rough times Archives - Doug Bolton

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I was thinking back to my military days. Some days were OK, but others not as much. Today I am going to share some of the times I had while enlisted. I am not sure how much I will share, because some are pretty intense.

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While in basic, There was a scary, but good outcome that happened. We had a Native American who was drafted into the Army. He was not a happy camper, and let everyone know about it including our drill sergeant.

Finally our drill sergeant told him to stop whining. He told our drill sergeant to &%#! off. Sergeant McDonald told him to give him ten pushups for saying that. The soldier wouldn’t do it. So Sergeant McDonald told him to come into his room at the head of the barracks.

We all assumed there was going to be a fight. We were right. The native American was strong looking, and SGT MacDonald was only about 5′ 8. We all thought the native American would win. WRONG!!

We heard crashing and groaning. More crashing and groaning. Then it got very quiet. The door opened and SGT Macdonald came staggering out. He looked like he had been hit by a truck. We assumed he had lost.

Then we looked in into his room and the native American was out cold. Our drill SGT won the battle!! SGT MacDonald won all our praise. Even the native American liked him after their fight.

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While in South Korea we had what was called R&R (Rest and recuperation. ) It was me and another buddy’s turn to go. It was a full week, All paid by the military including air fare and a hotel room in Tokyo, Japan. We were pretty excited. We knew we earned it so we didn’t feel bad about doing it.

We we got there, we did a lot of sight seeing. The pagodas, beautiful gardens, and incredible food.

About half way through we decided to visit a disco bar. We got there and we were drinking pretty heavy. I was feeling no pain, when a belly dancer came out on to the floor. They announced that who ever held onto her sequenced skirt the longest would get a prize.

She started around the edge of the floor near the tables. Several other soldiers tried to hold on to her while she shimmied. One or two could do it for a while, but let loose when their hands started hurting.

She came near our table, and I couldn’t resist. I held onto her hips while she wiggled. I kept holding on after she went faster. I still was holding on when she stopped. She was too tired to keep going.

I looked at my hands and they were a bloody mess.

The announcer said that I was the winner, and the prize was free drinks for the rest of the night. Just what I needed right? That was about the last thing I remember from that night.

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Both of these stories are in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of he Trenches of Life.

There are many pages of similar type of stories. All of them have a personal story like above and then they relate to how we all can benefit from it. This is done on purpose to try to reach out those those veterans who may be suffering from PTSD, TBI, Depression, war wounds, etc.

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Time to check on you. How are you doing? Have the rough times we are going through right now caught up to you? Would you like the world to stop and let you off?

You are not alone. There are over 9,800 fellow veterans here who have your back.

However, if it is just too much right now, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there for you who will never hang up until they know you are OK.

!-800-273-8255 ) Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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Today is Red Friday. We should all be wearing red to show support our active duty military.

I’ve had some amazing interviews with veterans while putting my new book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

I interviewed WW ll, Korean, Vietnam Iraq, and Afghanistan soldiers.

Some of the interviews were funny; some were sad; and some were hard to listen to.

Today I will share one interview to show you some of the fear, disappointments and anger our veterans have gone through.

Interview with a Sniper

I talked to a veteran from El Paso, Texas. He was a Sargent First Class. His duties were being a sniper.

He was asked if it was hard to shot another person. His answer was, “Not since I was helping my buddies stay alive.”

Death of His Buddies

The next question I asked him was how many of his buddies were killed. He said,”Fifteen or sixteen.” I said, “That must have been hard on you.” He said, They were my friends, what can I say.”

It is Hard on Families

He was getting irritated, so I switched to his family. I asked him if he was married. He said, “I was, but I am divorced now.” I then asked, “Can you tell me why that happened? ” He said, “The separation was to hard on both of us. She went her own way because she was so lonely.” He also said he had three children that he only sees once and a while.

There is much more to this interview, but you can see that he had a very rough time while in the military.

Many other stories like this

I have many more interviews to share. Be sure to subscribe to make sure you do not miss one. Just go to the top and click on the subscribe icon. Then all further posts will go directly to your inbox.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!