I need this essay after 4 hours

“Alright Privates, time to get up, it’s six o’clock” Drill Sergeant Butler, a tall, muscular, African-American male yelled as he flicked on the light switch to our bay area. I jumped from my bunk and stretched as I gazed out the window, catching the early moments of sunrise beginning to shine through the trees and onto the grass field outside the barracks. It was the day I and the fifty-six other soldiers that comprised of Third Platoon as well as nearly a hundred fifty soldiers from the other three platoons to make up Alpha Company had long awaited and dreamed about since arriving to Ft. Benning, GA. We were graduating Basic Training from the United States Army today, September 30, 2010. What had seemed like an eternity of a wait just two months ago was now coming to fruition in a matter of mere hours.

I grabbed my toiletry kit, towel and walked to a crowded bathroom where all seven sinks were occupied with my fellow battle buddies shaving and washing their faces. “I can’t wait to see my parents,” Private Long, a young eighteen year old kid straight out of high school said. “We going to rock the house like a Summer Jam concert on that field,” Private Patterson, a young African-American from Augusta, GA said. “Wait till the crowd goes nuts as we come marching by,” Private Mitchell, an African-American from New Orleans said. “What about you, Martinez? What are you most excited for today, battle?” he asked me. “Man I’m just happy to be able to wear this uniform and see the proudness in my family’s eyes,” I said. I was about to become a fourth generation to serve in the military that we knew of at least. My parents served in the Army during Desert Storm, my grandparents, also in the Army, served in Vietnam, and my great grandfather was an officer in the Navy in World War II. I had never thought I would continue the tradition but as I showered, I thought of all the moments that led me here. I had moved to New York with my mother shortly after graduating from high school in Puerto Rico. I tried to get into college but wasn’t able due to a translation issue with my transcripts and not being able to get transcripts in English from my high school in time. After falling on some financial hardships, my mother moved to Tennessee as I stayed behind and found myself living on the streets, sleeping on subway trains all through the cold, winter nights. In a couple of weeks I was able to earn enough money to get my own room and be stable. I promised myself I would never experience that horrid again and started looking for every possibility to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. I decided to look into the Army and ultimately joined after seeing everything it had to offer. As I laced my boots, zipped my ACU jacket, and headed to formation, I remembered the day I raised my right hand to recite the Oath of Enlistment. It was like a lost soul who had found a purpose and I knew my life had changed forever.

We marched to the chow hall for breakfast after formation. The scene was one hundred percent different than it was just a week ago. Normally when we went to eat it was complete silence. Nobody was allowed to talk or watch television. It was get food, sit down, hurry up and eat, and leave. General rule of thumb was when the last person to enter the chow hall yelled, “Last man sitting,” and finished eating, anyone left had three minutes to finish before having all the food tossed out and being thrown out of the chow hall. Today it was different. Nobody was in a hurry to eat. We were all watching ESPN, CNN, or Fox News. We were talking about where we were headed the next day for our actual job training, sports, politics, music, but mostly we recounted moments all throughout Basic Training. “Hey Martinez, do you remember that obstacle course?” said Private Manning, another young kid out of high school from Indiana. “Yeah, or how about that second field training exercise with night fire?” said Private Milford, a tall, linebacker built man with huge “birth control” glasses. “Those were so much fun! I’d do it all over again if I could.” I said. The obstacle course that was as brutal as it was fun. Climbing ropes, swinging through monkey bars, and crawling through dirt as mud splashed in our faces left everyone completely winded and exhausted, hunched over holding onto our knees. The night training exercise in which we crawled a hundred yards on the ground as a machine gun was fired over our heads. I don’t remember any other time my heart beat as fast as it did that night as simulated explosions flashed in our eyes and rang in our ears. But the best moment of it all was the walk back to the barracks from our final major field exercise. We had just spent two weeks straight outside unable to wash clothes and using only the water we had in canteens to shower. Needless to say, a hot shower was the first thing universally desired. We woke up around two in the morning, packed our sleep gear into our roughly thirty pound ruck sack, and began the nearly twelve kilometer journey to the finish line. It took us nearly four hours to walk up and down steep hills and winding streets. As we were nearing the final turn to the barracks, we could hear the cannon being shot off and could hear the music playing in the distant. I never enjoyed hearing Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” as much I did that night. “We did it, Martinez!” said Private LaSharr, a competitive marksman from Washington. “I know!” I said as we fist bumped. I’ll never forget that view of walking up to the barracks with the tiki torches on both sides of the trail leading us inside, the music still blasting, and all the other companies in the area applauding our return.

