Chapter 38

I was woken up by Norbert banging some stuff around. When did he start getting up before me?

As we were getting forming up for a platoon run, you could see that our ranks were a bit thinned out a bit. Guys had already left on leave and there were probably four or five guys absent.

We ran three miles, the obstacle course and then three miles back. Once we finshed chow, the morning got shitty. We were stuck in power point safety briefs that were supposed to keep us safe during holiday leave the whole morning. It reached peak idiocy with a power point titled Christmas Light Safety. It was all I could do to keep from falling asleep from boredom.

No one made any comments when I left to go get ready for training. Gunny Owens was waiting for me when I got out of the car, and as we went inside, he asked me what the plan was for today.

“Seeing as the tournament starts next week, it’s going to be a very light training session.”

“You think that’s wise?”

“Absolutely. I’m as ready as I’m going to be at this point. Today is about maintaining conditioning and avoiding injury.”

“I can see where that could be a good thing.”

“You are going to join me or just watch?”

He glared at me for a moment. I started with a short heavy bag session as he went to change. Coming out after changing, I walked Gunny Owens through his own session. He was starting to breath heavy by the time it was over.

“Not quite as easy as you thought. It’s a great form of cardio.”

“Yes, it is.”

After a quick water break, we went through a lifting session. It was a low weight and high rep upper body session. We finished out the training session with shadow boxing.

We got on exercise bikes to cool down. I could see that he was sweating profusely and breathing heavily. I decided to give him a hard time.

“Being behind a desk doesn’t give you much time to PT, does it?”

“You just don’t know when to keep your mouth shut, do you?”

“I was just making an observation, but not really.”

“You’ll do well to keep your observations to yourself.”

“Aye, Gunny.”

When we were standing at the cars after we were done, Gunny Owens started giving me a pep talk. He was trying to pump me up. I’ll do great, it was ‘mine to win’ and all the other clichés and platitudes on winning. I appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before playing sports. I tried, hopefully successfully, to keep my boredom with the speech showing on my face.

I drove over to the Mess Hall with the tub in the back of the car. I’d decided to have an ice bath every other night for the next two weeks. I hoped it would help recovery during the tournament.

Our Duty Day was boring, we were doing general maintenance and busy work. Sgt Le Pesant said it was pretty much going to be like this until just after New Years.

I had a good session at Judo and decided I was going to invite my instructors to the tournament. Sensei Yasutoki thanked me for the offer though he declined. He then shook his head when I told him I would be missing class for the next few weeks. Turning he had a determined look on his face.

“If you fail your belt testing, you’ll have much to do to earn another chance.” I acknowledged it.

I had a habit of recording songs off the radio. So, when I got back to the barracks, I dug out a couple of cassettes out of the car and went out to sit in the outfield of the ball field. Turning my Walkman on, tonight was a selection of sixties classics. Starting to meditate, it was all about just relaxing and working out what I needed to do in the tournament. I knew things were going to get really hectic once the grandparents arrived.

After Cpl Rosario finished running us through PT in the morning, he informed us to meet in the parking lot after we cleaned up. The guys were bitching as I beat them to the shower.

We were standing out by my car when I noticed that the rest of the platoon was also there. Without any notice, I saw Lt Wallace the platoon commander walking up to us.

“Marines, Captain Armstrong has decided to reward this platoon for all the improvement shown so far this year. So, as a sort of Christmas gift, he is sending you Marines for a kind of special brunch. Don’t go hog wild, and be good ambassadors to the community, or this will never happen again.” Seeing as I had a car, I was elected to be a driver. There were nine of us going, so I had four guys squeezing into the Volvo. Sgt Le Pesant had three guys in his Ford Taurus.

We drove to Liliha Bakery in downtown Honolulu. They had a dinner in addition to a large bakery shop. We had two guys from First squad and two guys from Second squad including the Squad Leader with all of Third squad.

I had Norbert on one side of me and Cpl Atkins the Second Squad Leader on the other side. While he was cordial with me, it wasn’t a let’s be friends type of vibe. The other Marines from First and Second squad just kind of ignored me for the most part. I spent most of my time talking with Norbert.

