Once a Marine…
June 19 2000
It was a Monday but it felt like a Sunday. Probably because I had gotten up at 3 AM to get picked up by my recruiter to take me to MEPS. (It’s this medical processing where at one point you’re in a room with about 100 other people, naked and they make you do the duck walk.)
Since I was able to walk like I duck, I got put on a bus to boot camp. Being from San Diego and having boot camp in San Diego, instead heading into boot camp at dusk, like all the other movies, we drove to MCRD in the late afternoon, sun shining brightly in the sky.
So, there I am, a 17 year old kid, following in the footsteps of so many people I idolize, and I meet Randal Rosacker. Being hopelessly idealistic and the fact that sometimes I have a bad habit of saying my thoughts out loud, this is what I blurt out, “If this were a movie, this would be a pivotal scene.”
Rosacker turns back from his seat to look at me and says, “What?” Now I’m in a flustered panic. Why must my random thoughts just come out on their own?!? So, my follow-up wasn’t much better, “Not like Forrest Gump, but something like it.” Then I sunk. Mainly because how freaking cheesy that must seem to a stranger. Basically proclaiming that we’re going to be best friends. Like Bubba and Gump.
The thing about Rosacker is that he looks like a Marine when you imagine a typical Marine. He was my age and we haven’t gone through boot camp yet but he looked tough. I remember feeling like, oh shit. In my journey to becoming a Marine, I started it off with the eqviolent of asking this bad ass tough guy if he’ll be my friend while I’m holding a balloon, a giant lollipop and a goofy smile.
But Rosacker just said, “Okay.” And turned back around.
I could go on about some other situations about boot camp but this one memory is still burned into me.
One morning in Camp Pendleton, I woke up to find a reflector vest attached to my pack. The thing about the reflector vest is that it belongs to the “Road Dog”. A Road Dog in boot camp is a recruit that sprints ahead of the platoon and company to the intersections to stop traffic. Then they wait as the entire company marches by and then they sprint to the next intersection. Sprint. With a full pack and M16, while the rest of the company is basically going for a walk. (Not true. They march pretty fast but it ain’t sprinting.)
The thing is that the last and first recruits in the squad formation were the Road Dogs. That wasn’t me. But I understood. I was unofficially assigned. As a punishment or just because, I still don’t know. Rosacker was my squad leader so as we are getting ready to go, I point to my new reflector vest and new duty and say with my stupid smile, “That’s new.” He doesn’t smile. Not that my joke was really worth a smile but he just told me to just get ready.
So I did. And I performed the duties of a road dog. I would sprint from intersection to intersection and feel like passing out every single time. But I think Rosacker was surprised that not only was I able to do it, but I took the new role without complaining.
I like to think he noticed and was surprised because from our first encounter, I kind of felt he saw me as one of the types that just wasn’t going to hack it. That I wouldn’t make it. Certainly not this far. Certainly not be the one that sprints a whole company length.
It’s the crucible (final exercise/test to becoming a Marine.) Needless to say, I’m f*ing exhausted from all the damn sprints. We’re hiking up the “Grim Reaper” and I have my head down and keeping my focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I’m also relieved that there’s no roads or intersections anymore. Just a steep ass mountain.
I was so focused on my boots in the dirt that I must have zoned out because not only did I slow down, but I had veered off the column. Along with everyone behind me.
Rosacker sprints up to me and pulls on my pack so I lift my head up to see where I’m going.
I have the oh shit expression on my face but he does something that I don’t think I ever saw him do. He smiled. He smiled and said, “Is this how you want your movie to go? Slow and the wrong way?”
Even back, I recognized how important of a moment that was in my life. He met me as strange kid who said a random line and three
months later, he comes with the throwback. He was paying attention and he knew me well enough to say the exact thing I needed to hear for me to regain my composure and sprint back into the formation. And that is exactly what I did.
I only knew Rosacker for a limited amount of time. It’s not like there’s much social time in boot camp but from what I gathered he was made of the same things all great heroes are made of. While our opinions about the politics of war and the military industrial complex may differ. He stood up for others when he didn’t have to. Barely an adult, he signed up to defend the dream that we are all created equal. That we have these inalienable rights and that there are those in this world that want to take them away. Rosacker decided to take the duty and defend those rights.
Randal Rosacker was killed in action on March 23, 2003. He was 21.
I give my endless thanks to Rosacker for being there in a pivotal scene in the movie I call my life. For being my squad leader. I thank him for his service. I thank him for his sacrifice. I know I will never take it lightly.