too and we got dropped for push-ups a lot and I mean A LOT a lot like at every formation practically mostly because I couldn’t keep up so I didn’t make too many friends in my squad or my platoon OR my company.
Torris Stone was the only one who had any sympathy for me. He helped me practice those other eight rifle moves in our room. We used half of a broom handle that we weighted down with a metal rod and a bunch of duct tape. Eventually I caught up with my platoon thanks to Torris but I did enough push-ups at that place to last a lifetime.
Mom wrote me like four letters the first month I was there and I would write her back saying how good things were but I mostly lied and I think deep down she probably knew that. I stopped writing her back after like two letters and I think she started to panic because I got a pretty mean letter from the Major which sort of freaked me out.
In addition to me being a fuckup at drill I wasn’t so great at knowing all the traditions like for instance this saying that was carved into the side of a World War II tank that was parked at the end of the Old Boy Memorial Guard Path. The saying was “By perseverance study and eternal desire any man can become great” and you were supposed to have it memorized by the end of your first formation. It’s from General George S. Patton Junior and we had to know basically everything about that guy’s life like all the battles he fought and what armies he commanded and this famous prayer he invented called “General George S. Patton Junior’s Prayer” which goes “Almighty and most merciful Father we humbly beseech Thee of Thy great goodness to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that armed with Thy power we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
I can say the prayer forwards and backwards no shit P and that part about the immoderate rains makes me grind my teeth because at Buckner whenever an Old Boy or a faculty member or one of the retired TAC officers would quiz me on it I would say IMMEDIATE rains instead of IMMODERATE rains and I’d have to drop and do push-ups.
At Buckner there was this Pakistani kid Abdus who they called Bin Laden even though he was fat and could barely do ten push-ups and he was mad short too like five feet two even shorter than me and the real Osama Bin Laden is supposedly like seven feet tall and has anorexia.
Abdus had an English accent he was from this part of London called Shepherds Bush and at the end of the first quarter he was awarded the Head Star for posting the highest grade point average in the corps of cadets which is pretty impressive for a New Boy considering all the pressure you’re under those first few months. But the Old Boys from Delta Company were jealous and one night they broke three of his ribs when he was sleeping. What they did was they put one of his cricket balls in a pillowcase and beat him. They never got busted either because Abdus’s roommate who was this Internet porn addict from Baltimore named Kenny Kandinski claimed that he slept through the whole thing. When I left Buckner Abdus was still there walking around in a flak jacket and sort of muttering Muslim prayers to himself.
P I fucking hated that place with all the old stone buildings and these portraits of the ex academy presidents staring back at you when you walked through the rotunda in the HQ. Torris was about the only nice person there. I hope he’s doing okay. The faculty was always trying to get in his head because he’s stronger than everybody but he wouldn’t try out for the football team. They would say “Why don’t you USE those muscles Cadet Stone?” and he would smile and go “Sir I DO sir. I do all them PUSH-UPS every day.”
You know Buckner is in Missouri right? Man talk about
Torris Stone was the only one who had any sympathy for me. He helped me practice those other eight rifle moves in our room. We used half of a broom handle that we weighted down with a metal rod and a bunch of duct tape. Eventually I caught up with my platoon thanks to Torris but I did enough push-ups at that place to last a lifetime.
Mom wrote me like four letters the first month I was there and I would write her back saying how good things were but I mostly lied and I think deep down she probably knew that. I stopped writing her back after like two letters and I think she started to panic because I got a pretty mean letter from the Major which sort of freaked me out.
In addition to me being a fuckup at drill I wasn’t so great at knowing all the traditions like for instance this saying that was carved into the side of a World War II tank that was parked at the end of the Old Boy Memorial Guard Path. The saying was “By perseverance study and eternal desire any man can become great” and you were supposed to have it memorized by the end of your first formation. It’s from General George S. Patton Junior and we had to know basically everything about that guy’s life like all the battles he fought and what armies he commanded and this famous prayer he invented called “General George S. Patton Junior’s Prayer” which goes “Almighty and most merciful Father we humbly beseech Thee of Thy great goodness to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that armed with Thy power we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
I can say the prayer forwards and backwards no shit P and that part about the immoderate rains makes me grind my teeth because at Buckner whenever an Old Boy or a faculty member or one of the retired TAC officers would quiz me on it I would say IMMEDIATE rains instead of IMMODERATE rains and I’d have to drop and do push-ups.
At Buckner there was this Pakistani kid Abdus who they called Bin Laden even though he was fat and could barely do ten push-ups and he was mad short too like five feet two even shorter than me and the real Osama Bin Laden is supposedly like seven feet tall and has anorexia.
Abdus had an English accent he was from this part of London called Shepherds Bush and at the end of the first quarter he was awarded the Head Star for posting the highest grade point average in the corps of cadets which is pretty impressive for a New Boy considering all the pressure you’re under those first few months. But the Old Boys from Delta Company were jealous and one night they broke three of his ribs when he was sleeping. What they did was they put one of his cricket balls in a pillowcase and beat him. They never got busted either because Abdus’s roommate who was this Internet porn addict from Baltimore named Kenny Kandinski claimed that he slept through the whole thing. When I left Buckner Abdus was still there walking around in a flak jacket and sort of muttering Muslim prayers to himself.
P I fucking hated that place with all the old stone buildings and these portraits of the ex academy presidents staring back at you when you walked through the rotunda in the HQ. Torris was about the only nice person there. I hope he’s doing okay. The faculty was always trying to get in his head because he’s stronger than everybody but he wouldn’t try out for the football team. They would say “Why don’t you USE those muscles Cadet Stone?” and he would smile and go “Sir I DO sir. I do all them PUSH-UPS every day.”
You know Buckner is in Missouri right? Man talk about
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