The diner had a pretty good selection, though I ended up with one of my go to breakfasts. Eggs, corned beef and toast, though I added some Portuguese sausage. I was noticing that in addition to the Asian immigrants that settled in Hawaii. There was a rather large Portuguese Community.

We all probably ate a bit much. As we were leaving through the bakery, I saw something that Grandmother used to give me when I was little. The bakery had Malasadas. These were Portuguese donuts, though they were a little denser than normal donuts. They were just like the ones Grandmother gave me. A rough football shape about four inches in length. There was one big difference between the two as these had fruit and cream fillings.

I wanted donuts for later. They had typical Hawaiian fillings, so I got three Haupia malasadas for Mutellip. They also had pineapple, guava and Lilikoi which was passion fruit, and I got four each of them. Everyone was eyeing the box as we left.

About ten minutes after we got back to the barracks, there was a knock at the door. I was checking a couple of things in my wall locker as Norbert answered the door.

“It’s for you Badzinski.”

Stopping what I was doing, I looked at the door. What the hell? It was PFC Dunn standing there looking at me.

“What can I do for you Dunn?”

“Gunny Owens wants to see you.”

“I’ll be there.”

“I’m to bring you there now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.”

I locked my wall locker and made my way to the door. Stopping before leaving, I turned to Norbert and Mutellip.

“Leave the donuts alone. I know how many there are.”

They both just looked at me. After the short drive we both walked into the Platoon offices. Dunn just waved me on. I was just about to knock when Gunny Owens’ voice rang out calling me in. Walking in, I made my way to twelve inches in front of his desk and reported in.

“Enough. This isn’t a formal meeting. Sit down.”

I took a seat and waited for him to begin.

“So, I have the first schedule for the tournament.”

I sat up, he had my complete attention.

“Friday at ten hundred you will report to medical for your physical. And God have mercy on your soul if you somehow aren’t cleared ready to fight. At eighteen hundred your weight class will have their weigh-ins. They also sent out the schedule for the first-round bouts on Monday.”

His pause for dramatic effect was kind of pointless with just the two of us.

‘There’s going to be some chatter about the way it’s set up. This tournament being the Navy’s baby, they set it up how they wanted. I think it’s been set up so that there’s potentially a Navy vs. Marine Corps final if everything goes in a certain way.”

“So, your first fight is against Sergeant Hugo Martinez from the Air Force. He’s about five or ten pounds lighter and about five inches shorter than you”.

I’d probably have a good reach advantage with the power difference unknown. I figured he’d have a slight speed advantage. We talked for a few more minutes when he asked me if I’d come up with a game plan. I could tell he was slightly worried when I told him I hadn’t. Telling him it would be worked out by Monday didn’t relieve his qualms any.

He told me to get out and that he didn’t want to see me until Friday. I went straight from his office to the gym for a light leg session. Nobody from the platoon was there, so I took a look around. There was a group also doing legs, so I talked my way into a group from MAG-24 or Marine Aircraft Group 24.

After an hour of lifting, I called it quits. It was a shower and then on to Japanese class. Ms. Miwako pronounced me as ready as I could be under the circumstances. As I left, I told her that I’d give Kiku her number Sunday.

We were given a heads up that we were going to have a surprise Company Barracks Inspection. Sort of a surprise, as we were only given a couple of hours’ notice.

We all jumped into high gear after lunch to get the cleaning done. If there was a guy who was out on leave, other guys would help out that room. Guys were pulling out all kinds of contraband out of rooms. The one thing that made me laugh was the number of hot plates that came out of rooms. I mean we were entrusted with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment but couldn’t be entrusted with a hot plate.

We were ready, and then when I saw who was doing the inspection, my heart dropped. Three NCOs were walking towards our room. Two I recognized and one I didn’t. Though there was one that could ruin my day in an instant. Gunny Ortega was walking along with 1st Sgt Blake.

