of a different layout made out of plywood. This was so they could change the interior layout as needed. It was another twenty minutes before everyone else showed up. My only shining light was my feet were probably not going to be as bad as theirs.

As they got their rifles and magazines ready, they joined us on the bleachers. We then had a lecture on the basics of building and room clearing. We were then split into groups of five and informed that we’re going to be the breachers for the company that we get assigned to. Each group went out to a building as directed.

We went into one that was immediately a long hallway with three doors. This went fairly well, as we were shown the proper way to do it, then we ran through it. After the instructors were happy that we had a semblance of what we were supposed to be doing we went on to the next building.

Things had been going smoothly at this point, but this building was an apartment mockup.

My squad had a guy from the Machine Gun section named Houten. There were three doors in the apartment hallway. Houten was behind me as the third guy in the stack. At the second door I felt something graze the back of my neck. I ignored it until the second time it happened. I whipped my head around, and what I saw pissed me off. The muzzle with the blank adapter was brushing my neck and over my shoulder. Spinning around, I pushed him against the wall.

“Houten, you ever flag me again and I’ll fuck you up.”

Sgt Castillo pulled me off of Houten and pushed me aside.

“Badzinski, calm the fuck down. Houten, I see you flag anybody again and I’ll take away your rifle and give you a broom.”

We went back to stack up on the door and Houten got put in the first position. Guess that’s one way to keep him from flagging anyone else.

We kept running the set ups until time to hit the Mess Hall for dinner. The whole platoon got a ride back to the Parade Deck this time.

I was wore the fuck out, and my feet were beyond throbbing and in pain. There was no way in hell I was going to hit the gym tonight. I took a long hot shower after taking care of my feet. They were starting to look like a package of ground beef that was going bad. The Squad Bay smelt of alcohol swabs, Tiger Balm and Ben Gay.

As we got up and ready to go in the morning, SSgt Sulong gathered us around.

“You Marines need to maintain your focus today. Remember your lessons, and you should do fine. Depending on the test it’s either pass/fail or you’ll need a certain score, there are severe consequences including being recycled back to day one. So, I suggest you don’t fail.”

We got chow and then proceeded to an extensive stretching and calisthenics routine. Afterward, while we began marching towards the first testing station, we were buried with a series of cadences that were bawdy but nonsensical.

When we made it to the combat target range there were cases of MREs waiting for us along with the ammunition cases. I didn’t wait around to get mine; I was able to snag two chili mac MREs. The best one I’d had so far.

The course of fire was explained and then the fun began. We had to fire fifty rounds, with ten rounds per magazine. You had to hit at least 85% to pass. I was in the middle of the platoons running order for the course of fire. Houston and Andric went before I did, they barely passed with an 85% and 86% respectively.

I took a few minutes to calm and center myself before it was my turn to step up to the firing line. The whistle went off and I began firing. Keeping relaxed and making my transition from target to target as smooth as possible was my goal. When the bolt locked back for the last time, I felt really good about my performance. I ended up shooting 93%, though I was beat out by Pothier by 2%.

Once everyone was finished, we made our way over to the grenade range. We were given a quick safety refresher and then told we had to lob two grenades into a ten-foot circle around a target. Listening to things go boom was music to my ears, though I was making sure to keep my ear plugs in. Everyone passed. We then moved to the rocket range and had a safety brief. I noticed there were eight additional instructors floating around.

We were going to have three tests at the range. Seeing as we were at the rocket range, we would be testing on the M72 Law, M136 AT4 and a surprise addition. We would be also firing the M203 here as well, this time it would be both chalk rounds and two live rounds. We needed to put both of the live rounds within ten feet of a standing target. There was a station set up for each weapon and each section of the platoon would move from one station to another.

The Assault section started out on the M72 LAW station. Each person had one rocket to fire and had to strike the body of a tank hull for a pass. It wasn’t that hard, and everybody had a successful hit though some were barely hits, but they still counted.

We then rotated over to the M203 for our turn. The chalk rounds were practice rounds, and then we fired the two live rounds having to hit with both. Everybody again hit with both rounds.

