The Battle

Going to Texas

Two weeks later I was off to Texas, I got on a plane and it took me about 2 hours just to get there, I didn’t have to bring anything with me, but when I got there I saw tons of soldiers there, I had to search for the counselor, to take a ASVAB which stands for Armed services vocational aptitude battery. Which was on pencil, and paper and it took three hours just to complete it. It was on math, English, writing, and science. Which I was pretty good at, then after that I had to pass the physical examination, which was a medical exam which they had to discuss with me. That was about my height and weight measurements, hearing and vision exams, urine and blood tests, drug and alcohol tests which I don’t do drugs, or drink, they had to do muscle group and joint maneuvers, and the last thing is the specialized test.

Then after that I had to search for the counselor which they will tell me my service, job availability, physical requirements, and recruit preference, and then after that I had to take the oath of enlistment. After I took the ASVAB test, I got my height and weight and all that, after that I went to look for the counselor, which I couldn’t find I then saw a guy who looked about 23, he was just 5 years older than me, he had short black hair, and he looked muscular and he looked German too, I came up to him, and asked. “Do you know where I could find the counselor? I just finished my ASVAB test, I passed my physical exam, and now I’m looking for the counselor. Do you know where I could find them?” He looked at me and chuckled. When he spoke, he had a deep voice which was kind of funny, but I might get punched in the face if I said that to him. “Yeah, I know where you could find them, but follow me so you don’t get lost, because here, it’s a pretty big place.”  He looked at me once more and asked. “Aren’t you Jake Cipriano’s son?”
“Yes. Yes, I am” he leaned towards me, and held out a hand I grabbed his hand and shook it, “it’s nice to meet you, your father was a great guy. There was a guy, who went with your father in battle last year, I’m pretty sure he carried him for 6 hours, because he got shot in the arm, and he still fought against the people who were trying to kill them. Your father was a hero.” I never knew that, mostly everyone knows him, because he mostly saved everyone. The guy took me to where I could get my results and say the oath of enlistment which I don’t know what it is. When we got there, he asked me. “What’s your name son?”
“Jeff. Jeff Cipriano” he looked at me and smiled. “Well it’s nice to meet you Jeff. My name is Rowan.” He gave me a friendly smile, and then he walked away. I came up to a guy which looked like he was 30. He had a clipboard in front of him, waiting for the next guy to come. I came up to him and asked in a soft voice. “Sir I need my results.” The guy looked up at me and said. “Okay then I’ll need your name then.”
“Jeff. Jeff Cipriano.” He started to scan the computer. “Okay, Mr. Cipriano, I have your results, now the score that you got on the test is a 90 percent, which is good. So, that means a sniper. You did a good job than the rest of the guys. So, tomorrow is basic training, which the first day of basic training is tough.” Well I should have known. “So, the oath of enlistment, where do I go to say it?”
“You need to go to the processing station, which isn’t far from here. If you go straight from here, turn right then left, when you turn to the left, you’ll see a big station, go in the set of doors, when your there, you’ll see tons of soldiers there. When you’re in there, you’ll see a guy in a hat, make sure you look at his ranking, if it has gold rectangle, that is a second lieutenant. The abbreviation is 2LT. He'll be the one to tell you the oath of enlistment. You must repeat it after him.”
“Okay, I understand.” I followed his directions. It was hot, Texas is hot in this time of year. When I got in the station, I felt relief because of the cold air blowing, it felt so nice. I heard a voice calling my name. When I turn, I saw a guy in a camouflage hat, his hair was black like ink, his eyes were dark brown. His structure was athletic. He was like 6ft. I looked at his arm and it had a gold rectangle just like the guy said. “My name is Liam; you must call me 2LT. Liam. Now come here boy.”  He said in a stern voice.

I followed him into a large room. Chairs were spread out in two rows. I looked behind him and saw an eagle, the little strip of ribbon in its mouth said. E PLURIBUS UNUM. Which means. “Out of many, one.” In the left talon it had an olive branch which meant, “prepared in war or in peace.” The right talon had a bundle of arrows which meant, “in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows.” It then said. United States Army. The guy put his hand on my shoulder and said. “Okay, now, you are going to repeat after me. Raise your right hand and repeat after me.”  I raised my right hand. Then we started, after he said all that, I really hope I could remember it.

“I, Jeff Cipriano, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So, help me God."

“Good, now, basic training starts tomorrow. You are E-1 which means private, further on, in six months you’ll be an E-2, which means private and further on. You may go now.” I walked out and headed toward the dorm, I then felt a hand on my shoulder, and it was Rowan. The guy that I met earlier. "Hey what's up man?"
"So, will there be training tomorrow morning, right?" I asked him. "Yes, there will be. there are rules, the commander officer already went through the rules with me. I’ll tell you them.”
“1. You’re not in good enough shape to even get into sniper school. The Marines, for example, require a 3-mile run in 18 minutes, 20 dead hang pull-ups 100 sit-up crunches in less than 2 minutes. If your butt looks like 50 pounds of chewed bubble gum, look for something else to do.
2. Physical condition aside, you’re probably not skilled enough. Sniper schools are not in the business of taking average personnel and educating them to a high level. They seek out the most skilled people and distill the best of those.
3. You probably can’t take the pressure. You can flunk out at any time, right up through the last event on the last day. As the Marine Corps puts it, “There are no second chances at the school and drops are a daily occurrence.”
4. Your math probably isn’t good enough and/or you can’t do it under pressure. Hitting at long range is a highly developed science, and snipers are taught to do it both in their heads and on a ballistic computer. At the SEAL Sniper school (The difficulty level here is described as “insane.”), the physical part is not all that bad, at least for SEALs, but it is extremely tough mentally.
5. You like your 7 hours’ rack time too much. Snipers must be able to function in a state of constant exhaustion for weeks on end.
6. You want to shoot, nothing else. The fact is that both the Army and Marines train scout/snipers, which requires that you master an entirely different set of skills, such as land navigation, observation, map making, sketching, patrolling, and adjusting supporting arms, which means that you learn to call in artillery fire without getting killed or killing your own men. At the Army sniper school, shooting is only 20 percent of the curriculum.
7. You just want to sit in one place and deal death from afar. Both schools require that you be able put on your ghillie suit and crawl, undetected by a team of expert spotters, for long distances, over a period of hours. At the Marine school, this course is taught on a patch of land that many rattlesnakes call home.”
  I thought to myself for a minute. Wow, tomorrow is going to be tough.
When night fell, I followed Rowan into a big dorm. When I got there, a man gave me a uniform, socks, and work boots, I saw that the beds were lined up by one row on the right side than on the left side was another row of beds. I followed Rowan to his bed, and I took the bed right next to him. I took my shirt off and left my pants on. I got into bed and fell into a dark dreamless sleep.