I could only hope this didn’t devolve into a petty power play from Gunny Ortega. We were all standing outside our room as they began the inspection. As they went in Gunny Ortega gave me a wink and a smile. I turned to the guys and apologized for anything that happened. I was heartened when they came back saying they had my back. I asked Norbert who the third NCO was. Turned out to be Sergeant Kourdi who was the Company Property NCO.

It just seemed they were spending more time in our room more than the previous ones. As they came out Gunny Ortega stopped tight in front of me. He leaned in and whispered in my ear.

“Get ready to be put where you belong. Out of my Corps.”

“AYE, AYE GUNNY!”

I caught him off guard how loud I sounded off. It had the added effect of having a lot of people turning to see what was going on. 1st Sgt Blake kept it from spinning out of control.

“Good job Marines.”

He turned and moved on to the next room. The move made it clear it was over. It was about another forty-five minutes before the inspection was over. There weren’t many issues, and they were fairly minor.

I made it to kick boxing on time and we went right into it when I got in the ring. It was a great session. At the end, Master Chutimant began talking about a potential game plan for my tournament. Then I remembered something I forgot to do.

I apologized for forgetting to let him know that I wouldn’t be back until the second week of February and then only a week or two before I had a field exercise to leave for. He was ok with it due to the tournament, holidays and work.

I got my ice bath in and called it a night.

Getting out of my rack, I thought about how busy a day it was going to be. I was coming out of the Mess Hall when Gunny Owens walked by me. I didn’t think this was a coincidence as he told me to get my ass over to medical. I made my way directly over there not wanting to piss him off.

Walking in it seemed that they were pretty busy today as there were at least ten people waiting. I could only hope this wouldn’t impact me picking up the grandparents. I was early so that would help.

Finally, they called me back to an examination room. There was a treadmill in the room. The Corpsman that came in and took my blood pressure and left. Then I waited again.

Lt Vaikar came into the room looking at me.

“So how are you doing today Badzinski?”

“Doing good. No pain other than the normal soreness.”

My upper body was pushed, pulled and prodded in any possible way. When we finished this I was instructed to get on the treadmill for five minutes. Once I finished my blood pressure was taken again.

As I put my BDU blouse back on I turned to Lt Vaikar.

“So, am I good to go?”

“Yes. I found none of the prior issues this time. Try not to get hurt out there.”

“I’ll do my best.”

When I got to the car, I noticed that I had about an hour before I needed to be at the airport. I didn’t have time for a real lunch, so that meant a stop to get something at a gas station.

Arriving at the airport, I parked and went in looking at the flight display board. Their flight was going to be a little late. I found which gate they were coming in at and made my way over there.

I must have dozed off, the next thing I knew someone was shaking me.

“So, are you going to give us a ride or do we need to call someone else?”

Opening my eyes, the grandparents were there standing in front of me.

“Sorry. I guess I must have fallen asleep. Let’s get going.”

We went down to the luggage carousel. Like I figured Grandfather had one suitcase. On the other hand, Grandmother had packed everything but the kitchen sink. I got one of the luggage carts and started loading it up.

The interrogation didn’t start until we started driving out of the airport. I lost track of the various topics as we drove, though Grandfather did ask how things were going at my first duty station. So, I explained everything that was going on with Gunny Ortega. His response was just to tell me to keep my nose clean.

We brought all the luggage in, and Grandmother handed me a piece of paper off the counter. Seemed Stosh had sent my package, and I needed to pick it up from the post office.

Then she did something that lots of grandmothers did. She looked in the fridge making a declaration.

“This will not do. I have nothing to feed my scrawny grandson. I’m going to the grocery store.”

She grabbed the keys and was out the door before anything could be said. It didn’t surprise me at all. Grandfather motioned me out the back door. We sat down and he started pulling out cigars.

“So, let’s talk. First tell me about what you’ve been doing training for the tournament.”

I then explained about my time at Judo, kickboxing and going to Koa boxing.

“So, who’s the boxing coach you’ve been seeing over there?”

“Ronnie Saivilia.”

“You’re kidding?’

“Nope, I was going to go over there after weigh ins.”

“Well, I’ll be going with you.”

“OK.”

“So, what are your plans for this weekend?”