We finished at the M136 AT4 station. They had the trainer launcher, and we had to fire five of the training rounds. We had to strike the tank hull with all five rounds. I enjoyed this as you could hear the “thunk” of the round hitting the hull. After passing, I passed the time bullshitting with Pothier waiting for everyone else to finish.

When the whole platoon was done, we formed up and marched over to our Land Nav test. When we arrived a break for lunch was called. A few guys crowded around as I was getting my chili mac warmed up. I answered as many questions as best as I could. After policing our trash, we got our mission brief for the test.

This was a three hour, four-and-a-half-mile course. There was a total of seven check points at various distances we had to hit in order. I started my check on the map we were given for the best routes and was surprised as the order they had placed the check points gave me a bit of grief.

There was no way I could tweak the routes to speed it up or make the move easier. I’d have to just suck it up and push through. The whistle to start rang through the air and I took a minute to make sure my heading was right.

It wasn’t completely horrible though some segments were bad. There were several that were steep as hell which had my thighs burning and my feet were throbbing again halfway through the course. I made it to the last checkpoint with about ten minutes to spare.

There were a couple of guys there as I took a seat for a minute. Pothier showed up soon after I did, and we waited together watching for Andric and Houston. With a minute or two to spare Andric came slogging up the incline.

Once the time limit was up, a set of instructors left to start rounding up the Marines that were still outstanding. They were going to be recycled as this was a pass/fail test. This included Houston and his buddies from the machine gun section. All those being recycled were loaded into a deuce and a half and gone in a few minutes of getting there.

We then made our way over to where the pre-dug fighting positions were. As we made the move, we were being tested on patrolling and hand/arm signals. There were additional instructors as we made it to the fighting positions.

There we were made to demonstrate setting a Claymore out. Then it was explaining how we would improve the position. I was doing pretty good until he asked a question I wasn’t expecting. He wanted to know why this was a good or bad position.

Finishing up, we marched ourselves back to the Squad Bay and got out of our gear.

We were then directed over to the classroom building. It seemed we now had a series of written test to complete. We had a written test on everything we’d covered. Then it was a last hands-on test covering Combat Casualty Care.

There was a bunch of instructors from the Field Medical Battalion, though I didn’t see our instructor among them. When it was my turn, I went through a fifteen-minute test covering the gambit from sucking chest wounds to blown off legs. The Corpsman overseeing my test was surprised at how quick I was with the tourniquet.

Another present of the first go around. It was always my opinion that if you were going to carry a concealed weapon, you needed training. That was both training with the firearm and trauma wound training. They wouldn’t tell us how we did, just to head to the Squad Bay. Guess we’d know who failed by who got removed tonight.

Once everyone was back in the Squad Bay, we lost another four guys. Two from the Machine Gun section and one a piece from the Assault and Mortar section. We lost a total of nine guys from the platoon, two from the Assault section. We were supposed to get seven guys in the morning, though no new Marines for the Assault section.

Well, there was no you made it past the first part dinner. Nope, just plain old lemon baked chicken or sliced turkey.

When I got back, I noticed the mail tray was full, so I checked. There was a rather thick envelope from Kiku.

I was beat and mentally drained, and as much as I wanted to tear the envelope open, I stashed it in my wall locker for the next day. I did look at the outside of the envelope though, and based on the postage it came from Japan. She had to have paid a good bit to get it here that fast. I’d read it tomorrow night.

We got up and got breakfast, did PT and then headed over to the classroom building where we were instructed to form a line on each side of the hallway.

After a couple of minutes, a large black NCO came out to the head of the hallway. He called out for everyone from the Mortar section to follow him. This then repeated itself with another NCO for the Machine Gun section.

We had to wait a few minutes extra before our NCO came out. You could tell he wasn’t happy to be here.

“Shut your fucking mouths and follow me.”

“AYE AYE.”

“That’s AYE AYE Gunny!”

“AYE AYE GUNNY!”

Seemed something had crawled up his ass and died. How the fuck were we supposed to know his rank if he never introduced himself? Three quarters of us were too far away to be able to tell.

