"Gustav Hasvord. The Short-Timers " - читать интересную книгу автора

survive in combat. Our rifle is only a tool; it is a hard heart that kills.
Our will to kill must be focused the way our rifle focuses a firing
pressure of fifty thousand pounds per square inch to propel a piece of lead.
If our rifles are not properly cleaned the explosion will be improperly
focused and our rifles will shatter. If our killer instincts are not clean
and strong, we will hesitate at the moment of truth. We will not kill. We
will become dead Marines. And then we will be in a world of shit because
Marines are not allowed to die without permission; we are government
property.


The Confidence Course: We go hand over hand down a rope strung at a
forty-five degree angle across a pond-the slide-for-life. We hang upside
down like monkeys and crawl headfirst down the rope.
Leonard falls off the slide-for-life eighteen times. He almost drowns.
He cries. He climbs the tower. He tries again. He falls off again. This time
he sinks.
Cowboy and I dive into the pond. We pull Leonard out of the muddy
water. He's unconscious. When he comes to, he cries.
Back at the squad bay Sergeant Gerheim fits a Trojan rubber over the
mouth of a canteen and throws the canteen at Leonard. The canteen hits
Leonard on the side of the head. Sergeant Gerheim bellows, "Marines do not
cry!"
Leonard is ordered to nurse on the canteen every day after chow.


During bayonet training Sergeant Gerheim dances an aggressive ballet.
He knocks us down with a pugil stick, a five-foot pole with heavy padding on
both ends. We play war with the pugil sticks. We beat each other without
mercy. Then Sergeant Gerheim orders us to fix bayonets.
Sergeant Gerheim demonstrates effective attack techniques to a recruit
named Barnard, a soft-spoken farm boy from Maine. The beefy drill instructor
knocks out two of Private Barnard's teeth with a rifle butt.
The purpose of the bayonet training, Sergeant Gerheim explains, is to
awaken our killer instincts. The killer instinct will make us fearless and
aggressive, like animals. If the meek ever inherit the earth the strong will
take it away from them. The weak exist to be devoured by the strong. Every
Marine must pack his own gear. Every Marine must be the instrument of his
own salvation. It's hard, but there it is.
Private Barnard, his jaw bleeding, his mouth a bloody hole,
demonstrates that he has been paying attention. Private Barnard grabs his
rifle and, sitting up, bayonets Sergeant Gerheim through the right thigh.
Sergeant Gerheim grunts. Then he responds with a vertical butt stroke,
but misses. So he backhands Private Barnard across the face with his fist.
Whipping off his web belt, Sergeant Gerheim ties a crude tourniquet
around his bloody thigh. Then he makes the unconscious Private Barnard a
squad leader. "Goddamn it, there's one little maggot who knows that the
spirit of the bayonet is to kill! He'll make a damn fine field Marine. He
ought to be a fucking general."