“Tomorrow, I have a couple of things to do. I need your assistance for one of them though.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“I need you to sponsor my membership to Fonseca Casa de Fumaça.”

“At least you have good taste. What’s the other thing?”

“After stopping by the post office, I’m going to a bankruptcy auction.”

“That sounds interesting, I think I’ll join you for that.” Going in the house, he came back with a glass of vodka.

“Where’s mine?”

“You’re in Fight Week. None for you.”

“Great.”

“Stop whining.”

We were out there for a while before Grandmother came back from the grocery store. I was helping her put them away when I realized that I needed to get ready.

I let Grandfather know that I was ready to go. I hadn’t been told that I need to be in uniform, so I just went dressed as I was, although I brought some PT gear with me.

Grandfather told Grandmother that we would be back later for dinner. Her response was classic. She told both of us that if we came back drunk, she’d kick both of our asses. We took Grandfather’s car since we would be entering onto Naval Base Pearl Harbor, and it was registered on base. The weigh-ins were in the same place as the championship fights, Bloch Arena.

The guard at the gate saluted us was we went through seeing the Officer sticker on the car. Pulling into the parking lot, there were a lot more cars than I thought there would be. What stood out were the several government cars with General Grade Officer insignias on them. It seemed like I was stepping into the deep end.

No sooner than we stepped into the lobby than Gunny Ortega was in my face. The only thing I could make out was him ranting about how the weigh-ins started and hour and a half ago, and why was I just now showing up. I glanced at Grandfather, he shot me a look that conveyed I was a big boy, deal with it yourself.

“I was not informed that I needed to be here for all the weigh-ins. Gunny Owens told me that my weigh-ins start at eighteen hundred. It’s now seventeen thirty. I have enough time to get checked in and prepared.”

Gunny Ortega just stood there looking at me. It was easy to see that his rage was starting to build, and he wanted to fly off the handle. Instead, he turned around and walked away.

“You handled that as well as could be expected. I see that he’s going to have you in his crosshairs for a while.”

We started to walk over to the check-in table. Suddenly, someone was calling out from off to the side, “Captain Lapcynski! Is that really you?”

Turning to look, there was a short pudgy man in a Naval uniform coming towards us. As soon as I saw the silver oak leaf on his collar, my first instinct was to snap to attention. Then I realized that I wasn’t in uniform, and it wasn’t a great idea.

“I’m sorry I don’t remember your name. The memory starts to go as you get older.”

“It’s OK. It was a long time ago when I was a JG (Lieutenant Junior Grade) at the Pentagon. Alexander Stehlik.”

I hesitantly cut in.

“I’m sorry to interrupt the reunion. I need to go check in.”

I walked over to the table and noticed that there were two little old ladies sitting there. They were both staring at me.

“I need to check in ladies.”

“And who would you be?”

“Lance Corporal Badzinski.”

The lady on the left chimed up with a less than professional comment.

“A Marine. I was always partial to Marines in my younger days. They looked so manly in those uniforms. If I was only younger, I’d show you a thing or two.”

God, now I had old ladies propositioning me. The voice from behind me and startled me.

“Ladies, let me have my Marine before you ruin him for other women.”

The little old ladies giggled as Grandfather steered me off to the side of the table. Just as he was about to say something, Gunny Owens walked over putting his hand out.

They shook hands and then began talking, completely ignoring me. I entered a room labeled “Fighters changing room”. Inside I changed into the PT gear I’d brought with me; both the shorts and shirt were 3/3 (Third Battalion, Third Marine Division) branded. There were a bunch of guys in there changing. I was able to pick out the other guys in my weight class. Most were in service-related PT gear, though there was a smattering of Reebok, Addidas and Nike gear.

After sitting there for a while, someone came in and got two guys out of the room. It was a few minutes before Flacher came over to where I was sitting.

“How’s it going Badzinski?”

“Not too bad. How bout yourself?”

“I’ve been learning a lot from Gunny Ortega.”

“Good. You’ll need all that you can learn.”

“I’ll be fine. You need to hope you don’t make it to the second fight to face me.”

