The Yellow Form

“Form a single filed line” screamed the voice of a Drill Instructor in the basement of the South Carolina Airport. “Don’t let me catch anyone looking at me” he continued with his raspy and frogy voice. All the new recruits, including myself, followed the directions which were being shouted at us. I, in some miraculous way, prepared myself with what was to come next. I felt no stress or extreme anxiety but I do have to admit that I was nervous just a bit. We followed him into a hallway in which our feet were checked under a light. Next we were brought to a large room to fill out our inventory papers. The room was quite big with a soda and a snack machine. It was quite apparent that we were not to use them. Upon our arrival we were furnished with a 16oz. bottle of Aquafina and that was the only food/drink article we would have for a while. Anyway getting back to the room the walls were brick and painted with what one can call motivational phrases such as: ‘Honor, Courage, Commitment’, ‘Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body’, and ‘Semper Fi’ which is short for Semper Fidelis-Always Faithfull.
We were ordered to sit and to follow directions precisely. I took note of a clock on the wall which had the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on its face and stated the time to be 23:52. So it was getting late and we still haven’t arrived to Parris Island. Four types of large index cards were placed in front of us; one green, the other blue, another orange, and the last yellow. Although we were warned not to look around the room or at each other I could not help but let my eyes wander. I was taking note of the various individuals who made the same choice as I. Whether they were forced, talked, tricked into it, made the decision because they wanted to, or made the choice because they had nowhere else to go did not matter. Now we were all in the same boat. As I continued to ignore the warning that was issued and glanced around, my eyes terminated their scenic route and focused their attention to this individual who was sitting directly across from me, keeping in mind that we were not able to talk we resorted to reading our facial expressions. This certain recruit or shitbag (as we now were formally called) had tears falling down his cheeks. As they went they painted a river delta across his face. He needed to talk so he started to mouth ‘God why are we here? This is horrible’. Yes, it sure is but all I had in my mind was that this is the breaking in phase and it needs to be endured. Anyway as the directions kept on being shouted peoples baggage’s were getting emptied, kicked, tossed around the room, and thrown out. I never personally understood why someone would decide to bring anything at all; we weren’t head for the Ritz-Carlton.
Once the inventory card was being filled, specific numbers were being shouted. Everything was being accounted for: the number of uniforms, M16’s, and yes even the number of socks. The Drill Instructors were pacing around profusely making sure we were filling everything out properly. Of course this kid next to me had to make an error. This under such a diligence did not go unnoticed. As soon as the Drill Instructor took note he came between me and the kid. His perfectly rounded campaign hat touched both him and me. He grabbed the kid by the shirt and in the quietest whisper said “you motherfucking piece of shit who the fuck told you to write four instead of two? Who the fuck do you think you are? You want to die little fucker? This is how and why people get killed, because they don’t follow directions.”
At this point it is safe to say that my heart dropped down into my pants. Now all my bullshit about the breaking phase just left the room and my heart rate increased by quite a bit. And it only continued to increase as I was awaiting my own execution, for I made the same mistake on my yellow form.