The focus of my blog post this week is to write about an event in my life and turn it into an emotional scene for the reader to relive through my eyes, much like Maya Angelou did in her piece My Name is Margaret. I am going to use my writing to appeal to the five senses the best I can, and create a scene that makes it feel like you are there yourself. This piece, like Mrs. Angelou's will be driven by my emotion, as well as largely descriptive. I hope you enjoy. "You will take this patch with you wherever you go. Always on the front of you flak jacket. It is absolutely essential in your day to day operations. If you ever go down or your brother next to you goes down, this will be ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to yours and their survival." said Staff Sergeant Magobet, our Platoon Sergeant in 1st Platoon Charlie Company, as he walked around and handed out our respective patches. We are on the flight line in Okinawa, Japan, waiting to board our big grey C130. It's 93 degrees outside and 100% humidity. We are sweating through our utility uniform, the weight of our flak jacket on our chests, and the weight of our 70 pound pack strapped to our backs weighing us down. We are about to embark on a flight headed towards Syria to conduct anti-terrorism operations.
We all receive our patches and board the crammed, non-airconditioned plane. The smell of sweat and jet fuel fill our nostrils. We all sit upright as we listen to our Staff Sergeant once again telling us about these patches. I feel the patch in my hand, it is a rough stitched material. There is an EGA embroidered in the direct center of the patch and course new velcro on the back. "You will each wear this wherever you go. You will put your respective rank on one side, and anything else you feel pertinent on the other. Your critical information is on this patch. If you or someone else goes down you will rip this patch off of their flak jacket and use the information to call for a CASEVAC (casualty evacuation)." I take the rank off of my collar and stab the pointed posts through the material, it proves to be not easy as the material is thick and dense. I do the same with my Engineer Castle to distinguish myself as the lead engineer for the company. I take the patch and press the velcro against my flak jacket, making it stick to the center. I lean forward, and slowly start to fall asleep. A couple of hours go by and I am woken up by a red light. It is the middle of the night and dark inside the cargo hold. As I start to wake up, I notice it has gotten significantly colder in the plane due to us being at such a high altitude with little to no insulation. There is a red light at the front of the cargo hold that has turned on, bright and blinding to those who just woke up. Our Staff Sergeant tells everyone to prepare for landing. The plane is jolting back and forth as we hit turbulence, peoples packs and belongings are shifting all around. I start to feel unsettled, all different emotions hitting me at once. Fear and excitement take over as the C130 touches ground. I load my weapon and put on my kevlar as I am shifted forward as the plane slows on the runway. The plane stops and starts to lower its loading deck and a burst of disgustingly hot air blows into the cargo hold. My mouth goes dry as the air is filled with dust and sand, and you can feel grains of sand pelting against your face. I grip my cold and rigid weapon, and reach to my chest and feel my patch. The patch that will never leave my side, and could be the difference between life and death. The loading ramp drops, and we run out into the hot night, weapons ready, and ready for anything that might be ahead.
2 Comments
Sabatino
9/26/2019 06:02:28 am
Thank you for your service and for sharing this post. The writing here provides description, action, and themes of bravery, excitement, trepidation, among others. I appreciate how the scene opens with a quote that gets right to the heart/meaning of the object of emotion:
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Sabatino
9/26/2019 06:10:16 am
Also...I appreciate the visual and spatial choices you made with the image. The size and clarity of the image -- along with the "early-on" placement within the written text -- all come together to create a powerful visual that complements the ideas in the story.
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Douglas Neubauer"Expanding my writing through experimentation." Archives
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