The Eye of the Storm

Where was I.... Okay,

We Qualified, spent an extra night in the woods, then the next day the pain finally got the better of me, I went on sick call, only to find out that I had an appointment with the Podiatry clinic at MACH the next day. So they gave me some Tylenol for the pain (it cures everything in the Military dont cha know) and sent me off. That night, me and Smith had CQ duty. We were both on crutches at this point, he sprained his ankle back when we spent the last night in the woods. We used to call ourselves the Sick Call Rangers, he was Crutch Master 1, and I was Crutch Master 2, there were also other rangers, by that time there were almost 20 people on medical profiles in my company. When Delta Company (the guys next to us) started to get a sizeable force of Sick Calls, we decided to form the DADADADADADADA SICK CALL SPECIAL FORCES - 5TH PLATOON "BLUNT DAGGERS!!!!" It even caught on, our Company Commander started calling us by it, but, I digress.

We had CQ duty that night, and eventually we got onto the topic of Girlfriends. I told him about mine, how I loved her and missed her, how we had known each other for years, and I showed him a picture of her. When I was done, he looked down at the ground, smiled, and asked me "Do you want to see a picture of the most beautiful girl in the world?" Well, I doubted that he had a picture of my girlfriend, but I decided to amuse him lol. "Sure" I said. He pulled out his wallet and took out a small pocket photo of a girl in her early 20s, he started telling me about how they had met in Highschool and fell in love, he told me how she liked the outdoors, how she could bring a smile to anybodies face, he told me about his plans to propose to her on Christmas.

And then he told me about how she killed herself in our second week of training.

You could have heard a Pin drop. It was like a bunch of puzzle pieces came together, I suddenly understood WHY he stared off into the distance all the time, WHY he liked to be alone, and why he always seemed on the verge of tears. I wasn't sure what to do, what do you say to something like that? Nothing I could tell him would change what had happened and by then he had had plenty of time to collect his thoughts so it's not like I could tell him anything he didn't know. I paused and said "Wow... I'm sorry for your loss man..." and we just sat in silence for a good half hour...