After discovering that active duty was my destiny I desperately wanted to try and buddy up with my best friend Josh Shotwell who was scheduled to leave for boot camp sometime in early September. Since I was originally going into the reserves and Josh had signed up for active duty our recruiter told us that doing the "buddy program" was not an option. Personally I think he was lying to us to fill a quota but I have no evidence of this.Now that I was going to go active I hoped that our recruiter, Sergeant Flak, could pull a few strings and make it happen for us. The best he could do was a 2 week bump to the first of October instead of the 13th so I took it in hopes that Josh and I might be stationed together or go to the School of Infantry together.
Josh left sometime in early to mid-September as I waited nervously for my departure. Josh had a mullet through high school and his hair was thin, blond and down to his shoulders. I don't remember when and where it happened, but a week after leaving I saw him in Beaver. I thought he came to my house but I am not entirely sure. Anyway, I was confused and I think I said, "What the hell are you doing here?"
His head had been shaved and it was a new, but better look for him in my opinion. As it turned out, the condition of his knee would not allow him to move forward with a career in the Corps so within a week of leaving he was sent home. It was fascinating to hear about all the craziness he had experienced in that week and to some degree it was intimidating but I had committed and I was gung-ho for it.
With Josh home I got to hang out with my best friend again for another two weeks before handing my life over to the government for four years. However, destiny would prove that leaving on October 1st was not in my life's cards. While in the weight room by myself one day in late September I was doing the leg press when something in my head felt like it exploded.
I contribute this moment to the injury I received from Daniel Carter a year earlier when he broke my back in football practice. I think the untreated injury was still plaguing me and would prove to delay my departure. The pain was so excruciating and so instant that I could not control the weight and had it not been for the safety brackets on the machine it would have crushed me.
I whimpered in pain as there was no one else in the facility to assist me. I was 18 years old and stuck on the floor as if someone had crushed my head with a sledge hammer. After withering in pain on the black floor for 15 minutes I managed to make my way to my fathers pickup truck to drive home.
A day later I called my recruiter to let him know what had happened because I was supposed to leave within a few days. He thought that I was making excuses and was going to weasel my way out of leaving. He thought I was having cold feet but I reassured him that it was serious.
He pushed my day for departure back to the original date of 13 October. It was not until a few days prior to this that my concussion healed itself and I was in the shape necessary to commit to the four year contract.
I had hoped that Josh and I would serve together our entire commitment, but now I was all alone and I was about to face the world by being thrown into the fire.
Quote of The Day:
Winston Churchill said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts"
