Suicide Stalks the Sniper (eBook)

A Trained Assassin's Journey Out of Hell

Larry J. Miller, Mark K. Miller (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
264 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-4126-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Synopsis:This is a story by a father and his son to detail the son's issues with PTSD after returning from multiple overseas Naval deployments as a sniper that led to several suicide attempts, including a long, convoluted plan involving multiple foreign countries. This story is both heartwarming and disturbing. Family and friends worked together to save Mark, but the military seemed indifferent to the struggles that led to this situation. This is a powerful story that provides helpful information for families that may be confronting similar situations.

Textauszug

Three Days to Go

At age twenty, just out of high school and while attending San Antonio Junior College, Mark came to me one day and said, “Dad, I just enlisted in the Navy.”

“You did what? When are you leaving for boot camp?”------“In three days.”

Wow, that was a shock, but I held my astonishment at bay and told Mark that I would call our family together for a send-off party at the Magic Time Machine, Mark’s favorite restaurant.

It did not seem real, but as I thought more about Mark’s impulsive decision, the more I figured that would be best for him for a number of reasons. First, Mark did not have a clear vision for his future. He was disorganized and without purpose. He lacked the confidence needed to excel. I knew the military would provide these skills and prepare him for the future.

“Don't leave!”

Jane and I visited him during his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago. Physically it was easy for him because of the grueling private training he was accustomed to from his uncle Paul, who was a current Iron Man. When other recruits fell and failed at the two-mile run, 50 pushups, or 15 pull-ups, Mark said, “I’m just warming up. This is easy.”

However, I was worried about Mark’s mental preparedness, since he was such a naïve and sweet young man. What would military training do to his kind and free spirit?

Chicago - Great Lakes Naval Training Base

What Is Boot Camp?

One of the reasons for boot camp is to prepare humans for inhuman actions and environments they will go to, or to put it more simply, to prepare people for war. People are not created or designed for war. Boot camp is a place to weed out the physically and mentally weak, taking only the toughest to further train, prepare, and send out against the best specimens of other countries. You can’t send out weaklings to war, but as I said, no one is prepared for war.

So how in the world did I end up in this industrial assembly line? I believe that it was Divine Intervention that called me.

The Spider-Man incident, which was a true wake-up call, caused me to start praying about my life. The response to those prayers was a small, still voice that urged me to join the military. Eventually the voice became more persistent until one day I jumped into my car and drove down to San Antonio, where the recruiters were all in a row in a strip mall: Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. You see, I was a meek and gentle spirit, it’s just the way the Creator designed me, so it was not in my character to seek out and join the military. I thought perhaps the Coast Guard would be a safer option. I walked up to the Coast Guard recruiter’s door first and naively started to knock, not noticing the sign in front of me said, “Out to lunch, be back around 13:00.” After I read the sign, I heard a deep voice say, “Hey, who are you looking for?” I looked over and saw a giant gorilla wearing his white Navy CNT’s (a sharp white short-sleeved working uniform). The recruiter stepped out of his door and stood over me, “You don’t want to join the Coast Guard. They don’t even work hard!”

My character at that time had not yet fully developed enough to say no to people. So, the big body builder with his arms busting out of his sleeves did not have to work hard at all. “Come into my office and I will help you.”

So, even though I wanted to join the Coast Guard, there I was in a Navy recruiters office with all kinds of Top Gun posters and patriotic things around. After a while, he presented some papers for me to sign. I was mesmerized by all of his ribbons, the posters, the flags, and so on.

“You want to roll down the strip with me don’t ya!?”

“Well, I guess it might be okay…”

“Sign here and you will be rolling down the strip!”

So, I did. What is the strip? Before long, I was walking out of his office with a fully signed, legally binding, Federal document.

When I got home my family was all sitting at the dinner table, and everyone was talking about the day and how it went.

“Well, Sparkie, how’d your day go?”

