Chapter 7: Sniper School Wednesday 05 September 2007

Khudabah, Pakistan — Day seven

Shit, that hurts. Wha—?

It's a fucking towelhead beating the crap out of me again. What a hell of a way to wake up. I guess I've become the defacto punching bag for them since the girl is dead and gone.

Come on, motherfucker. Get just a little bit closer to me. Closer ... Closer. Yeah. I kicked the bastard in the balls. Shit ... my head ... Jens ... I want to be with Jens. Fucking bastards, leave me alone so I can think about home.

Kaneohe Bay Hawaii — Wednesday Day Four

It was wonderful waking up in the bed with Jens, feeling her pressed against me and knowing that finally, after all these lonely years, I had found someone to share my life with; I truly understand now the meaning of soul mate.

Jens was still sleeping soundly; I could tell by the little snore she made. But not me. It seems like I am always up early. I've been that way my whole life. I gently and quietly snuck out of bed, and Jens protested with a few sighs.

I started the coffee and threw some water on the stove for oatmeal, then headed to my bathroom for my morning routine. I dressed and then made breakfast, and put it all on a tray along with a single red rose from the flowers I gave Jens the other day and took it into her — wait, I guess I mean, our — bedroom.

She woke as I walked in, and blinked her eyes. "Breakfast in bed. You made me breakfast in bed!" I was just about to reply when the doorbell rang.

I gave Jens the tray and grabbed the shotgun by the door. "Who the hell is that this early in the morning?"

I checked the door and saw that it was the general and his wife. "Good morning, Son. We just wanted to stop by and say hello before we started the day. Is Jens up and around?" Mrs. Donaldson asked.

"Good morning, Sir and Ma'am. We stayed up late talking last night, and Jens just woke up but is still in bed. Come on in. I'm sure she would like to see both of you." I ushered them in to the bedroom. I went to the kitchen, poured two more cups of coffee, and brought them in to the bedroom, handing one to the general and one to his wife.

Jens was beaming, "We slept together last night, and then he brought me breakfast in bed. I love him so much."

I turned red.

"You sly devil dog you. Are you spoiling my daughter? And are you sure something else didn't happen last night?" Mrs. Donaldson asked with a wink.

"Oh. No, ma'am. I gave you my solemn promise as a Marine, we won't do that until our wedding night." I hurriedly replied.

"Oh, shit," Mrs. Donaldson said. "Well, Glen, it looks like I owe you even more. After seeing how much these two are in love and then the way they were dancing last night — especially the Lambada — I figured it was a done deal."

The general laughed. "Son, you are making me a rich man in more ways than one." He winked.

"Sir, might see you in the other room for a minute?"

We went into the kitchen. "What do you need, Son?"

I had a big surprise in mind, and I needed his help. I told him what I wanted to do, and he slapped me on the back, shook my hand, and told me he would set things up for me; that he could make it a "training mission."

He made a couple of phone calls and said, "Let's go back into the bedroom."

The first order of duty was PT, but then I had to get Jens out of the way for the day. I hadn't figured it out yet how I was going to do this without a fight from Jens, but the general took care of it for me.

We walked back into the bedroom, Jens and Mrs. Donaldson were gabbing away like the best of friends, the General said, "Ten hut, Sergeant Donaldson!"

Jens jumped out of bed so fast that she almost spilled the tray from her breakfast.

"Sergeant Donaldson, something has come up today. After PT, you and Sergeant Major Blaine will be assigned to different duties. You're assigned to DI Anderson's platoon for the day. They're doing a twenty-five-mile run with full gear. I don't want any complaints or arguments from you, unless you'd rather spend the day helping the administrative assistants."

Ouch. For Jens, that's cruel and unusual punishment.

The general continued. "Sergeant Major Blaine is going on a special assignment for me. Do you understand Sergeant Donaldson?"

"Yes Sir, I do, but—" she started.

