Saturdays at Marine Corps base, Quantico, are nice. The entire base is Virginia wood land. As I go through the front gate I see a friend working. He is dressed in his camouflage uniform, with a shotgun over his shoulder and an M9 pistol on his side. His partner has the same kind of pistol, only he has an M16 in hand. As my friend waves me through the gate he says, “Good luck! We’ll be there to watch on our break.” To me that is the gate to work everyday; but to everyone outside of the military that tends to be an intimidating entrance. Well, too bad for the team we have to play today at home. This is the gate they have to go through and this is the first thing that will add to our intimidation. Today they are a college team, mere children to us, and about to be given a lesson in all out hard nose rugby.
Twenty five Marines dressed in green Rugby shirts, a fabric that is almost as thick as a sweat shirt and stronger then one; black shorts that if they were any tighter and two inches shorter they would be Daisy Dukes. We wear a dark green soccer style sock that goes to our knees with metal spiked cleats that are lighter then football cleats. I lace them as tight as I can; these are my tools in battle. I will agree, we look odd to
. . .
It is an eighty minute battle with a fifteen man squad of Marines on our end and a group of fifteen college students on the other. He says, “I run like a brick shit house”. This time I’m the one with the ball and it’s my first of many carries to come. Up again I circle back behind the ball on our side, waiting to hear “punch”. I hear and feel the air leave his lungs as I push his body on to the other side of the ball. I’m not to sure how that works but, he’s a salty old reconnaissance Marine. Coach has a broken tampon ready for him when he gets there. My shoulder buries into his ribs, forcsing a modified Heimlich maneuver. It puts us all in a mindset that is unmatched on any rugby game day. I want them to know that when I move they have two options to move or to get hurt. I have just rucked, and have done the second of my three jobs. The game goes on as the kid was able to pitch the ball just before the crash occured. As coach shoves it up is nostrils, doc says his nose is probably broke in more then one place. A little bit of a rotten odor is added.
Approximate Word count =
936
Approximate Pages =
4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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