MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -- sil•kies
noun
1 a type of Marine Corps running shorts characterized for being short and revealing.
2 an occasional series chronicling moments in America’s Battalion from pre-deployment training through their mission in Afghanistan. Characterized for being short and revealing.
COWBOYS & INDIANS
As the glow of the desert sunset throws light across Range 215 it casts long shadows from stacks of shipping containers serving as a training town. Marines move in on a two-story house.
The training area is nearly empty. It’s been shut down for the day. Everyone else has gone home, or back to a forward operating base to clean gear, eat chow and prepare for tomorrow. The men of Lima Company are taking advantage of the empty training space by running around shipping containers and yelling “bang, bang.”
From around the corner a sergeant throws an empty can at a group of Marines and yells, “BOOM!” before returning to the top of the house.
More cans fly. The Marines retaliate, “Bang, bang, bang. Bang! Bang!”
“I got you. You’re dead.”
“F--- you!”
“I did I got you. I had eyes on for like 30 seconds.”
“Bang, bang, bang!”
There is a platoon of full-grown men running around playing cowboys and indians.
After they finish up the sergeant on top of the house goes over what they did wrong, what they did right and how to improve.
“Run it again,” he says.
To an outsider it looks ridiculous, but something will happen with the next iteration, and each one after it. The Marines movements will become swifter, more precise. There will be fewer fake deaths, less arguing over who got whom.
Today it’s a throwback to an old childhood game. Months from now the “bang” will be the crack of a rifle. The clank of the can hitting the ground will be an explosion so real you can feel it in your chest. No one will say, “I got you,” because if they did … they will know.
The Marines move back into position, the sergeant grabs another empty can.