We followed him into a classroom, and everyone moved to a seat. I figured he was wound tighter than a watch spring. I chose not to sit down because he hadn’t said we could. Turned out it was the right thing to do.

“Who told you fucking idiots to sit the fuck down?”

Everyone else shot up out of their seats. I continued standing, as we stood there for a good ten minutes with nothing being said.

“Take a seat. I am Gunnery Sergeant Harrell and I’ll be the lead instructor for your Infantry Assaultman MOS course. The Marines behind me are Staff Sergeant Specht and Corporal Groves. Our jobs are to give you the foundational knowledge to be a competent Infantry Assaultman.”

He then walked around the podium to stand right in front of the first row of seating.

“We’re not here to hold your hands. This is a dangerous course, and a mistake here can injure, maim or kill not only yourself but a large number of your classmates.”

I could believe this; explosives made the pucker factor go up exponentially. Then there was a roll call so they could put a face to a name from my guess,

Our Assaultman section Marines were at an odd number seeing as we had two guys recycled and didn’t pick up any new. They had to reorganize our fire teams.

We were now going to have four fire teams instead of five. It was somehow decided that my fire team would now have a new fourth member, as Andric was moved over and we received Private Kabbal.

“You Marines will keep safety in mind no matter what you’re doing in the course. If I think you do not have the mentality to perform this job with the highest level of safety and professionalism...”

There was a pause as he was staring a hole in all of us.

“I will make sure that if you do not meet the high standards, you will receive an MOS change. You can be comforted in the fact that you will be in the rear with the gear. Most likely in a Mess Hall somewhere or doing some other such boring job.”

He then began to lay out the schedule for the rest of our time at ITB. The first full week would be training on the MK153 Shoulder Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon or SMAW, including a live fire event. Then the week after that were to be classes on Demolition and breaching. The last week of course material was to be our demolitions live fire events. In the second week of demolitions classes, we would be on a 20K forced road march on that Wednesday.

We continued to go over the basics of what we’d be going over in our course until lunch. I decided to make sure that I took as many detailed notes as I could. I needed to get a bunch more spiral notepads and would need to find something better, if possible, to transfer the info to.

We made it back to the classroom after lunch. Gunny Harrell turned us over to SSgt Specht.

“So, we’re going to see just how good you guys are. This evening we’re going to test your physical fitness. Get formed up outside.”

We started off with a 3-mile Boots and Utes run, Utes being utility uniform without the normal uniform blouse. Fuck my feet were going to fall the fuck off. We started off at a pretty good pace, the formation started spreading out rather quickly and that was pissing off Gunny Harrell. He began running around the end of the formation yelling and screaming. Cpl Groves was leading the formation; he followed a branch of the road to the left.

My head hung down as I saw the sign that showed where this fork would take us. We were headed for the obstacle course.

Nothing we did seemed to be good enough for Gunny Harrell today. I didn’t really know what he was looking for. We ended up running the obstacle course a bunch of times and we were all hoping that the day would end as we marched our way back to the Squad Bay.

We were formed up on the Parade Deck when Gunny Harrell moved in front of us.

“You Marines actually showed me something today. When things got tough, you guys pushed through. Keep that attitude. Everyday going forward is going to be a tough day, although not every day will be a physical challenge. Some days it will be a mental struggle. Just know that I and your other instructors are here for you. Also, lean on your fellow Marines.” We were then dismissed, and the rest of the night was our own.

My feet were feeling like they were going to fall off. I decided to go ahead and get chow first. When I got into the Squad Bay, I sat down and pulled my boots and socks off. It was as horrible as I thought it would be.

Not only were there several masses of blisters, but I could see a lot of skin that was whitish. I needed to take care of the blisters and figure out something to try and keep my feet dry.

Putting my shower shoes and PT gear on, I made my way over to the Marine Mart. I found some foot powder and bought two bottles.

Getting back, I took care of my blisters and grabbed a shower. On my way back to my rack, I checked the mail tray and found a letter from Heidi Terho. Guess she got my letter and was ready to make her recommendations.