The same alarm the woke Emily up earlier woke her up again that morning. “You have ten minutes to get showered dressed and ready for inspection. Anyone who is late will automatically fail inspection and go to I.T.”
Emily got up and looked at her uniform that she was going to wear to inspection. It was soaked and wrinkled. Her only pair of boots were scuffed and wet. She didn't have time to re-shine her boots nor did she have to iron a new uniform. Cursing she went to the bathroom and did her business. She put on her best uniform and tried to buff out the scuffs on her boots. She came to realize that it was a lost cause after a few seconds.
“Come on were going to be late.” One of her Platoon mates said grabbing her arm and pulling her out the door. It was only after Emily’s platoon had formed up in three lines did she wonder what I.T. was.
The platoon marched out to the main grinder and formed up with the rest of the company. The Marine First Sergeant was waiting with five other soldiers. The Marine First Sergeant was brutal in his inspection. He knocked Emily's hat off because her hair was touching her collar. He yanked her shirt out of her pants because her inspection line, the line from her shirt to her belt then to her zipper, was not straight. Her boots were scuffed. Her shoelaces were uneven. He eventually ran out of steam and move on to the next person. Unfortunately, he was not the only one to inspect her. Her next inspector was a female Major. She didn't say anything but she put her hands on Emily's shoulders and gave her a once over. After a few seconds, she took her hands from Emily's shoulders.
The Major turned to her left where Sergeant Coleman was standing with a clipboard and said “Fail. I.T one night.” All but two people in Emily's platoon failed inspection and got instructional training (I.T.). No one said anything about the person who drowned the night before. That bothered Emily.
After inspection Sergeant Coleman promoted some guy she called OCD Boy to be Platoon leader because, according to her, he was the only one she would have pass in the inspection. The platoon then moved out to the chow hall to eat. OCD Boy lined the platoon up after they finished breakfast with Petty Officer St. Lewis and he started the platoon on a morning run that lasted to mid-morning at the obstacle course. Emily found the obstacle course to be more complex than the one in Basic and a lot longer. Emily found the course fun until she came to the wall. The wall in boot camp was eight feet tall. The wall in Super School was about fifteen feet tall. She had to scale the wall using a rope. There was a monitor waiting by the wall. Each recruit was given two tries at the wall. After the second failure, the monitor shot the person who fails to scale the wall and told them to go around. Emily got shot when it became obvious that she wasn't going to be able to climb the wall. She ended up hanging on to the rope until the monitor shot her.
At the end of the obstacle course was what looked like a firing range with barbwire in front of it. Petty Officer St. Lewis had them sit down in front of the barbwire. The Native American looking First Sergeant walked out from the machine guns to stand in front of the platoon.
“The Army and Marines used to use live fire exercises where the recruit would crawl under barbed wire while the instructors fired their weapons above them. They did this for several reasons. First, it exposed the recruits what a real firefight sound and felt like. The second reason was that the exercise was to get the recruit to see that while his or her life was in mortal danger they still could do their jobs. The Army and Marines eventually stop this practice because of the very real danger of recruits getting shot. Some recruits would panic and stand up. Sometimes a bullet would ricochet or there would be a malfunction with the gun itself and the recruit would get shot. Lastly the actual cost of all the bullets that were used in the exercise.” The Army First Sergeant said standing with his hands behind his back.
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“The Army and Marines found cheaper and safer ways to get the same results and discontinued the exercise. We are the last place in the U.S. Armed Forces that still use this exercise. You people will get on your bellies and crawl under the barbwire. If you want to keep all your body parts you need to keep them below the barbwire and they won't get shot off by my gunners. If you feel suicidal please say something now so when my gunners shoot you they won't feel guilty.” The First Sergeant paused for a few seconds like he was really waiting on someone to say something.
“Sergeant whenever you're ready the range is now hot.” The Army First Sergeant said turning and walking back to the gunners.
“Line up in rows of five. No one passes the white line unless I tell you and then you immediately drop to your bellies and crawl to the barbwire. You will stay in your lane and on your bellies until you pass the white line on the other side of the range.” The sergeant told the platoon.
“Should we have helmets and body armor. At least some hearing protecting?” Emily thought to herself nervously as she lined up behind the white line. “Being short sucks. Always being first really really sucks.”
“First row, go!” Sergeant St Lewis called out. Emily dropped to her belly and started to crawl to where the barbwire started. The ground was covered in sand and she was quickly covered in it. The moment she ducked under the barbwire the guns started firing.
Emily flinched a little as the guns started to roar overhead but kept crawling. It felt like someone was lightly stabbing her eardrums and at the same time thumping her chest. She wasn't a stranger to gunfire since she had to qualify with the M-16 and .45 Glock pistol in Basic but there she had hearing protection. She never realized just how loud gunfire really was.
By the time she got to the end of the range and passed the white line her ears were ringing. She quickly got to her feet when she saw a monitor hovering nearby. She was not getting shot again today. Sergeant Coleman was on this side of the range and had the line up away from the range. After the last recruit was done the platoon went to the chow hall.
After a hurried meal, the platoon was sent out again running this time back to the Pond and Mustache First Sergeant who lobbed hand grenades. This time he didn't wait to toss the grenades into the pond. As soon as the first person hit the pond he called out, fire in the hole and tossed the grenade into the pond. Emily got out of the pond with two seconds to spare. Once everyone was done with the pond they ran for a little bit more then headed to the main grinder where they met up with the rest of the company. The Air Force lady was waiting on them and immediately dropped them. The whole company spent the next several hours doing exercises.
From the main grinder they went to the chow hall to eat dinner then it was back out to watch the sunset while running along a new path that was made out of sand that was so deep that it felt to Emily that she was running in syrup. They ran for a long time after the sun had set then they headed back to the barracks.
Once at the barracks the people who had I.T. had to line up again and march out to the main grinder where they met the Marine First Sergeant. If Emily thought the Air Force lady was hard when it came to exercise the Marine was truly evil. Emily did flutter kicks for so long that her muscles in her stomach were just one big knot. Even though it felt like forever I.T. wasn't really all that long it just felt like it was.
Once they were dismissed they marched back to the barracks. Emily spent an extra ten minutes making sure her uniform was inspection ready and her boot had no scuffs marks. According to the clock in the barracks, she climbed into bed at ten minutes to midnight. Emily's last thought as she drifted off to sleep was “This isn't so bad. It's like Basic but on steroids. The Grenade in the pond is a bit much but as long as I don't screw up I have plenty of time to get out before it goes off.” Then she remembered the dead guy and shuttered.