Chapter 14 - The Realization Sets In

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story
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Chapter 14 - The Realization Sinks In
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It was certain that the breaking of the recruits the day before had left an impression on them. Since all of the men in the ranks appeared in formation wearing high and tights (in other words their hair was gone) dress fatigue bottoms and OD green t-shirts the next morning, standing at parade rest. Master Guns Stacker was standing in front in the squad leader's position and Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was standing beside him, one pace to the rear. Normally in a USMC drill instructor's (or in USMC parlance: D.I.'s) cadre there would be two staff sergeants and the head DI was a gunnery sergeant. However in this case there was only one head drill instructor and a secondary drill instructor.

And due to the lack of military experience, the only person available to be the head drill instructor for the women's platoon was Staff Sergeant Erin Kennedy, who with her military experience in the Air Force, was the only one who was allowed under regulations to teach drill to the female recruits. At least until someone from the ranks stepped up to take the rank of Sergeant and was able to assist her.

It appeared as though Master Guns had verbally cowed both platoons with his razor-sharp admonishments and all of them had their rear-ends squared away because there wasn't a crack of a smile or a smirk amongst the lot of them. And even to Vice-Admiral Nakamura, MGSGT Stacker was an intimidating presence. If the scowl on his rugged face didn't make one think twice about opening their mouth, his ribbon rack would. In fact out of all the officers and enlisted, Stacker's been there-done that-got-recognized-for-it outnumbered all of them. Outside of the two MOHs in the room, Stacker was the most highly decorated one in the room in sheer number of awards and decorations.

When the formalities of morning formation were done, Master Guns Stacker looked over at his assembled platoon. "Ladies, you and I are going to have some fun times. I expect you to work hard to become Marines: to learn from my guidance and my experiences. I've served twenty six years in the Corps, at least five of them in combat and thanks to this conflict, I will probably live to die of old age in this uniform because the Red and Gold isn't going to let me retire after this one. I've seen my buddies leave bits and pieces of themselves all over Croatia, Iraq and Afghanistan because they made a mistake that cost them their lives; they were inattentive and an IED got them or somebody decided to take a shot at them and took their head clean off. So you'd better listen and you'd better listen good. When I say something, the only thing that should pass through your lips is How high? Master Guns. You will refer to me as Master Guns; you will refer to Gibbs here as Gunnery Sergeant or Gunny. I will not answer to sir. Why? Because I bloody well work for a living! I'm not an ossifer."

He deliberately timed that mispronunciation of officer - and if one looked at the dictionary, one could see that the drill instructor cadre sometimes thought of those who wore rank pins instead of rank stripes as bone-heads.

"Gunny Gibbs and I will be working with you daily. And there will be classroom work as well because you need to learn the manual for your sidearms and your rifle. You will get to the point where you can field-strip your weapon and reassemble it in less than one minute and thirty seconds. If you don't maybe some bad guy will try to blow your head off so you need to get to know your way around your rifle.

The Marine Corps had a motto, the few, the proud...so you'd best get to work. We have a long and storied history and every Marine respects that history...you serve with pride and dedication; Semper Fi, Always Faithful. You have to be dedicated to your fellow Marine because when the you-know-what hits the fan, your buddies are all you got. The Marine Corps First Operating Principle is "Leave No One Behind, No Matter the Cost, human or otherwise, of Bringing Them Out"; the second is "Don't Quit." You may be outnumbered on the battlefield, surrounded on all sides, but keep one thing in mind. Marines don't quit; you fight with your weapon, you run out of five point five six, you switch to your Kabar, if your Kabar gets stuck in your enemy's rib and you can't pull it back out, you switch to hand to hand, but you don't quit. You keep fighting. As far as the Kabar is concerned, you can go collect it after you've finished your job of eliminating the enemy."

Once formation was over, the troops were dismissed and were sent upstairs for chow. Since there really was no organization yet, they all sat where-ever. It was essentially their last reprieve before the full training began. Chow during training was basically a breather between stints of having the drill instructors bellowing in your ear.

Yup...Basic training was not going to be easy for those new recruits. And poor Pride was definitely feeling the agony in his legs from running eighteen laps around the drill field. Because of the radiation in the surrounding area, it still wasn't wise to go out doors or up to the hangar to do the running up there.

But that was to be par for the course for the next six weeks.