"Marine, no buts about this. Don't you say another word unless you would rather work with the administrative assistants. You'll report to DI Anderson's platoon at O-seven hundred with all your gear packed," he ordered.

Jens's brows knit as she looked at me, but she knew better than to say another word. I saw Mrs. Donaldson look equally pissed at her husband, but he just smiled and winked at her, and she didn't say anything.

He wasn't finished. "Sergeant Major Blaine, you will report to the heliport at O-seven hundred. Okay, you two, get your asses in gear and get moving. One more thing, both of you are coming to dinner tonight at our house. Be there at nineteen hundred hours."

He turned to his wife. "Come on, Evelyn. We need to leave so these two can get ready." He turned and walked out of the room and, Mrs. Donaldson jumped off the bed and followed him.

After they left, Jens ran over to me and gave me a big hug and kiss. "Shit." She pouted. "I was looking forward to spending another day with you. I wonder what got into daddy that he would do this."

I held her in the embrace. "My love, I think he wants to make sure that we'll follow commands no matter what they are. I don't like this any better than you do, but we have to obey his orders. I need to get moving and so do you."

Ten minutes later, we were running over to the gym for morning PT. Jens was looking exceptionally beautiful, and I made sure I told her that. She was wearing my second favorite USMC t-shirt: "When it absolutely, positively, has to be destroyed overnight, call a Marine" Jens was not happy, but at least she wasn't all bitchy about it.

"Come on, dear," I said, "This will be good for us, that which doesn't kill us strengthens us."

"I know, my love, that the general must have a reason for this, but sometimes I just don't understand him," Jens answered.

"'Ours is not to question why, ours is just to do or die, '" I replied with another platitude, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but it might cheer you up to know that I have a surprise for you tonight." Well, that was certainly the wrong thing to say. For the rest of the morning during PT Jens kept trying to get me to tell her what the surprise was.

Wednesday is legs day. We started our workout on the machines. I found years ago that if they're done correctly machines are the best way to build legs. While there are a bunch of good functional exercises for legs, there are few that safely build muscle.

First we worked the quadriceps on the leg extension machine. We worked one leg at a time so we were sure both legs would be equally strong. We limited range of motion to about ninety degrees bent and about twenty-five degrees extended, knowing that to go further than would gain little in the way of strength and would be really hard on the knees. We did jumping jack in between for the aerobics.

Next, we worked the hack squat machine, using the same technique. We added in a toe raise and then a heel raise each time we went up to work out the whole lower leg at the same time and speed things up. Jens was impressed when I was doing the squats with 400 lbs and told me so. Squat thrusts were our aerobic exercise to finish out the quads. We moved on to work the back of the legs, the hamstrings.

We did lying leg curls for our only hamstring exercise, one leg at a time and with a full range of motion, ten sets instead of the usual five. We pulled the weight up slowly and held it at the top for one second. Jens looked really hot lying on the machine with her butt sticking up, and it didn't help that she was wearing short shorts.

I caught another Marine watching her and gave him my "do that again and I'll kill you" look. He went over and talked to his buddies about it, turned a little white, and left the gym.

We did cross-knee raises in between sets.

For the last machine, we did the seated calf raise. For this, we did full range of motion, making sure to get a good stretch at the bottom and to hold the weight at the top for one second. We also did ten sets on this, with running in place between the sets.

It was time for the functional part of our leg workout to catch the small muscle groups that the machines miss.

To work the quads and for balance, we did slow, controlled, full-range single leg squats. By the time we got done with the first set, our quads were burning. I was very impressed that Jens could even do them; most women can't. We did straddle jumps in between, and that really kept our quads pumped up.

Next were walking lunges without weight, and running in place in between.

The final functional exercise was explosive squat jumps. This is the only exercise that we did as fast as we could. First we lowered to a deep squat, heels to butt, and then we exploded upward, jumping as high as we could. By now, our legs were crying for mercy, so we rested in between.

We finished PT by running back to the house. Of course Jens made it a competition with the winner getting a kiss. Again I let her catch me so we both won.