The Journey to Freedom: Path to WW3

Chapter LV

There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

General James H. Doolittle

A week passed by and during that week, I tried to visit my grandfather but he basically kicked me from his property for what I told my dad and that supposedly I had him arrested. My dad loved to play the victim. It was the only good thing that he was good at. I visited my uncle, my dad's brother and he received me well. I told him what my grandpa did and my uncle got on my case about having my dad arrested, so I told him everything that happened. Word per word. I told him that the juvenile hall had cameras also and that even the cameras showed my dad hitting me and cutting me above my eye. My uncle just sat there drinking his beer. He got mad but then eventually told me that my dad was sorry for doing that. I told him that I was sorry for everything. He told me that I didn't need to apologize.

Finally, I told him the real reason why I came "Tio, the reason I came was because I'm going to the Army. The judge dropped the charges on the account that I go to the military. I leave probably next week somewhere after my birthday. I'll be 18 and well, I think being out here, it just causes me trouble. I think its best I go somewhere I can do some good. There's no war, so it's not like I'm going anywhere. I'll probably be in another state just training."

He asked me what I was going to do in there and I told him that I was going to study to be a combat medic, basically a nurse but as a soldier. He tells me to be careful and that he wished me the best. I hug him and he tells me that he was proud of me. I take my leave and head back home.

I get to the house and once I go inside I see the recruiter and he greets me. I say hi and then he tells me that he has good news for me.

"Nicholas, they've taken into accord your college credits and wanted to know if you wanted to be an officer, basically you would give out the orders. As an NCO or Non-Commission Officer, you would be taking the orders. I think it would be best if you started at the top, this way, you don't work too hard to get up the rank. What do you say?"

I put my hands in my pockets and thank him for the generous offer and tell him that I prefer to start at the bottom. "All my life it has been nothing but struggles and it made me strong. I think that if I start at the top, I might forget where I came from and then the rank might get to my head. So yeah it might be better if I start at the bottom for me. This way I can get even stronger in mind and body." I tell him.

He tells me that it was a bold move. I just shrug and he gets up and tells me that he might give me some help to get better pay, he then tells me that he's going to give me a Physical Test and if I passed it, then I would start one rank higher than the bottom, I tell him that it was fine. Then he tells me that he would wait for me at Jaycee Park on Bernal tomorrow at noon. I told him that I would be there. He shakes my hand and leaves.

The following day I went to Jaycee park and the recruiter was there waiting for me. He told me that I had to do 71 push-ups, 78 sit-ups and run 2 miles in 13 minutes. I told him that I wasn't much of a runner but that the rest was going to be easy. He tells me to show him and I start doing push up. The first 50 were easy, but then it started getting hard, I ended up finishing my push-ups at 65. And that took a lot out of me. He tells me to get in the sit-up position and then to start whenever I was ready. I struggled when I got to 50 sit-ups and finished at 60. He tells me to rest and then after 15 minutes, he tells me to get ready. I ended up running 2 miles in 15 minutes. I tell him that I wasn't much of a runner and he tells me that it was fine because I still passed all the tests. He told me that the numbers he gave me were for 100 points and that 42 push up, 53 sit-ups and 16 minutes were at the passing point but that I did a really good job. I tell him that I was going to train a lot harder when I went inside because I was always weak all my life.