"The Rest of the Story" Part 2
OK, so this is the part where I separate fact from fiction. To begin with, this story is semi-autobiographical. Some of the events really happened, but most of the story is either completely invented or greatly exaggerated for dramatic effect. Much of the Sergeant Ellery character is accurate. Most of the rest, especially the portrayal of LT Faith, is mostly made up.
All of the names are pseudos, or are real names of people who were in my platoon but are combined with multiple personalities into one character. And of course some of the characters in the story, like Sergeant Manners, are completely fabricated. Some of the names have significance and some don’t.
Here’s a picture of the real “Sergeant First Class Ellery” (right) and me at Fort Campbell back in… 1996 or so when we were in the 101st Airborne Division. This is right after a rehearsal for a division change of command, which is why we had rifles with bayonets. This was well before the era of camera phones, I didn’t take a lot of pictures back then. This might be the only picture I have of the two of us from when we worked together. This man changed my life, and set the standard in my mind for every other NCO I ever worked with.
I came into the Army under the “branch detail” program and was an infantry platoon leader in the mid-1990s. I did show up without a Ranger Tab, which was a big deal, but my first battalion commander also didn’t have a tab.
He later went on to become a three-star general, so…
In fact, I worked for three infantry officers who went on to wear multiple stars. Including LTG Bolger, there were
LTG Russel Honore and
GEN Robert Brown.
Anyway, because I was non-Ranger qualified, they would not assign me to a “line” platoon in a rifle company, but instead put me in D Co, which at the time was the heavy weapons company. This was actually a blessing, as it was a “specialty” platoon that was normally a second assignment after successful time on the line. But it meant that I was riding instead of walking when we went to the field, which was often; it meant I had few Soldiers to supervise, and because of the technical aspects involved, 11H troops tended to be slightly more intellectual than the average 11B, which suited me because I consider myself a slightly intellectual guy. And, I got to have Sergeant Ellery as my platoon sergeant.
I did complete the Mortar Leader Course at Fort Benning prior to reporting to Fort Campbell, and I did ask to be a Mortar Platoon Leader. But they already had a guy in that job when I showed up, so I went to D Co.
I did run into one of my classmates from Georgia Military College who I know got commissioned, but he was in our battalion as a Spec-4. I was sure there was some sordid story there, but it was simply a legit dual-component thing; he wanted to be active but he held a Reserve commission and couldn’t get an active one, so he enlisted. It’s a weird thing, but it happens. When I was in JSOC, the command sergeant major was a captain in the Reserves. He liked to joke that he was the oldest captain in the Army… and he probably was.
We did have a “Pigpen”-like character in one of the other platoons, and I did walk up on some of the Soldiers in that platoon scrubbing Private Pigpen down with green scrub pads, Comet, and the long brushes we used to clean the mud off of our trucks, but it was after I was in the unit for several months, not on the first day I was there. I broke it up and sent everyone on their way. Nobody threatened or intimidated me over it. And I definitely didn’t take Pigpen into our platoon.
The other incident with Thigpen and 2nd Platoon involving the platoon sergeant simply never happened, that was purely for dramatic effect. I’ve never been treated like that by Soldiers or NCOs. In fact, I’ve only had three people want to physically fight me over the course of my entire career, and they’ve all been officers. Although two of them were platoon leaders with me in D 1/327…
The “blood pinning” thing that SFC Ellery did is accurate, and he did promote me to 1LT. Back in the mid-90s there was a crackdown on hazing because so many people were doing so much stupid shit, but blood pinning was still pretty widespread. Many years later I returned to Fort Campbell when I was assigned to 5th Group and then the 160th SOAR. I made MAJ when I was in the 160th and MSG(R) Ellery was still in the area and was able to come to my promotion party, which meant a lot to me.
My then-girlfriend, now-wife did do the rope climb thing, and she did get hit in the face playing basketball with the platoon. But it was much less dramatic than what is portrayed in the story.
I was, and still am, very good at Hearts and Spades and I would play regularly with my troops in the van going back and forth to our White Cycle taskings and when we were deployed to Egypt for six month. I am a much more gracious loser than winner when it comes to cards, and was well known in the platoon for my shit-talking. It was a source of great frustration for my troops that the LT was good at “Joe” cards games, and I loved it.
Many years after the events in this story, I did have a Soldier try to commit suicide with a Leatherman. When I was a company commander in the Second Infantry Division in Korea, we had a female soldier who self-recommended for mental health due to suicidal thoughts. We sent her down to the psych ward in Seoul, where the psych docs said that the Soldier was in desperate need of an immediate chapter. I was sad to hear that because she was a good Soldier. But hey, they’re the docs, not me. I started the separation paperwork, only to have the doc call me a couple days later like “hey, she’s fine now, come get your girl.” We went down and got her, but I thought the whole thing was sketchy. I thought I should go through with the chapter… At any rate, I restricted her access to firearms (not a big deal, we were an MI company anyway) and had the 1SG and her platoon sergeant toss her room for any weapons and anything she might be able to use to hurt herself. After a long talk with her, she convinced me to put a hold on her paperwork, that she was getting better and needed to stay in the Army. I felt like we should separate her, but the docs recommend I let her stay. A day or two later, she bought a Leatherman at the little PX we had and cut herself up with it. She called our chaplain before she bled out (I found out later that he made anti-suicide pacts with all of the troubled troops, definitely worked in this case). That was the last time that I let “the experts” over-rule my professional judgment.
The “birthday beatdown” thing happened largely as portrayed in the story, although it was a different platoon sergeant (I went through five platoon sergeants, including Ellery twice). I don’t think Sergeant Ellery would have allowed those kinds of shenanigans. And of course Thigpen wasn’t involved.
For the record, I’ve never been in a bar fight.
I don’t remember anyone in the battalion killing themselves while I was there. As far as I know Private Thigpen left the unit alive… although he probably did catch a chapter, or at least a bar to re-enlistment. Or maybe he turned out to be a good troop, I don’t know. I don’t even remember his real name.
I was a platoon leader in the same platoon for over two years. It was the mid-90s so the deployment opportunities were limited. We did deploy to Egypt for six months as part of the Multinational Force and Observers mission, which was awesome. When we returned I was made the Battalion S1—a captain’s position—of an Infantry battalion… as a tabless 1LT. You can imagine how that want.
But that is a story for another day.
THE END.
…really.
Most of the civilian employees that made a big stink about being "civilian Marines" wouldn't survive three hours at PI.
