Chapter 36

It was 0400 when Sgt Le Pesant came around and woke up the entire platoon, then he put us through our paces during PT. We went through pretty much every physical fitness task that he could think of. We were finishing a five-mile run when Gunny Owens pulled alongside the formation in his car. This was so he could tell me to come to his office after chow.

I learned for the first time that for an extra three bucks I could order an extra serving of bacon, eggs, home fries and gravy. This would help keep me from being hungry a lot of the time.

When I walked into the Company Office, I was just waved back to Gunny Owens’ office. There was a tv on a rolling cart sitting off to the side of his desk. He looked at me and pointed to the chair next to the rolling cart.

“So, we’ve got a few things to discuss.” he said as he leaned forward and hit the intercom on his phone.

“Dunn, I don’t want to be disturbed unless it’s important.”

“Dunn?”

“We finally got a full-time runner/driver from the battalion.”

“Ah.”

“So, I had to make a bunch of calls last week to see if I could find out any of the information you were talking about.”

It seemed he’d actually obtained some information about my potential opponents during the tournament. I anticipated that we wouldn’t have any “intelligence” until immediately before the fights. This information would greatly facilitate my ability to game plan. He slid a couple of pieces of paper across the desk to me.

“This is a list of the participants in the boxing tournament. The last page is your weight class.”

Air Force
Senior Airman Hugo Martinez, 6ft, 220lb
Airman Raul Moruga, 6 ft 3 in, 230lb

Army
Specialist Adam Schevchenko
Corporal Trever Grant, 6ft 1in, 220lb

Marine Corps
Lance Corporal Barnim Badzinski, 6ft 5 in, 240lb
Sergeant Daniel Flacher, 5ft 10 in, 220lb

Navy
Seaman Darrell Cembrano, 6ft, 225lb
Petty Officer Second Class Hector Urena, 5ft 9 in, 220lb

He then slid another page of paper to me.

“These are the major rules for the tournament.”

Weigh-ins will be on the Friday before the first fight which will be on 18 Dec 1995. All fights will be three, three-minute rounds. The judges and referees will be contracted from Golden Gloves Hawaii. Each bout will have three judges scoring the bout. The “ten-point must system” will be in effect for each bout. Boxers weighing less than one hundred and fifty pounds will use ten-ounce gloves. Fighters weighing over one hundred and fifty pounds will use twelve-ounce gloves. All rules questions will be answered on weigh-in day, and any additional rules will be instituted then.

“That’s interesting. So does everyone have this information?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure when they were going to officially release this information. I have an insider in the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet’s office. She’s the one who told me I should try and talk to someone at Golden Gloves Hawaii. I did that the same day.”

“I’m guessing the other services are trying to hunt for this same information.”

“Probably, though the guy from Golden Gloves Hawaii was actually able to provide me some additional information. It turns out that Seaman Cembrano was the nineteen ninety-three California Golden Gloves Champion.”

“That’s really interesting. I’m guessing he’s going to be the odds-on favorite. That means we can probably get some pretty good betting odds.”

“That seems about right. Cembrano had two fights against Golden Gloves Hawaii boxers and this upcoming tournament allowed me to convince the guy about giving me some of the videos on the guy. That’s where I was going this morning.”

“That will be very useful if I have to fight him.”

“It better be you fighting him in the finals.”

He decided to start popping tapes in. I needed to make sure that Grandfather got a copy of these tapes and let him come up with a plan. Gunny Owens kept asking me what I thought and what my plan would be. He wasn’t impressed when I didn’t have one.

Thinking about everything, I realized that I was forgetting about my training. I needed to get back in the gym and start lifting again.

Tuesday started like a normal day. Things changed when it was time for my session with Gunny Ortega. The start was OK and then suddenly it wasn’t. It was like a switch had flipped. He had me working on the speed bag when he lost it.

“What the hell did you say to me?”

I stopped to turn and look at him.

“I didn’t say anything to you Gunny.”

“Don’t you lie to me.”

“Gunny, I didn’t say anything. Can we just finish this workout?”

“Don’t you disrespect me.”

“Gunny, I did nothing of the sort.”

I turned back around and went back to the speed bag. He was still going off behind me. I was tuning him out when I caught a comment that had me concerned.

“You keep disrespecting me and I’ll have you up insubordination charges.”

This dude was out of his mind. I needed to somehow insulate myself from this lunacy, so I just kept my mouth shut and went through with the workout he had me normally do.

