Ceremony

So it was the first morning at boot camp.  Lights come on, the drill sergeants bust through the door, metal trashcan lids in hand, banging them together.  But that's not the worst part, I woke up as sick as I'd ever been in my life.  I fight through it and try to keep going, you don't want to look like a weakling here. While I was sick I had to march for miles, carry people on my back, and take basic medical training.  Around day 4 or 5 I couldn't take it anymore.  So at 5:00 a.m. one morning, while my platoon marched off to PT, I was headed to sick call. Now I was sick but that's not how people seen it, everyone of coarse thought I was just trying to get out of training, even the nurse rolled her eyes and left the room when I told her that I was sick.  She sent me back with some Tylenol.  It didn't help much, but later that day, one of the nicer drill sergeants noticed and sent me to the infirmary, the doctor there took my temperature which turned out to be 103. I stayed there for a week. Once I was better I returned to continue training with my platoon. 

There was this one private who slept in the bunk next to me,his name was Zimmerman and he was a total ******* the whole stay at boot camp.  When he showed up he was very fat, and since he had turned that fat into muscle, he thought he could say or do anything to anyone. A few weeks after I had gotten back from  the infirmary, he got the sniffles and his nose was running a little, nothing to serious.  He was driven to the firing range to qualify with his rifle, while the rest of us had to march.  He shot his rifle a few times, qualified, then they drove him to the infirmary. He of coarse came back a few days later, and when he did, the drill sergeants called all 240 of us down stairs into formation.  

The first thing they did was give this big speech about him, about how he tuffed it out and how he was a real soldier, they gave him an award and had this whole little ceremony.   I was thinking very hard about doing an about face, (turning around) and walking away, and just getting punished by the drill sergeants. But I didn't, I let them finish their little parade and I went on about my business.  The whole thing made me very upset, and frustrated me even more.  This ******* was now supposed to be a role model for me and everyone else.  After I had had it 10 times worse than him, and when I did all of that training sick. I was called a liar, lazy, unfit to serve..... and he got all of this recognition for shooting his rifle.  This is the first time I realized that the army was going to be a bunch of unfair bull ****, and this was the first time I wanted out.