A Hero's Tale
ok so this is my first try at a story and this is the first part of the story
Its based off true events that have happened to me over my time in the army names have been changed to protect, along with locations OPSEC!!!
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My ears are ringing...my sides are on fire...I have the taste of copper in my mouth. I look to my left and all I see is a smear mark of blood and ash where my friend once stood. I hear the roar of automatic machine gun fire, "GET UP" I hear to my right, "GET THE FUCK UP!!" I look and see SFC Smith yelling to me. I'm up now, rifle to my shoulder I look down my sights. Everything is fluid motion, and I go numb.?
*Bang Bang* one down *Bang Bang* a guy on the roof top loading another RPG falls to the ground.?
Rage takes over me as I look at the spot where Johnson once stood. I run from my cover to a forward position past the national guard fucks who we were supporting.?
"GET THE FUCK UP AND DO SOMETHING!" I yell to them as I run past. We're under heavy fire now. From the roof tops to the alleyways; it seems like they're everywhere. I slide into cover about ten meters past everyone else. When I poke my head up I am met by a hail of gunfire. I lie beside the destroyed car that is protecting me, inside are the passengers it failed to protect. I look under and there's people running from one side of the street to the other. There are now civilians here, and they were smart enough to stay clear but our fresh outa officer school LT was too ignorant to listen to his battle harden NCO's lead us into this ambush.?
*Bang Bang* I fire at an insurgent who was unlucky and came into my sights. More yelling "WAKE UP HEY JIM JIM WAKE UP!!" "MEDIC!! WE NEED A MEDIC!!!"
* * * *
It's 0200...I roll over in my bed.?I wish that was a dream,?I tell myself. I reach for the bottle beside my bed, "Just take the pills" the doc said "Just take the pills and you'll be able to sleep" he says.?Fuck this shit.?I down the rest of the bottle and try to go back to sleep.
0600 rolls up on me. I get up and go through the motions, just throwing on some PT's and going for a run; there are a lot of soldiers out this morning. A new unit just rolled in a bunch of POG's(personal other than grunt). "I hate POG's," I think to myself.?
I run past the gym, and past the chow hall all the way down to memorial hall to see Johnson. I get there and do my usual greetings, "Hey John what's up?" I wait for a response, but nothing comes...I continue on.
"Yeah, shits different now that you're gone. We got a new LT. This one seems right in the head, and he listens to us" I still wait...nothing. People walk past me looking at me like I'm crazy. I stand up put my hand on the wall where his name is. "I'll see you tomorrow bud." I say as I pat the wall then jog off.
I get back, grab my towel, soap, tooth brush, and razor and head to the showers. I stare at my face after I get done shaving and run my finger over my scar on my face and memories flood into me..."WAKE UP, GOD JIM DON'T DO THIS! YOU NEED TO WAKE UP!" SPC Adams yells to me, I feel a pin prick in my arm fluid begins to flow into me. I open my eyes and all I see is bright white I blink it away I look over the medics got me behind our VEE proceeding to dress my wounds then nothing but black.??
I shake my head clear and wipe shaving cream on the mirror hiding my face. I jump into the shower and begin to wash the sweat off, washing my arms I feel the bumps of bone frags, "That's all that's left of John." I say to myself and put the thought to the back of my mind. I get out of the shower and head back to my CHU (CHU= cheep ass trailer to live in). I throw on my fatigues and head out to my shift.
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0800, 1SG rolls in to give us our morning brief. yada yada, it's the same bullshit every day. We know our jobs. I tell him I have a doc appt at 1000 and he just stares at me. He knows what I've been through. I'm new to this company, and it's not a combat unit but a MI brigade. He then nods his head and says I can go now. I nod and head out the door. It's a hot day and I look up to the sun. "Fuck you." I say as I look toward the sky and continue on. I get to the doctor's office wait my turn in line. There's a lot of people who don't need to be here, just a bunch of shammers. Than again, that's what I'm doing. I know the pills don't work, but I still go to get more. Plus, there's this nice medic in here I don't mind talking to. She's one of the few that I can stand to be around. She doesn't ask questions. I like that. I get the pills, and they upped my dosage when I tell them that they aren't doing shit. The army cures everything by just throwing pills at it.?
I stop and talk to a medic i know, her name is Jessica. I like her name. "Hey Jim!" She always sounds so excited and I love that.?
"Heya Jess how ya been?" I reply.
"O you know, living the dream. I'm here in this piece of shit country lovin life." she says.?
"Some dream, huh? Hey, you want to come with me to chow?"??I ask her. I don't normally eat with people. I like my alone time but today I want some company. She agrees and we head off to chow.?
We get there and there's a line. "I hate lines," I tell her, "Follow me." I proceed to the front, where the guards are checking ID's. Some POG calls out "Hey fuckhead, you can't do that!" He's a shrimp SSG, I stop next to him.
"What are you?"
He stares blankly then answers,?"National guard?"?
I then tell him, "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the FUCKER who comes in and saves your ass whenever you get into trouble outside the wire! I'M the FUCKER that you come to when you have an obstacle your punk assess can't get past and lastly IM THE FUCKER WHO YOU DON'T FUCK WITH!!" By now the whole line is staring at me not knowing what to do. I then add a sergeant to that, and by now Jess is dragging me away. She can tell I'm about to rip his head off and shit down his neck. We walk past the guards and they just stare not knowing what to do. We go inside wash our hands and get into line for our food.
"This shit sucks..." she proceeds to tell me why, "I can't believe they can get away with giving us this poison. I mean come on, salt can't even cover this shit up."
I speak through bites of what I thought was beef brisket but turned out to be some kind of fish, "it's not that bad, it's better than the shit they serve at FOB Slayer" I tell her, she stares at me while I eat. I forget I'm not in my old unit where its rush rush when you eat because you never know when you're going to get hit. The thought brings me back to when I was in basic training...
