Battle Buddies and Blue Falcons

The first experience with battle buddies comes during basic training, as you can't go anywhere or speak to any of the drill sergeants without one.  You quickly learn that there are several people that are great battle buddies and there are some you pray that you don't get paired with.  I had a few great battles in basic.  A few, even now over seven years later, I still talk to on a semi-regular basis.  There are two I remember the most as far as getting me through the tougher times.  Since they were both in my platoon, they normally ended up right in front of me and right behind me during ruck marches.  They became my source of motivation when the blisters started or when it seemed like the march would never end. 

During those times when you have to go into the prone during the marches, you would have whispered conversations about anything and everything.  It could have been what you missed about home, or the fact that you knew deployment was pending and there was a plan of not coming home.  One of the soldiers had a plan for his little brother and that was why he has enlisted in a more dangerous job.  He had planned to have his death gratuity left for him.  We had a lot of really long talks about this thought process and each time I wondered if anything would change his mind.  Eventually, something changed his mind because he was finally convinced that his little brother needed him more than he needed money.  Those two were the driving force behind me when I was in basic and true battle buddies.

There is the negative of the battle buddy - or the blue falcon.  This is someone who whether intentional or not, messes everything up for everyone else.  We had one soldier who had been moved out of the cycle ahead of us because of issues.  Somehow he managed to get ahold of the most random stuff - like chocolate and chewing tobacco.  One night our whole platoon was pulled out of bed because they had found a stash of chewing tobacco in the ceiling tiles on the guys side of the barracks.  We spent the next four hours 'sitting on the wall', which is leaning against the wall with your knees at a 90 degree angle and holding your arms out straight in front of you. 

Of course, the same soldier as before decided he didn't like basic anymore so one night he snuck out not just of the barracks, but also off post and decided to hitch hike.  A trucker picked him up and noticed that he didn't have any unit patches, so when they were stopped at the next stop the trucker called the MPs (Military Police) and asked if they were missing a soldier.  The MPs came out and picked him up.  That was another long night for the rest of us.