After breakfast, we began to get all the equipment ready to take over to the field where the graduation ceremony was to be held. We loaded the flags, the sound equipment, and the podium into a couple of the drill sergeants’ trucks that would take them over. Afterwards, we began to load into the buses in a single file line ready to head to the field. I looked down at my beret as the buses began to drive off and remember thinking how cool it was to see them in movies. Now I had my own. We had just shaved and shaped them a few days before and everyone would try to make the claim they had the best beret. When we arrived to the field, we immediately formed into our formations and began to do our final rehearsal runs. It was nothing difficult. All we had to do was salute, march around the field, turn our heads to face the audience when given the command, and continue to march till we reached our ending point, which was pretty close to where we began. That was easier said than done as uniformity is key and everyone had to move in unison. We couldn’t move too fast or too slow. Our steps had to be pretty much in step with the band that was playing. I think we did like four rehearsals before the ceremony. There was so much down time in between each rehearsal and before the actual ceremony. Until it was show time, we stood around our starting point talking amongst each other while watching the stands beginning to fill with our families. A couple of us had noticed Drill Sergeant Butler sitting on some steps on the building near us. He kind of had a sad look to his face. He wasn’t going to be able to stand in front and lead us because he had broken his wrist in a combatives event the week prior and wasn’t able to salute. That was the only blemish on the entire day. Drill Sergeant Butler was our head drill sergeant and one that had spent most of the training watching over us. It felt like we were kind of being misrepresented without our leader in front guiding us as he had always done. Not to say the other drill sergeants didn’t have influence on us, but he had a significant impact on most of us and him not being able to be with us was like not giving him the proper credit.

Alas, it was time for the actual graduation ceremony to begin. The families had found their spots and settled in the stands. As our company commander began to speak, the wind began howling and gusting through the trees. Tree branches began swaying back and forth like a rocking chair. The show continued without a glitch and once the speeches were done, the band began to play. We were about to begin the final drill and ceremony march for Basic Training. We watched as first platoon led the way, followed by second, then us, and lastly but certainly not least, fourth platoon. As we marched around the field, the audience began to stand and cheer. Everyone was marching in unison with the beat. Nobody was missing a step. When we reached near the stands, we were given the command, “Eyes… Right!” by the drill sergeant leading us. As fast as he finished saying “right”, we snapped our heads to the right and continued to march while staring into the stands. I don’t think a lion’s roar could come anywhere close to the loudness of the crowd. I remember seeing my mother waving her arms hysterically, my grandmother holding onto her as she screamed with glee, and my grandfather clapping his hands with that smile of proud and excitement. We made our way back to the beginning where we started the march, listened to one last speech from our commander, and waited for him to give our drill sergeants the authority to release us. Once he did, the drill sergeants turned around to face us, gave us a few quick congratulatory words, and released us to our families. Once they released us to our families, it was like a track meet. Everyone was running to their families as fast as they could. I quickly found my mom and we gave each other a great big hug. She couldn’t hold her excitement as she told me how proud she was. I gave my grandparents a hug and thanked them for all their congratulatory words. To see the look in their eyes of approval was a special moment to me. It was as if I was a part of a special team rich in traditions and history. I had graduated Basic Training and was now officially a soldier in the United States Army.