I joined the Marines right out of high school and everything was great in boot, until my repelling rig let go and I fell almost the entire height of the repelling wall and destoyed my back (compressions and fractures half way from my pelvis to my neck along with a huge fracture in my pelvis and more smaller ones in my legs).
I sat in MRP for a few weeks until they decided that the fractures were taking too long. I was told I could try again when I healed, but found that the RE code they gave me wouldn't allow it. I was never so depressed.
I did, however, wind up in Kuwait in '90-'91 as a civilian contractor and saw more than I wanted to. After seeing how recruits were treated in boot and then witnessing that? I don't feel that today's PCBS military is sufficiently preparing recruits for what they are about to experience.
If I could do it all over again, I would have triple checked my harness (rope, not an actual climbing rig) and then checked it again. Just thinking about it makes me upset as I really wanted to serve my country. I think this is the first time I told anyone this in over 10 years. Considering how I feel about what happened, I prolly never will again.
I don't condemn those that go into the military just for 3 hots and a cot or those that choose not to. That's what this country is built on, the right to choose. But make sure that you provide the respect to those, regardless of race, color, creed or religion, that deserve it.
Here's to you, Capt. Earle, wherever you are.
(sorry for the mush)