Chapter One

I  |  Kilo Company

Husaybah, Iraq


Corporal Dunham didn't play head games.

Life for the new Marines, the young guys still in shock from boot camp, was already tough enough, and Dunham didn't see the point of making them even more miserable just for kicks. But Jason's was a minority view, and it was a time honored practice in the Marine Corps for senior enlisted men to mess with the minds of the boots, as the new guys were called. Marine commanders had in recent years tried to eliminate dangerous hazing rituals and had prohibited, among others, practices referred to in Marine Corps rules as wetting down, flopping, psychological sit ups, pink bellies, thrashing, ordnance kisses, and Beretta bites. Commanders had also restricted the tradition of forcing Marines to do push ups or run if they erred in small ways calling a corporal a lance corporal, for instance, or dropping a magazine full of bullets. A senior Marine could order such punishment o ... read full excerpt from The Gift of Valor ebook

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