Please remember when you read what I write, I never went through Army basic.  I was a former US Navy, so showed up at my first army post with no uniform.  It freaked the low level E4 – E5s out, they were demanding I change into a uniform I did not have.  

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Hi Ten Bears.  I reblog this not only because it is impressive and the fact is a lot of it I couldn’t do at 20 and in the US Army.   Just being honest.  My job valued our technical skills not the physical aspect of military life.  In the one live action three day drill with laser tag gear in the early 1980s where our people in our satellite compound were included we happily dressed up in face paint (mixed with face cream for easy removal) listened carefully, and that morning took up our assigned places.  We quickly grew bored but diligently shot at any enemy we saw.  We were proud defenders of our installation from the evil USSR.

Early in the afternoon our upper ranks pulled us in.  Told us to clean up and there would be a meeting in the morning.   Excited about the meeting we all gather in the morning looking for our gear, our faces and hands again well coated with face cream colored camo.  We did not find our laser tag stuff, no vests, nothing to place on our M16s.  Then the meeting started and we all felt shitty.   We no longer would be part of the drill.   The infantry base that was assigned to protect us would do so without our help.  A lot of barely out of our teens boys clamored to know why, we had fun even if it was very boring.  

Turns out that the reason they pulled us in the afternoon before was in our eagerness to protect our site and play soldier … which we all knew we were not.  To be continued …

(side note during one of the yearly common task training we all had to pass one thing was to recognize which tank was from which enemy.  I couldn’t do a single one.  My answer was always the same.  “I don’t know which country it is from but I am sure as hell not going to shoot at it with an M16 and piss the fucker off”  I passed the test with 100%.  Also during that testing was a requirement to open and correctly orient, sight the target, and then press the correct buttons to then fire a LAWS rocket. 

When it was my turn I proudly took my 117 pounds up to the table, took the law dummy, stepped up to the mark and tried to pull it open which would slide the two halves into the fully opened locked position.    I struggled for a few times until the training officer stopped me, took the training tool, turned it around to the proper direction showing me the markings.   Ok I felt a bit foolish but determined now to ace the test.  I yanked on both sides and nothing happened.  I did it again.  Then I tried doing it by jumping up in the air to use the momentum to help.  It did not.  After about three minutes and in frustration I put the thing between my legs to try to pull it open. At that point Sergeant Emory rushed to me and took the training tool, opened it up and positioned it on my shoulder.  I sighted it like a pro and pressed the correct buttons plus trigger and registered a direct hit with the system.  I passed.  I was an Army soldier on the books.   

One last note on that training.   The old timers in the unit told us many tips like the face cream for the face paint, but the never addressed the placement of stuff on our waist belts.  The shoulder belts did have special places for things, but the waist belt was not defined.  I was so small that by the time I got everything I was to have on the belt, I had no place for the canteen … So I placed my full of water very regulation hard canteen right in front of my body.  Yes follow the body line.   

The drill required us to run and zigzag then when ordered drop and cover ourselves.  I proudly started my run, hell one thing I had going for me was I was fast, I zigged, I zagged, and then the command was bellowed to drop and cover.   Very much into the moment of playing army … Remember I never went through Army Basic Training … I dropped full on my belly … and nearly lost my mind and consciousness.   Only the fact of my abusive past allowed me to roll desperately sideways, clawing desperately at a place some lower than my waist. For those that still can not picture what happened let me explain. 

My canteen was hanging directly down in my front.  Think of what is in the front of a boy / guy that landing on a hard object at a full run dive might be the resulting impact point. Yes my very sensitive testicles took the impact of my full 117 body weight fully on my regulation hard canteen.   I couldn’t breathe, I rolled, I staggered to my knees, then fell again, then I struggled to me feet, staggered a few steps and collapsed into a fetal tight posture.  I lost the world.   

When I woke up I was in the hospital, I was told that Sergeant Emory had rushed to me and tried to open my posture and then realized what happened.  I did not suffer any lasting effects except for some reason I never had to do common task testing again while in the unit.  Every time they came up someone was needed to be at the site and somehow the schedule always had me pulling shift leader.   But I always passed.)  

Now to the reason we were pulled from and stopped from being part of the three day drill.  As I said we took defensive positions inside our fenced in satellite site and even when bored we shot any enemy we could see.  The problem was the first day the program did not introduce the enemy yet.  The people we proudly lined up on with our tag system M16s were our very own defenders from the nearby infantry base.  

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So that is why I admire Ten Bears and his program of personal health, exercise, and being ready for those that might attack him.  My body long ago gave out with decaying bones, nerves fraying and shorting / dying, my spine doing 5 different ways of causing me pain and the lack of ability to keep standing when my legs go out under me suddenly, the broken bones of childhood refused to heal properly.  I admit I admire him, I wish I could do the same.   And on that point, one more last thing for a long post.  

In the last year I went from not being able to walk 8 car lengths and back to and from our mailbox to now my daily walk I do most days is 2.08 miles.   I bought a small hand weight system, the max is 11 pounds on one hand bar and there are two bars.  The weights come in 1 pound units and can be placed together with the handle being 3 pounds.  I started out using two 1 pound weights hooked together for arm and what my different shoulders can do with the torn / ripped apart muscles in my shoulders.  I am now up to using the 3 pound handle for arm stuff, including triceps.  I still can not use that weight on my shoulders and can not use any weight on my left shoulder that I need / have an MRI order for.   

The entire point is I agree with Ten Bears.   Things are going to get bad.  We who are not on the maga side need to do all we can to protect ourselves.   Those of us LGBTQ+ need to do all we can to protect ourselves and each other.  Look the person that did that bombing was a native born Army vet, yet the right wing media including fox entertainment is still claiming it was an immigrant.  They have long blamed the LGBT+ for all social ills, and the last three years attacked every drag queen story hours claiming they were saving kids.   What will they do or manufacture now?    Hugs