Day 78: 5 Minute Freewrite - Prompt: pen - My Entry
The guidon skittered down the center of the squad bay as a gaggle of bald recruits in their tighty whities dove after it. The Staff Sergeant had thrown it in disgust as a way to express his displeasure with the platoon. That flag represented everything to us and we instinctively rallied to it’s defense. We may not have been Marines yet but the guidon represented all of our collective hopes.
All of us had come to Parris Island to make something of our lives and the dragons we would have to slay would scare even old St. George. Today we faced the most vicious creature to ever live, the Marine Corps Drill Instructor. Things could never be good enough to please him but today he seemed to have snapped. He made us clean the floor with the Senior Drill Instructors dress uniform.
Later that evening he would be escorted out by MPs because he had beat on a recruit. A month later I saw him on desk duty at the rifle range. He gave me a smile and a handshake I’ll never forget as he said “The pen really is mightier than the sword, huh?”
If you asked me his only crime had been to care too much about his job.
Check out @mariannewest for some quality content;
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-78-5-minute-freewrite-prompt-pen
Title image is my original work
(you hear an engine rev and horn honk)
MEEP! MEEP!
(the window on the humvee rolls down to reveal a warm smiling face)
"Hello! I'm @shadow3scalpel and with the help of my protege, @chairborne, we are actively assisting veterans, retirees and active servicemen and women here on Steemit. We feel it is our 'duty' to support each other. Any questions or comments you may have, simply respond to this comment, thank you!"
(the window rolls up and the engine roars as it drives to the next person on the list)
Comment by @killerwhale. This is a opt-in bot.
WoW! is this a true story? scary........while I sit in my warm home........ but if it is Thank You for your service!!! My Great Aunt was in the first Amy MASH Unit D-Day 3..........
*Sorry I'm out of VP but really wanted to come read everyone's #freewrites.
Yes, true and thanks for the comment. This was just one of many boot camp stories. Any former Marine could tell you similar things that would blow your mind.
I enjoyed a lot the metaphor with dragons and St. Jeorge :-)
Today I wore on my face a @mariannewest mask and - trying to reproduce her charming voice - I'm happy to proclaim that on this weekend you have the following options!
You have the choice of a single prompt: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-1-6-2018-single-prompt-option
Or you can get adventurous and weave three 5minute freewrites into one story starting with this prompt: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-1-6-2018-part-1-the-first-sentence
Glad you liked it, thanks for reading!
The military has a lot of odd contradictions, conundrums, and catch-22s. If you are going to have a successful career you have to know the rules backward and forward and live within them, or break them only in extreme circumstances and with all due caution. I was able to defend myself on several occasions by being able to prove that I had followed the military rules to the letter, while my antagonist had skipped over something or exceeded their authority. Nice freewrite that brought back a few memories, not from the Marines, but from military life. 👍
Your comment brings back memories for me. I had several instances as well where charge sheets were written on me and eventually thrown in the trash as the person who filed them realized they were in the wrong. The nature of my job often put me at odds with higher ups.
I don't write often about my military experience but when I do I want it to convey the reality of it, not just a whitewashed version. In this case it's a true story.
I have a few good stories from my nine years in the U.S. Navy, but if I tell them I am going to try and be careful not to hurt anyone or divulge information that might damage someone's character. But like you, I want to be truthful about military life and I'm not afraid to say that the military and certain members of the military in key positions are prone to lie, leave out key important facts, or manipulate a situation for personal gain. Anytime you put a faulty human in charge of other humans, they will make mistakes, they will sometimes allow prejudices and bias affect their decisions, and they will show favoritism. Personally, I have never met a person in real life who did not have faults and character flaws, that is one of the big reasons for so many strict rules in the military and few major decisions about a service members life or career are left to just one person.
The bottom line for potential enlistees is that when a person joins the military they are no longer their own person, their body belongs to the military and that military can do whatever they want to with it as long as it is within the rules that have been established. Once you are no longer of any value to the Government or the military then they would rather you went away and never be heard from again. The slogan "We take care of our own" is a huge lie, especially after your usefulness has ended. That part changes a little if you stay in until retirement, it seems to me that if you retire with honors they tend to have a lot more respect for you.
That is just from my experiences and personal observations, I'm sure that there are others that have a more cheery viewpoint and experience. Even after saying these things I'm certainly not telling people not to serve in the military, I do not regret my own military experience and I have benefited from those experiences and from the training that I received. I just want those considering military life to understand what it means, it is big sacrifices and it is hard at times. In military service, you will have difficulties that mirror the outside world but there are a far different set of rules that govern the ways those difficulties can be handled. The first of which is that if you don't like your job you can't just quit and find another one. So sometimes you have to tuff it out doing something that you don't like to do or following orders from someone that you don't respect and might even hate. It is just the way that it is and you have to get used to it.
HA! :D sorry to butt in but :D I was right :D good thing your Sim is who he is LOLLL
I edited the ending to clarify my position on military service.
Solid #freewrite @btcnoodle! Thanks for sharing and keep posting!
I'm starting to fall in love with the concept of doing a daily #freewrite. Check out my latest #freewrite: (Day 78 - Pen) and let me know what you think =)
Commented on your post. Thanks for checking out my entry today :-)
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