The Triple Threat

By Brandon Blue

This is a book compiled by myself over the span of my 8 ½ year service as an active duty infantryman. I started writing because of my PTSD initially to try and minimize the flashbacks and nightmares I was having constantly. By putting everything on paper/computer, I was able to channel my issues into my writings and created this book. I am currently working on a second book called “Jigsaw”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312640320

Book preview

The Triple Threat

The Triple Threat

by

Brandon Blue

Copyright © 2014, Brandon Blue

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-312-64032-0

Attention

Attention: The following is based on actual events, as well as events that I have had happen in dreams. Names of people and some of the town names have been changed to provide privacy to those of which who were involved.

PREFACE

Hi, my name is SPC Franklin Malcolm; I am in the United States Army, stationed in Europe. I have been deployed once before to Afghanistan, as a matter of fact not but a month ago. When they gave me the option to go again, I took it without hesitation. I was wishing I could go back with my squad from my first deployment. They raised me, so to speak, as an infantryman, and they were my family. But now most of them have moved on in their lives, whether they got out of the army, or went to a different duty station.

So when they sent me to another company, there were all new faces, people I didn’t know, except for one man. SSG Tipman, we called him Sergeant T for short; he was my squad leader in the first tour down range. I was glad to see him, considering we had 3 brand new privates straight out of basic training, just like I was when I first came to 3rd squad; they all went to Alpha Team (my team). Now it's my turn to be a mentor. We had about two months to train before we could go on our two weeks of leave and then leave for Afghanistan immediately following. My Team leader was also a Specialist, Specialist Johnston. He and I pretty much shared the Team Leader position. Since we both gave an equal amount of time to training the new guys. He came over from Ft. Bragg, where he had been to Iraq twice already. He had been injured twice (bullet wound to the shoulder his first tour to Iraq, as well as a broken leg from an IED his second time around). He was decorated with many medals and ribbons with devices for valor be training before, and the fact that Johnston and I were both war veterans, the hard part was getting our new privates ready for combat.

The first of the new guys that I met was Private Lucas. He seemed to fit right in as soon as he arrived. He got along with nearly every person he met, instantly. He even seemed to be best friends with the First Sergeant when he first met him.

Then there was Private First Class Rooney. Tall and skinny just like myself but looked as though he might weigh a little more than me, considering he was 6' 6". I instantly knew exactly who I would be recruiting to be my doubles partner for the future basketball tournaments to come.

Next was Private Stone. Through basic training, he told us that he was always used as the example and set himself above everyone else in everything they did. With his EGO through the roof, we did our best to explain to him that confidence is important, but he had to act his rank, and always train and study the rank above him. In order to build the team stronger together, we did our best to get every person on the same level with everything so we could be excellent in everything we do. My first Platoon Sergeant always told us, Remember men, you are only as strong as your weakest man. I never forgot those words and always try to instill them into all soldiers, new and old.

Our first week of training was just a day away. We did all the necessary layouts of equipment making sure each person had everything on the list for the week. The list was long and many things seemed to be useless to take with us. Well actually, half the stuff seemed to be useless to have in the first place. But never the less we had to have and take everything on the list.

Half way through the list and everything seems to be in order, everyone has everything. Maybe this will make for a short and painless day. I thought to myself. With great surprise we finished the layout and everyone had everything on the list. Only one more thing to go and we get released for the day. That one thing was our weapons and ammunition draw. Usually this is a quick and easy process. But what happens when everything goes right? Murphy's Law comes to play.

Drawing weapons and designating who would be a SAW gunner and who would be the 240B gunner and Assistant Gunner was the easy part. Everything went as planned, Sergeant T instructed us to meet him outside at the Gazebo so he could get all the serial numbers off the weapons for sensitive items checks the next day. Then the inevitable happened. When Private Rooney walked up to give Sergeant T the number, Sergeant T looked up and quickly grabbed Rooney's weapon and yelled at the top of his lungs.

Why is your weapon on fire?!?

Rooney just stood there staring at him with a surprised look on his face wondering what was coming next. Sergeant T just looked at him and told him that he would deal with him later and continued with giving him a hard time and making him feel terrible about what would have happened if that weapon went off and the round hit one of his buddies, along with a few other scenarios.

Things went along smoothly as could be through the day and Rooney was dreading the end of the work day unlike everyone else who couldn't wait to get off work. He was worrying about what Sergeant T was going to have him do for having his weapon on fire.

The day ended and everyone headed home or wherever they were going. Everyone except Rooney and Sergeant T. I can't even begin to tell you what Rooney had to do that night and also some of the next day, because I was not there. But I can say that whatever they did or whatever happened that night, forever changed Rooney. Everyone saw a different soldier after that. He was correcting other soldiers and staying above the standard in everything he would set his mind to do. I always admired Sergeant T and his incredible ability to seemingly snap his fingers and change