Ron's Worst Nightmare

Uncle Sam's Misguided Child

By Pat Squared


Vasilii Boiarskii maintained the position of attention while Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Honeycomb shouted in Vasilii's face and covering it in spittle.

Ron Stoppable looked for death. Perhaps he could find forgiveness in martyrdom and the Marine Corps had many promising opportunities for anyone who wished to a make their death mean something. So Ron enlisted to asix-year tour using the name his real mother gave him at birth.

The background investigation officer was a little miffed that he did not simply use the same name that his school records used, but the facts did check out and his reasons were legal enough. The recruiter was happy because Ron Stoppable filled up the recruiter's quota for ground grunts for the month.

However, the DI's at Camp Pendleton instinctively knew the Boiarskii was bad news.

"Boiarskii, you are the densest, dumbest, most forgetful magget that I have the displeasure of encountering in my sixteen years in God's beloved Corp. I though that all you big-eared elephants are suppose to have perfect memories. You ain't suppose to forget shit.Yet you can seem to remember that this is a live fire exercise. Do you have a death wish, maggot?"

"Sir, no, sir!" Stoppable lied.

"Then why did your moronic brain come up with the idiotic ideal to move forward of the skirmish line into the forbidden zone? Do you understand what 55 grains of copper clad lead does to a brain at thirty two hundred feet per second maggot?"

"Sir, no excuse, sir."

Stoppable knew that the Marine Corps did not care for any excuses. You followed procedureoryoudid not follow procedure and got your ass chewed out.

Today was the last day of the Crucible. Over forty eight hours of continuous simulated combat operations and Gunnery Sergeant Honeycomb still was ridding his ass.

Honeycomb trained his Marines to come back home in one piece after the mission. Ron had no home to return to. Too bad he could not tell Honeycomb that Ron planned to not live long enough to worry about reinlistment.

"Drop down and give me a hundred, Boiarskii!"

DI Honeycomb shook his head and proceeded to chew out the recruit chosen to lead Ron's squad as Ron started doing one hundred, four-count, push-ups.

Lieutenant Castillo, US Naval Bureau of Medicine, looked on the next batch of recruits to john the Green Machine. The Marine Corps training program was legendary for its physical and mental demands upon its recruits. Some recruits failed the program for physical reasons, but others could not handle the mental strain. For that reason, the Marine Corps brought in psychologists from the Naval Bureau of Medicine.

Boiarskii was one of the recruits that fascinated Lieutenant Castillo. Boiarskii had the markings of a great marine. Always faithful to the well being of his comrades, always first to volunteer for anything dangerous, always pushing no matter how tire or injured, erring on the side of aggressiveness – Boiarskii made the Duke look like a sniveling coward.

Castillo read the complete background file on Boiarskii. In it was more than enough cause for any compotent psychologist too start worrying. Since then, Castillo kept an extra close eye on Boiarskii.

Like many recruits, Boiarskii joined the Corps to run away from a painful past. He joined seeking a family - a family and a sense of purpose. However, unlike the others,Vasilii was border-line suicidal.

Worse, Boiarskii did not think in terms of right and wrong but in terms of protecting the group. He was a guardian mentality who conscience was limited to his dealing with those he perceived as kindred spirits. If anything threaten Boiarskii's group, Boiarskii would not let the minor things, like the rules of war and the Geneva Convention, stop him from lashing out at the threat.

The Corps was the end of the line for Boiarskii. If Castillo had him thrown out on a medical discharge for psychological reasons, nothing would hold Boiarskii inner monster in check. All Castillo could really do was watch Boiarskii deal with his inner demons.

Beside Boiarskii ranked number one in his boot company. Getting rid of the number one recruit would hurt Lieutenant Castillo's ability to work with the DI's at Camp Pendleton. Boiarskii was not the only ticking time bomb undergoing basic training.

Castillo could only hope that Boiarskii would be able to control his inner demons.