I Was Born in a Bomb Crater

As some of you may already know, I'm more or less obsessed with an HBO special called GENERATION KILL. It was seven episodes long, and followed the Marine reconnaissance unit that spearheaded the majority of the invasion of Iraq. As an American, I think it should be required that you watch every minute of it. But that's a rant for another time, and believe you me, there will be a time for it. The reason I bring it up is because at the end of the final episode, during the credits, there's an audio clip that's playing of two Marines talking. From what I've been able to gather it's the real deal, and they only played the audio to keep the two men anonymous. Maybe not. It could be entirely made in a studio. Regardless, it's amazing. There's two parts to it, and I'll get to the second part in a later post. The initial monologue is brilliant, though, and I just figured I'd share it, as it's the perfect description of every Marine infantrymen.

“Ten November 1775. I was born in a bomb crater. My mother was an M16 and my father was the devil. Each moment that I live is an additional threat upon your life. I eat concertina, piss napalm and I can shoot a round through a flea’s ass at three-hundred meters. I travel the globe festering on anti-Americans everywhere I go for the love of mom, Chevrolet, baseball, and apple pie. I’m a grunt. I’m the dirty, nasty, stinky, sweaty, filthy, beautiful little son of a bitch that’s kept the wolf away from the door for over two-hundred and twenty-five years. I’m a United States Marine. We look like soldiers, talk like sailors, slap the shit out of both of ‘em. We stole the Eagle from the Air Force, the Rope from the Army, and the Anchor from the Navy. And on the seventh day, when God rested, we overran his perimeter, and we’ve been running the show ever since. Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice, Marine by God. Semper Fidelis.”
-Anonymous Marine

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Currently listening to:
"I Own You" by Shinedown

The Five-Meter Target

The five-meter target is the military way of saying "the shit that's right in front of your face". When you're on the range, you have targets as far out as 300 meters, and as close as five. Tactically speaking, you want to hit the one that's closest to you first, because that's the one that would most likely hit you first in a combat situation. This isn't a new concept. This isn't life-changing. Simply put, focus on the problems at hand, and you have time to worry about the rest of it later. But there's a fundamental flaw in that doctrine. The only variable you're given to keep track of is distance. But what if the target at twenty-five meters has a handgun, and the one at thirty meters has a rifle? What if one of them is a trained marksman, and the other has never fired a weapon before in his life? The key in this instance is being able to take in every possible variable not before you begin firing, and certainly not afterwards. You have to learn to think on the fly, as you move. The same thing applies to life. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan later. Spend too much time figuring out how to do something, and you run out of time to actually do it.

So don't think, don't plan, don't decide.

Just move and react.

Just flow.

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Currently listening to:
"Shuffle Your Feet" by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club