Hell on earth: The story of one young military recruit (as submitted to Highestwire)

Submitted by Tracy Rosewarne on Thursday, March 17, 2005 at 05:48:24 AM EST.

Last summer, Community High School alum Thad Bawkon made a decision that could have cost him his life.

He joined the military.

Bawkon did not get a sudden surge of patriotism, nor did he do it to rebel against his parents. All he wanted to do was "explore the option," he said.

Bawkon said that Army Reserve recruiters bent over backward to get him to join, giving him a one-sided story for why he should join. It worked.

Bawkon signed up. His rank? E-1, a pre-basic training rank. He felt like the equivelant to a nobody, Bawkon said.

But he kept an open mind,

"No one expects what it's really gonna be like," he said, adding that he did not assume that basic training was going to be as hellish as some movies, books and documentaries have described. But he should have, he said.

At 4:30 a.m. on a summer day, the hell that was basic training began.

It takes nine weeks for a solider to learn everything they need to know before going out into the world.

According to Bawkon, it was nine weeks of punishment and torture.

It was nine weeks of waking up to someone throwing him out of his bed at an ungodly hour, only to run two miles and do physical training exercises.

It was nine weeks of drill sergeants constantly in his face, telling him when he could eat, when he could talk, when he could drink, when he could sleep and when he could pee.

"They're not real people," Bawkon said, describing his drill sargeants. "They are ... robots," he said, adding that he hopes to never relive the experience.

During basic training Bawkon participated in several drills he tries everyday to forget. The worst was the gas chamber.

Bawkon and his peers started out in the gas chamber with gas masks on, waiting as it filled with tear gas. Then the doors were locked and they were given the instruction to take their masks off.

"They wasted a lot of time on torture," Bawkon said, describing a scene of vomiting, burning sensations, tears, and excessive phlegm, all caused by the tear gas.

Like the recruiters promised, Bawkon did make friends for life during basic training. But Bawkon credits it to the shared wretched experience and living conditions, not fun and good times.

Bawkon did survive boot camp, and he went on to train as a military police officer. He now gives up one weekend a month and three weeks in the summer to drive out to Jackson, Mich. for additional training.

Based on what the military recruiter promised him, joining the reserves wasn't the joyful bonding experience Bawkon had expected.

With three years left in his service obligation, and the possibility of an extension of that if he gets deployed, Bawkon admits he is feeling a low. He does not want to go to Iraq. But most of all, "I want my weekend back," he said.

"If you're not 100 percent sure, don't give (the military) a second look," said Bawkon, adding that he does not want others to make the same mistake.


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Editor's Note: This article was submitted by the staff of The Communicator, the student newspaper at Community High School in Ann Arbor. HighestWire welcomes articles of differing opinions.

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