* * * *
"Hey," I hear when I sit in the bus.
"Holy shit! You're here to? What base you going to?" I say to John.
"Ft. Benning!!" he replies.
"Well fuck me sideways, that's where I'm heading to!" We sit there as the bus rolls on bullshittin the whole way talking bout our senior year and how we're not going to miss the town we just left.? We off load the bus and are met right away by drill SGT's yelling at us screaming over haircuts, cloths, you name it. John and I break down into a laughing fit. They don't like this. One marches over to us and say's "well look what we got here! It's Billy and Sue!"
I reply with, "Which one has the skirt?" and John pipes in "who wears the pants?" We are met with a kick to the back of the knees by another drill SGT from behind "PUSH UPS, GO!!!!" He yells at us we start.
??????????????? Week 10 rolls by and it's almost time to go to our first units. We consider ourselves to be high speed now and laugh and make fun of the other soldiers who are not infantry. I receive a letter from my girl friend and she is so excited to see me. I just can't wait till we're together.
Week 13 and its time for our week long field exercises. I'm so excited for this because it's one more week before I see her and go out into the army world. We do our 27 mile tactical road march to our site set camp then go about doing our guard rotations waiting for the drills to attack. After about three days they come out with a roster of all of us that qualified for Ranger school. I was in and I was hooked on the hoo-ha army. I needed more and rangers had what I wanted. John was also on the list. I convinced him he should do it too so we could go to the same unit and he agreed after some time...
* * * *
??????????????? "Jim...Jim, hey come back to earth!" I had zoned out.
"Yes?? Sorry, zoned out there...what's up?"I say.
"You ok? You're shaking," she says with a confused look on her face.
"Just take the pills... Just take the pills and those thoughts will go away" I say to myself. I pull out my bottle and take about half of what's in there.
"Jesus Jim, you're going to kill yourself with what you are doing."?
"I'm fine." I reply. I get up and take my tray to the wash room leaving her at the table.
??????????????? The day drags on, but it's nice though. I'm at a place where I can get onto the computers and have internet, be able to relax, but that's not me not who I am not what I'm trained for. I head back to my room, unlock the door and see my roommate's in there in his computer. He's a nerd that looks like he's never been outside. He hates the Rangers and is pissed he has to room with one. He looks at me like I was one of the guys that stuffed him in lockers during gym class (I'm not). I walk behind my curtain and change back into PT's and head to the gym without saying one word to him, by the time I come back its dark out, and I'm soaked with sweat and can barely stand. I walk back to the room, grab my towel and head to the showers. I make sure this time that I don't look in the mirror...
?
??????????????? "JIM! HEY JIM!!! We need to shift left!!" SFC Smith is yelling to me.
"Roger! Phillmore, Clemens you're with me!" I yell to my two soldiers. We move around an abandoned building, being careful not to step on something that might go boom. We come up next to where the enemy was spotted and I stand out in the open not caring what happens. I see one run from cover, shocked to see me standing there. He raises his rifle to shoot me, but I shake my head at him. I can tell this scares him and he starts to lower his rifle when I squeeze off two shots. "Two to the chest!" I hear my drill sergeant's voice. I say out loud "two in the chest" and I walk back behind cover. We go on that day meeting little resistance but there's still a lot of it.
??????????????? I wake up again. It's 0000. I look to my bottle, and it's empty. I roll over in my bed and try to go back to sleep. I wake up 5 hours later, get up and go through my routine always stopping to say hi to john before heading to shift.
Today sucks. I'm out of pills and these young soldiers are pissin me off. I'm not much older, maybe a year or two, but I've seen more than they can ever dream. I ended up yelling at a couple of them that were grab assin, then I remember when I was like that not too long ago but its true what they say war will change you...war changes everything. I go outside for my smoke break. It helps when I'm out of pills. I open my pocket and retrieve my pack of smokes. I shake the box and its almost empty, just two left. I swear and proceed to light up...."WHAT THAT CANT BE RIGHT" I yell as I look at my wrist GPS "WHAT GID DID HE JUST SAY"? I'm yelling at my LT at this point " YOU DO REALIZE WHERE WERE STANDING RIGHT AND WHAT YOU JUST CALLED ONTO US" I break into a fit of laughter at this point and call on all team channels "All calling stations all calling stations" I pause so I know I have everyone's ear "this is SGT Powlaski danger fire close I say again danger fire close. LT called the Airstrike on our position. Good luck to you all. Find cover...Powlaski Out"
I stare at my LT who is frozen with fear. "Well sir, I'd say let's find some cover." I look around "but were kind of on a mountain top."
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM*
The mountain is engulfed in fire and I watch as people run from spot to spot trying not to get hit. I stand there waiting for it...waiting for my end. I come back to a burning feeling on my fingers. My cigarette just went out in my fingers. "Fuckin piece of fuckin shit!!" I yell out "this has got to stop." I tell myself and walk back inside.
??????????????? I'm asleep. First time ive slept without the dreams, but then it happens. "INCOMING INCOMING" I hear over the speaker system. I hear the booms echo through our room, my roommates freaking out looking for his gear, I grab mine (still in my sleep wear mind you, which consists of nothing) I throw on some shorts and my shoes, and put my battle scared body armor on. Grab my weapon, my ammo and a med kit and head outside. When I get there I'm met by my men who want to know what to do next "Go grab 4 others start clearing the living area, find me 3 to post as guards around the entrance, then get me accountability of all gear" I order to them, they move without hesitation. They may not be rangers but they do know how to act swift and fast. We clear the living area and no one's hurt. We're green. I report up my chain of command. I just go back to sleep. A baby couldn't sleep as well as I did.
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