I was standing naked as the day I was born. The Navy had taken away the last remnants of my civilian life but had not yet seen fit to let me put on the clothes I had been issued. \u00a0I was one of a group of 86 young men that were the just formed Recruit Training Company of 86-261, Recruit training Command San Diego.<\/p>\n
Like most of the guys around me it had been a couple of days of first, the first time I had left home, the first time I had flown on a jet, the first time my best efforts were not good enough. Standing in a group of naked men was the low point for me. I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. We has stenciled our names onto one pair of underwear and one plain white tshirt. The Company Commander was reminding us how stupid we were and then Someone called Attention on Deck.<\/p>\n
The Company Commander introduced us to the Chaplin. He said a short prayer and then gave us a talk. I don’t remember everything he said but a part of that talk has always stuck with me.<\/p>\n
He told us to look around at the other men in the room. \u00a0That this was one of the only moments in our lives that we would be absolutely equal to everyone around us. That how much money our parents had or didn’t have made no difference. \u00a0He said that \u00a0our success or failure in the Navy was completely up to us. He said that every part of our training had a meaning, that no time was wasted.<\/p>\n
That was 28 years ago this week. I have often thought about what that Chaplin said. I don’t think there has been any other time in my life that I have had a truly blank slate.<\/p>\n
In the coming weeks I will be talking to Don Shipley about his story, I hope to talk to other Veterans about theirs. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be a part of this project.<\/p>\n
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Wesley AKA Enigma4you<\/p>\n
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