After finishing up, I skipped a shower and went straight to Gunny Owen’s office. He wasn’t in so I just sat on the bench and waited. It was over an hour before he showed up. He didn’t say a word but grabbed me by the shirt collar dragging me to his office. The door slammed after I was pushed inside.

Holy shit this couldn’t be good. As he got to his desk, he looked straight at me. That was not a good look.

“Sit your ass down, I already know why you’re here.” He put his hands down, leaning on the desk and started breathing deep. It took him a few minutes to compose himself.

“You seem to be just stirring up a shit storm. I happened to be at the Company office dealing with an issue, when I was suddenly called into the First Sergeant’s office. The reason, you.”

Just looking at me, he let that sink in.

“Gunny Ortega left the gym after your session and went straight to the First Sergeant. It seems he’s looking to prefer charges against you.”

“What the hell for?”

“So, let’s start from the top. He jumped right over sending you to Captains Mast and went straight to wanting to prefer charges for a Court martial.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding you? It’s also making me think that you’re becoming more trouble than you’re worth.”

“Gunny Ortega is losing it.”

“I don’t disagree with you. While I was enjoying watching the shit show, this is serious Badzinski.”

“So just out of curiosity. What charges is he planning on preferring?”

“Well, let’s start at the top. Article Ninety One, Insubordinate conduct towards Warrant Officer, Non-Commissioned Officer, Petty Officer. Article 134, which is a general article, or one used to charge things not directly in the other articles.”

“Well fuck me.”

“Not the best language to use in my office but an accurate description.”

I then explained exactly what happened during the whole training session. We had a twenty-minute conversation about it. He had me go over it in detail several times. Shaking his head, he told me to go back to the barracks and he’d take care of it.

I was sitting in the Mess Hall after PT when Gunny Owens walked up to the table.

“Be in my office in half an hour.”

Then he just turned and walked away.

How did I seem to keep getting myself into these situations. I mean I didn’t think I was purposefully going out looking for drama, it just seemed to keep finding me. I made the walk over to the company office contemplating my horrible luck.

Walking in, I was told to head back by the new runner Private Dunn. I was very tentative as I knocked on the door. Being called in, there was an air of tension that I could feel in the room.

“Sit down and keep your mouth shut until I ask you a question.”

He was staring at me.

“So, I got called back into the First Sergeant’s office again first thing this morning.”

It was easy to tell that he was in a shitty mood. I kept my mouth shut and just let him go at his pace.

“I walked into what I thought was a normal meeting. It turned out to be a mediation. Gunny Ortega was sitting there still bitching about having you brought up on charges.”

He took a deep breath and then looked square at me.

“It quickly became an argument as to why weren’t charges being drafted. Gunny Ortega was adamant about you being court martialed.”

What the hell did I personally do to the guy?

“I swear from the way he was acting you had to have caused him to have a mental breakdown. He was ranting and raving about you. I brought up that in the short time you’ve been in the company and Marine Corps there was nothing negative in your SRB (personnel file). This just set Gunny Ortega ranting about how you were fooling everyone but him.”

Maybe I did cause the guy to have a mental breakdown, psychotic break or something. Could be that someone finally questioning his methods shattered his world view.

“First Sergeant Blake tried to offer a compromise. He suggested you go to Captains Mast (non-judicial punishment). That set him off again. That’s when the First Sergeant came up with a radical idea. Gunny Ortega left the office fuming.”

I could only imagine what the First Sergeant had come up with. This could only get worse.

“First Sergeant Blake thinks this all stems from a difference of opinion about training methods. I actually agree with that.”

I could see that point. It was in my opinion somebody had the audacity to question how Gunny Ortega operated, and God forbid it be a lowly enlisted person. Which in turn caused him to lose his shit.

“So, there’s going to be a competition in a competition. It’s going to pit your training style versus that of Gunny Ortega. If you don’t outlast Sergeant Flacher in the tournament, you will be sent to Captains Mast. Which means you better win.”

Well, fuck me. Now I had even more pressure on me. I could only use this to motivate me. Hell, if this didn’t motivate me, I don’t know what could. I then made the conscious decision that the only way I was going to lose was for them to knock me out. There was no way I was going to let myself get sent to Captains Mast.

“So, you’re going to have to suck up and pull out the stops. I’m going to make sure that you’re going to have what you need. You no longer have to go to training sessions with Gunny Ortega. You and I will have an hour, though I’ll know more next week. I’m being lumped with you, if you lose then I’ll be held to that standard. So just know I’ll ruin you if you fuck me.”