I stood up just inches from him. “I see you’ve bought Gunny Ortega’s bullshit hook, line and sinker. Know this, if you and I do get in the ring against each other...” There was a pause before I spoke slowly, with purpose, “know that it will be my goal to not just beat you but I’m going to give you a beating you’ve never thought possible. It will be so bad you’ll have to go to sick call the next day.”

A look of surprise tinged with what looked like fear crossed his face. I sat back down and waited for Flacher to walk away. He stared at me for a moment or two before leaving.

I sat there meditating until my name was called a couple of times. Going out, Sergeant Martinez was already standing on the small stage that they’d set up. There were three other individuals standing on the stage. Two were from Golden Gloves Hawaii and the other was a Navy Corpsman who would get our official height and weight measurements.

Martinez went first, and the Corpsman worked the scale. He came in at six foot and a half inch, weighing two hundred and twenty-three pounds.

I stepped up and the Corpsman whispered to me to take my shirt off. It then hit me that Martinez hadn’t been wearing his. So, I took it off and stepped up onto the scale. First my height, it ended up at six foot five and three quarters of an inch. My weight came out to be two hundred and thirty-nine pounds. They then pushed us in that same old tired face-off pose.

I didn’t see any point in playing the game, so I just stood there. Martinez on the other hand decided to try playing at being a badass. He was spouting off at me in Spanish, some I recognized as slurs, all while bouncing around like a dog trying to get a treat.

I turned and walked off as he was still going on with the stupid antics. After changing, I walked out and saw Grandfather and Gunny Owens talking. It seemed Gunny Owens was going to join us for dinner in an hour or so. We still had to make a stop at Koa Boxing before heading to the house.

As we walked into Koa Boxing it was loud with training going on. It took me a minute to find where Ronnie was. We walked over and just looked at him. I informed him that I wasn’t going to be attending any more training sessions. On top of that grandfather was going to be my cornerman for the tournament. He told me that he expected me to basically give him a last payoff. I informed him that wasn’t going to happen as there was no contract and I didn’t need any more training.

He got a bit pissy about it and was getting irate. That’s when to my surprise Grandfather stepped in between us.

“You’re not getting any more money. You decided to try and be a bitch and use Barnim to try and relieve your debt to the Alovili family. Do me a favor, ask your father, Apelu Sasilvia about his many fights and losses to Piotr Lapcynski. It’ll be very enlightening for you.”

His eyes got really big. Grandfather bid him a good night and we left. I was shocked, that was probably only one of a few times I’d heard grandfather cuss, in both iterations of my forty something years. During the drive I tried to get him to explain what he meant about the fights that he seemed to be involved with. He just put me off about it, saying he’d tell me eventually. Pulling into the driveway, there was a car I didn’t recognize along with Gunny Owens’. Walking in, Master Chutimant was sitting at the table with Gunny Owens.

Grandmother called me into the kitchen to help her with dinner. We were having a simple chicken and wild hog stir fry. I brought the plates to everyone.

A conversation between Grandfather and the other two was taking place and I wasn’t included. They were talking about the fights and what they thought my game plan should be. I stayed out of it. Grandfather would let me know what I needed to know when I needed to.

After bringing out a coconut cream pie and while we were eating it, she told me that along with the boxing trunks, she was able to produce two cornermen’s jackets.

This peaked Gunny Owens’ attention, and he wanted to see them. She brought out three shirt boxes. Out of the first she extracted my trunks. They were Marine Corps red with embroidered designs on the front of each leg. On the left leg was a large EGA (Eagle, Globe and Anchor). On the right leg was the insignia for Third Battalion, Third Marines. That was when I learned the nickname and motto of the battalion. The nickname was under the insignia, America’s Battalion. The motto was a part of the insignia. “Fortuna Fortes Juvat,” Fortune Favors the Brave.

Gunny was in awe, “Holy shit those look fucking awesome!”

We were all shocked when Grandmother smacked Gunny Owens in the back of the head.

“You don’t swear in my house.”

“Aye ma’am.”

He quickly turned to me.

“Any mention of this will be dealt with harshly.”

“Aye Gunny.”

