Friday, September 4, 2015

#127 Boot- Reginald McKnight


#127 Boot- Reginald McKnight

An old Marine Corps. Private is telling the story of his boot camp.

“You fear the [drill instructor]; you fear looking like a puss in front of the other boots; you fear shaming your family. You fear going to jail. It’s that fear that keeps seventy-five recruits with loaded m-16s from shooting their drill instructors to fucking rags.”

He was his squad’s best marksman. He was told by his Drill Instructor to take the marksmen tests for other recruits so that his squad’s marks would be high enough to get the DI a promotion. When found out, he was caught between being loyal to his DI or loyal to the Corps. He failed both and his future was shot.

I feel like I’ve read this story before, probably several times, seen the TV show and the movie. It’s hard to make marine stories new. This year I read Redeployment, Phil Klay’s collection of short stories about the Marines. Almost everything would pale next to those.





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