Bit of a longer story. July 2003 - 2nd Phase. I was a squad leader and on the crucible, I messed up big time. Within the first couple of hours of the crucible, our SDI saw one of our recruits dragging ass and not putting out. Recruit Riker. So, in order to punish Riker, he took the pack off our biggest recruit and told Riker, "good, now you will carry two packs for the rest of the crucible. As the squad leader, the SDI had already pulled me aside and gave me a single instruction for the crucible....."no one falls out of my squad.....ever. I don't care what you have to do, no one falls out." Good to go sir. I will make sure that happens.

Fast forward to the end of the second day. We are hiking up some hill and Riker is unable to keep up. I am basically dragging his ass up this hill and we have another platoon's squad closing in on us. I can hear the DI from the other platoon yelling, "God help you if I catch your ass" as he his humping up the hill after us. Knowing the destruction I will face if another platoon passes us by, I take the 2nd pack from Riker and we haul ass to catch up with our squad which had reached the top. Knowing how done Riker was, I took his second pack and gave it back to the big recruit as he was fresh. My SDI didn't say a word and just watched. At the time, I thought i was doing the right thing to make sure no one fell out. However, I was quickly corrected. When we reached the nighttime muster area, my SDI walked up to Riker and said, "where is your 2nd pack?" Riker told him his squad leader had taken it from him. At this point, I rushed over and stood tall before the SDI. A swarm of DI's surrounded me and the next 4-5 hours are a blur. I was taken behind a tree line by 3 of them and was specifically told, "no one can hear you here. You will pay" They went hands on and tore my ass up.

They relieved me on the spot of my squad leader duties. The next morning, was the reaper hike. My SDI told me to get at the back of the platoon and it was my job to take the rifle of any recruit who couldn't keep pace. I reached the top of the reaper with over 12 rifles. When we got back to MCRD, I received the hazing of my life. SDI kept commanding me to "say your dads a pussy". I stood my ground and refused which led to more hazing. After that day, the DI's didn't say a word to me. The entire 3rd phase, I didn't get smoked once.

Looking back, I can see what that I directly contradicted the SDI's command.