That’s when she broke out the cornermen jackets. They were also Marine Corps red with the Third Battalion logo across the back. Above the logo, in gold lettering, it said LCPL Badzinski. Gunny Owens loved these as well, though he avoided another smack.

Gunny Owens looked at Grandmother.

“Ma’am those are masterfully done. They are way better than the image that I had in my head.”

“Thank you for the compliment young man.”

Gunny Owens and Master Chutimant excused themselves for the evening. Grandfather pulled me outside for another cigar. As soon as he sat down, he lit up.

“So. Let’s talk about the tournament and this weekend, and specifically about the bouts. You’ve never fought with boxing rules. So, let’s go over the ten-point must system.”

The system basically says that the winner gets an automatic ten points while loser of the round gets from nine to six points based on their performance. I could tell there was more to it than that, but that’s where he left it. He then informed me that they were going with the three-knockdown rule. If you got knocked down three times in a round, you lost by TKO (technical knockout).

“So, here’s what’s going to happen this weekend. Tomorrow we’re going to do the things you need to do. I’m going to spend the evening with Master Chutimant watching the tapes Gunny Owens gave me. Then we’ll figure out a game plan. I know you have to pick up Kiku on Sunday. After you do that, you can bring her with to the kickboxing school. We are going to go through a quick run of the game plan.”

“Well, I have standing appointment on Sundays at thirteen hundred.”

“How about you come in at fourteen thirty?”

“It’ll be close, but that should work.”

“It should only take an hour or two.”

“That’s fine. I’m going to call it a night. I’m going to get an early start.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.”

I was awakened by the smell of freshly fried bacon. Walking out into the kitchen, Grandmother had breakfast ready.

I was at the post office when it opened and handed the clerk my parcel ticket. I was waiting for a few minutes when the guy wheeled out a cart with two large boxes on it. I was expecting a decent sized box, but I could only imagine what was in these boxes.

I moved the cart out to the car and loaded the boxes into the back. Taking the cart back in, I thanked them. Stopping off at the house, I unloaded the boxes, placing them in my room. Then I had to wait for Grandfather.

“I guess the second thing in old age to go is the memory. The first must be having to pee every two hours.”

“Keep it up.”

After a short drive, we pulled into the lot of Fonseca Casa De Fumaça. As we walked in, the gentleman from my first visit came rushing around from his desk.

“Piotr, it’s been such a long time.”

“Carlos my friend. It’s good to see you.”

“It is good to see you as well Piotr. I see this young man wasn’t being dishonest when he said you were his grandfather.”

“Well, it seems that he’d like to become a member.”

“We can accommodate that request. How large of a vault would he like?”

I had no clue as to what he was talking about. I was glad when Grandfather intervened.

“One that will hold three boxes.”

“I have the perfect one for him.”

We went through the paperwork. I had intended to have a place where I could buy cigars when the mood struck me. Grandfather had a completely different idea. Carlos put a cigar box on the table. It was filled with Gurkha cigars. Half were Grand Reserve infused with cognac; the other half Private Reserve infused with rum.

Grandfather pulled out a key and went to a large vault in the next row from where mine was. He pulled out a box that was in a vacuum sealed bag and placed it on the table.

I read the name on the box, Cohiba. I didn’t know a lot about cigars, but I knew that these were expensive and hard to get.

“I can’t afford all of these, much less just the Cohibas.”

“Well, the Cohibas are a gift from me, though you can’t touch them until you make Corporal. The others are a Christmas present.”

“Thank you. Carlos, can I buy a couple today?”

“That would be wonderful.”

I received a key to my vault and was given access to Grandfather’s vault, but I wasn’t going to touch anything in there. I could never afford to pay him back. I bought two cigars for during the week.

It was a decent drive out to Storm Salvage; the auction covered the three-acre lot worth of junk that stood out as we pulled in. There was a check in area with several tables and we received a numbered paddle and a multiple page booklet after registering. It seemed items were arraigned in lots, with some lots having multiple items. As I was perusing through the pages, two items spoke to me. Now if I could only find a way to get Grandfather to front me the money. I sure as hell didn’t think I had enough to cover how much I thought the items would go for.