My father was in 3rd Platoon, N Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry, at the Paris Island Boot Camp for the Marines.
On rare occasion I could expect a story from his time in the Marines and when he did I most always ended up laughing.
So, here is a little gem that he has passed on to me that I would like to share with you.
One of the routines of a Marine is to stand at attention. To stand at attention requires patience and discipline, for you are not allowed to move--AT ALL. Imagine the guards at the Queens palace in England attempting to mimic a stone statue while accosted by tourists failing to get them to smile or move, now add muscle and grit and the threat of death and you have a Marine standing at attention.
One of the places that they had to stand at attention was at the supper line. It was particularly difficult to manage because of the constant cloud of gnats that would swarm around them. The rule was that you could not swat at these gnats no matter how many times they bit you. My dad describes it this way, “The gnats were terrible bad. They would aggravate the fool out of ya!”
On one particular evening, while they were standing in line for supper at the mess hall, one of the Marines either forgot himself or just couldn’t hack one more bite and he slapped at the gnat. Now their Drill Sergeant, SGT. Neyeto (not sure if the spelling is correct) carried a hickory stick and was VERY excitable--as I understand, most drill sergeants are.
Another well known rule that the Marine’s have is that if one person messes up EVERYONE pays!
What happened next went something like this:
“You MAGGOT! You KILLED one of MY GNATS!!!”
Sgt. Neyeto jumped up and down like a frog in a skillet, hitting every inanimate object in sight with his hickory stick and cursing obscenities that would make a sailor's face as red as a lobster.
“You MAGGOTS aren’t getting supper tonight! You’re going to bury that gnat and give it a proper funeral!”
He wasn’t kidding. In the middle of a hot, humid summer night his platoon could be seen placing the gnat in its matchbox casket and digging a 6x6 burial hole. They then placed the gnat’s casket into the hole and refilled it. Several hours later while the rest of the base was sleeping in their beds these Marines gave a full 21 gun salute! I can only imagine what speculations arose when boom after loud boom blasted the silence of the night 21 times, no doubt jolting people from their peaceful beds.
Now, some people may have thought this an overreaction, but I believe that this Sergeant was trying to save the lives of his platoon. He was doing his job to teach these 18 to mid 20 year olds the basics of survival the best way he knew how. He was grinding into their core, self-control and a team survival mentality.
What if they had been in the center of the most humid and insect ridden part of the world and were surrounded by the enemy just waiting for a clue as to where they were hiding? All it would take is just one person to forget himself and slap a gnat or mosquito out of habit and he would have effectively given his team's position away and most likely killed his entire platoon.
Sometimes lessons in life are hard. Let’s hope we have someone who cares enough to put us through the hard stuff before it really counts in a real situation.
Fortunately, in our daily lives most of us do not have something so dire to concern ourselves with. However, this does not mean that the actions we take are not as important. Doing one wrong, sloppy or lazy thing may not make a huge impact on the big picture, but if you’ve done it once it is so much easier to do it again. Before you know it you’ve created a pattern and then a habit, until it no longer is even a consideration, it is just part of who you’ve become. It is tremendously more difficult to break a habitual pattern than it is to head it off before it begins. You create who you are with each step, action and thought you make. So, why not choose to make it the best?
I sincerely hope that each day you make a conscious choice in who you are. If you aren’t happy with who you see in the mirror or who you hear when you speak, then start right now to mold yourself into someone you respect.
Do not allow the expectations of others to discourage you. Forgive them because you have taught them that they can expect certain undesireable aspects from you. Remember only YOU can change who you are and you are not becoming your true self for them- you are doing it for you.
Please comment and let me know as you progress to becoming your highest and best self. I am so interested to know your struggles and successes.
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