Transcript
I was on the
rappel tower.
We would train recruits
on the rappel tower.
We'd send 'em down, we'd
teach 'em how to
tie their rigs
so they can rappel down
the tower, and all that.
And I was teaching one
recruit how to do it.
They were giving me some
lip about why they
couldn't go down
or they were afraid to
go down and all that,
and I stepped up and I gave
'em a little bit of slack
and sent 'em down the wall
and smacked against the
wall kinda hard.
I'd seen other
instructors do it before.
It was just a way to
get 'em down
and to get 'em over
their fears.
And then there was a new
platoon sergeant
that we had,
a staff sergeant, and I
was a corporal at the time.
And he talked to me about
it very sternly afterwards,
and I pretty much told him,
"That's just how we do it."
He's like, "That's not how
you do it when I'm here."
I lost my cool with
him on top of the tower
in front of other Marines,
in front of the recruits,
and that was probably
the linchpin.
That was where they sent
me to sick call.
Rather than disciplining
me, they sent me over
to sick call,
and that was where
eventually they
diagnosed me with PTSD.