Stories

These are the One Military Camp **stories,** added with every patch notes.

## One Military Camp Stories

### First

Some would say the army is a family. Those men and women standing next to you are your brothers and sisters. They will endure the same hardships, they’ll understand every of your needs and they’ll risk their lives to save you, the same you would do for each and every of them. And our father was drill sergeant Campbell.

He was a tough father. I remember the first day I saw him like it was yesterday; his small hard eyes, judging each new recruits, calculating how many would still be in camp after the training. He didn’t tell us why we were getting that haircut, why it was so important to keep our boots clean, or maintain our uniform well ironed. It was just a matter of discipline, you you obey your father because he knows what's best for you. That day, waiting in line under the sun, I thought he was just an old, arrogant, failed war hero. But I was so wrong.

I’m sergeant Hawkins, of One Military Camp. Let me tell you my story.

I've heard lots of stories about sergeants calling funny names to their recruits. But the truth is Campbell respected us. At least, he called any of us by our surname, and he never had to ask twice. He stood in front of me, and calmly, with a firm but low voice asked -Why are you here Hawkins?

- I came here to become a soldier.

- Come on Hawkins,  why would anybody want to be a soldier? -he turned and started looking to the other recruits.

- To defend our country?

- You are very wrong Hawkins. You are here to defend the people you love, although they may be far. Not an inch of dirt. You train so you never have to use what you learn here. So the bad people out there wouldn't come and make Hawkins angry. Keep that in mind while you are running. And now, give me ten laps around the camp.

That first night I was so tired I couldn't sleep. But I was doing it for the people i loved, my other family, back at home.

### Second

Sergeant Campbell reviewed every bed in the barracks, he measured the cover, and checked how our uniforms were hung in the lockers.

- Excuse me, sir.

- Yes, Hawkins?

- Don’t want to be disrespectful, sir, but why is it so important to have our beds so perfectly made?

- I could give you many reasons, Hawkins - Campbell continued  moving through the barracks, under the the watchful eye of the other recruits and checking the rest of the beds.

- It could be because I want you to be well rested tomorrow, to continue training. Or it could be because I want every and each of my recruits to be equal. But the truth is... -He turned and looked at us.

-... if you pay attention to what you are doing in every moment, it doesn't matter if it is housekeeping or explosive deactivating, and if you strive to make it perfect, things will work out. If you are thinking of what you are doing next, or that boy or girl you met last week, you may fail. I don't mind if you fail with your beds, but you won't be able to try again if you fail with the explosives. Do you understand?

-Yessir -We all answered at the same time.

-Ok, now, full equipment, start running around the camp.

There's another thing I admired about Campbell. He said we run, he ran with us. And trust me when I say he may be old, but he was unbeatable. He never took off his hat, never stopped to drink and his example was our best motivation. Ok, maybe cleaning the latrines if you were last also helped.

Once I heard vikings used the same word for "chief" and "shield", and Campbell was truly our shield, you felt safe under his command, although  it was just basic instruction. Things could change in the coming weeks, I didn't know, but for now I enjoyed following him. I wondered if some day I would have a batch of recruits under my command.

### Third

Sometimes I had the impression that sergeant Campbell had some kind of super power, so he could hear everything we said in our barracks. It didn’t matter if it was in the middle of the night, before we went to sleep, or even in the showers.

Some day one of the guys was complaining about some tactical briefing: why would you need to learn how to operate a radio transceiver in the battlefield? Are there not comm operators trained to do that?

Next morning, as we were entering the radio tent for more instruction, just after we took our positions, Campbell spoke to the whole platoon:

-You, Hawkins, why do we need to learn how to operate a radio device?

- To coordinate actions, sir, to call for reinforcements or medevac.

- You are right, son, but that’s not the answer I wanted to hear. Anyone else?- No one blinked, They knew our answers were always wrong.

- Listen to me very carefully. Radio operation is like swimming. -We looked at each other puzzled, but it didn't take long to hear the explanation.

- You may live in the desert, but you better know swimming because if one day you need it, it will be a matter of life or death. It is the same with radio operation. If everything goes as expected, your communications officer will take charge of everything. But you may find yourself stranded in enemy territory, alone, and there won't be no time for fiddling with your radio. You need to communicate fast, inform about your location and enemy positions and wait for the cavalry. So pay attention now, and your life be much more easy on a mission. Now proceed with your instruction.

I'm still not sure if he mad up hat explanation in the very moment, or it was something he truly believed, but once again, it worked for us. And to be honest, sitting inn front of all that equipment was a lot less tiring than doing the regular exercising.

### Fourth

You maybe don't know yet, but there are always two ways of doing things: the regular way, you probably have been practicing your whole life, and the military way. And sergeant Campbell wanted every men and women in the camp to understand this. He taught us how to tie our boots, how to brush our teeth or even how to dress, but it was not so easy.

You are probably wondering what's the difficulty in training recruits who already know what to do. Truth is, it is much more difficult, because they tend to repeat what they've been doing their whole lives. Have you ever heard that old story about filling a cup of tea? Long story short, you can't pour tea on a cup that is already full, the same you can't learn new things if your mind is already full of your previous conceptions. You need to empty the cup, but how do you empty your head?

Campbell had his own method, and I have to admit, it worked. It started with a 20 mile run around the camp, and then the regular push ups, obstacle course and weight lifting before breakfast. Then we had some work to do in any of the training facilities or the library, and repeat the cycle in the afternoon. After a week of keeping this routine we were so hungry, so tired and sometimes so sleep deprived that we were not able to think clearly, just follow his orders.

You could say our cups were empty. Then sergeant told us, in his firm voice, how we should do anything, and we just followed his orders. After some time, we had assimilated every instruction as natural, and we didn't know any other way of doing things that it wasn't Campbell's way. You could say we were broken and rebuild with his plan on mind.

### Fifth

Most military facilities are named after a location, a regiment or even a war hero, but not ours. The first time you enter the recruitment office and you walk by our flags and that old bear statue, you may be surprised by the name: One Military Camp. It is simple, yet there is a good reason behind it. We learned about that in the first days of instruction under Sergeant Campbell's command, and we never forgot.

That name, we were proud of, didn't refer to "a" military camp or "another" military camp. It was something deeper. And you could feel it by the time you put your boots on the ground and looked around. You could see groups of men and women engaging all kinds of training activities. Some of them were carrying big pieces of equipment from one place to another, assembling and dismantling pieces of artillery over and over again, until they had mastered it.

There were several platoons running around the perimeter. Not too fast, not too slow, singing some inappropriate songs -I am not going to reproduce our greatest hits here- that helped everybody to run at the same pace. Even when we went to the library, we did it orderly and in groups.

That's the reason our camp was called "One", because we did things as one man. You don't need to be reminded about chains as strong as the weakest link if every link is working at the same time, with the same strength and helping each other.  There are huge advantages in this; not only you can replace one recruit, if injured, for another without noticing, but you know exactly how long it will take to perform any task.

Each one of us had our own names, background and abilities, but working together, we were just a unit, unbeatable except for soccer matches, but that's another story. It didn't take long for me to decide if one day I was managing my own camp I should keep that spirit, and obviously, that name.