A few weeks into training Hernandez came to me and said that he needed to send some to the special infiltration course and I was it. He told me this training would be good for me. That I would need it if I made it to Vietnam. This could save my life. So off I went to the other side of the base. When I arrived there were quite a few others. This new drill team seemed meaner the looked meaner. They yelled louder if that was possible. I was given a helmet and a dummy rifle made of heavy wood. This training consisted of a course with barbed wire and ditches filled with water and saw dust. We had to climb under the wire without hitting it. Sometimes we were on our stomachs, and sometimes on our backs. The drill team walked along the course with us cussing and yelling and on several occasions put there boot on my head and pushed me under the water. All the while yelling “move faster”. After the course we were sent to this room we lined in a circle and were closed in there by ourselves. Suddenly, gas! It was tear gas. I remembered the smell from a protest that I was at back home at the park. We were all panicking and screaming to be let out. We were crying and choking. It seemed like we were left in there for a long time, it wasn’t but it felt like it. When the door opened we ran.
Outside the drill team was waiting for us. Yelling for us to make a formation. We did. The next thing we did was a lot of P.T., thats physical training. A lot of it. We got a water break, enough to just wet the inside of your mouth. Then before I knew it we were filling two buckets with sand and lifting them out to our sides parallel to the ground. Crap they weighed a ton. More harassment followed as our arms started to give way. We were at this for quite a while. One man passed out, and I wanted to.
After what seemed like eternity we went on to some more hand to hand combat. This training was really intense. Little by little, one after another men were becoming defiant. Those few were sent back to there platoons and were told that they would have to go to motivational training. I didn’t like the sound of that so I dealt with the crap that they were dishing out.
Finally the day was almost to and end and we were told to return to our platoons. As I walked back toward the quonset huts on the other side of the base the sun was setting it was a big orange ball in the sky not so bright that you could not look at with a glimpse. You could almost see it falling toward the horizon. I was walking past the main offices when I saw several Marines approaching the flag poll. Suddenly I heard one of the Marines start to blow on a bugle, everyone around stopped in their tracks and came to attention and as I watched and joined in our right arms snapped and held a salute while taps was played and the flag of our great nation was lowered. For the first time in my life I felt chills run down my back as I listened and watched. I now knew exactly what it must feel to be patriotic.
