Have you noticed those that followed you from the beginning until now?

Well what can I say but the fact that I noticed when I went to basic, I ran into a Puerto Rican, someone within my platoon. He used to sign his name “Jim Beam”, unfortunately drill sergeant saw and smoked him while in the chow line. We used to shine our boots next to each other, but after basic I never really kept in contact with my buddies. Next stop of course is when I was in AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in Fort Gordon, Georgia. At the time I transferred from basic to AIT, I end up finding out that I would have a drill sergeant that would become my mentor. Plus after awhile I somehow picked up a puerto rican accent.

This drill sergeant was puerto riqueño and was both in the Marines and Army. His name was Drill Sergeant Camacho. This was my favorite drill sergeant because he never let me slack. Like one morning I thought maybe I can hang back and run the females that are in group C, then there is group B, and the top is group A. Well I was running with all those that were slow and out of nowhere I’m just taking it easy jogging. My drill sergeant runs up behind me and goes “Nelson, what are you doing in this group, you know you belong in A group, so rush your butt up there. So I did and continued to always run with the guys.

Finished AIT, now on a month break to help my recruiters, but then I am given my orders for my first duty station overseas in South Korea. There I was processed and sent to Camp Casey, where of course there are the majority of latinos there. To include a puerto rican guy that always waited until I got back and would try to talk to me too. Later I was transferred to Camp Red Cloud, because if I stayed in Casey I would have been the only female there. So after a while I find out that one of my best battle buddies Negron is another puerto rican I would meet and still continue in some way to be there for him if he needs it. Moral of my story is that I am guarded by the Puerto Rican people, plus my husband says my spanish sounds more like I am Puerto Rican. Either way I am very grateful to all my puerto rican friends and those I will get in the future.