I told them, “Well, I think I joined the United States Navy.” If my memory back to 1992 is right, my dad definitely had a strong reaction. It’s like an emotional grenade went off on the table considering my dad just got home after working in blood and guts as an ER doc.

“What?! Why didn’t you talk to me first so I could help you? When are you leaving?”

“Umm, I am leaving in three days.”

Before anyone could even wrap their minds around what I had done, including me, I was on a plane to Great Lakes Navy Recruiting Command.

Launching out into the cold, cruel world all by myself with just my papers to report to boot camp was a jump of faith into the abyss. When the recruit bus picked us up from the Chicago airport, we were a herd of scared sheep heading for the slaughterhouse or something. Everyone was scared and mostly quiet, lost in their own thoughts. You see, none of us at that moment even knew if we were man enough to survive boot camp. Not everyone makes it. That pressure was in everyone’s mind. Will I make it?

The relatively quiet, peaceful bus ride was rudely interrupted when the bus door opened to horrifying loud voices commanding us to get out and stand in a line. Frightened kids from all over the U.S., who had cowboyed up for their country, all stood together in a line. Boot camp is also designed to strip kids of their old identities in order to form a cohesive pride that unified all of us under one command. No more White, Black, Chinese or anything, we all became Blue! With winter starting soon in Chicago, we really became frozen-blue.

One of the first big unifying factors that joined us together was shared humiliation. We all had our hair shaved off and we were constantly yelled at. It wasn’t until we graduated that our shame and humiliation turned into unspeakable honor and pride when we were dressed up for the first time in our Navy Dress Blues. Wow!

I volunteered for an additional two weeks at boot camp in order to join a color company, a prestigious company that spun rifles as an exemplary show piece for the recruiter command.

The Company Commanders (CC), who worked as our drill sergeants, had to go to a special school to be qualified to work with recruits. One of their skills, besides leadership, was to be able to seek, locate, and weed-out the bad apples. If the weak apple had a physical problem, the CC’s job was to find out about it and eliminate him. If the weak apple was not mentally strong enough to be in the military, the CC locked onto and broke that recruit, as it’s better that they break at boot camp rather than out in the fleet in battle.

At approximately 02:00 that first morning, Rhinoceros (the CC) came charging down the middle of our open bay barracks with one thing in mind: Find and break the little elks that are weak. “Wwrrraaaarrr!” he roared, banging the lid of a trash can and pushing and knocking things over on purpose. Our CC SK2 Sheridan was especially talented, in that his curse words could make a sailor blush. He made up curse words that I did not know the human race could even put together in one sentence. Back then there were no time outs or political correctness. There were plenty of racial slurs, degrading terms, and criticizing. Even light beatings, spitting, and punching in the gut were all fair game. Uncle Sam owns you now, and it was the CC’s job to make sure we all knew it.

This was challenging for me, because I was given a meek and gentle spirit when I was born into this world. Worse yet, my bunkmate, Seaman Recruit Parnell, was twice as timid and had soft bubble cheeks to remove any doubt. So when Rhinoceros came yelling at the top of his lungs, he took just one look at our bunk, reeking of complete chubby softness, and his red eyes locked on target. Because Parnell and I were in close proximity to each other, it was not uncommon to receive additional harassments that others would not get. As the Monster ripped up and destroyed Parnell’s perfectly made rack, Rhinoceros’s eyes turned on me.

Class of 1992 – Company 942

“What the **ck are you looking at Miller, drop! I said drop! Twenty self-destructs! (excruciating exercises) Begin!” Then he turned his attack back on Parnell, throwing his skivvies clean across the open bay where they landed on recruits Nelson and Moore.

“Recruit Parnell!! Why should I let your skid marks of *hit in my Navy!” Then he gave Parnell a gut punch. Thank the Good Lord that I had a few cards up...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.5.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-4126-2 / 1667841262
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-4126-7 / 9781667841267