Interview With with a Grunt Sergeant Essay -- Interview Essay

I sat down with a former Grunt Sergeant, Jake Stone, on a calm, sunny, Saturday November morning, to ask about his experience in the Marine Corps. Mr. Stone is a rather frail looking man in a wheelchair that you can recount used to be a powerful man despite his age which is approaching late seventies. I learned a lot from him. For example, Mr. Stone was a training officer during the Vietnam War. He was stationed in California teaching hand to hand combat, verbalizeonets, pistols, rifles, hand grenades, flamethrowers, just a wide assortwork forcet of deadly weapons. He led ninety men in a strike team that was prepared to be deployed at every time. They were to be ready to pack up and leave in an hour.Just because he wasnt deployed, thats not to say he didnt see his share of the action, he just didnt get to see enemy fire, he saw plenty of horrors that would terrify many people. He also had access to quite a bit of class information that has since been declassified. One of them bein g a strike team tactic that seems quite dangerous.A jet designed originally designed to drop bombs was fit with four marines instead. A few jets would fly real low altitude, and just before the targets, the pilots cut the engines so their flying would be nearly scant, opening the bay doors, the pilots drop the payload of marines, instead of bombs, whod parachute down onto the enemy from above. This was a strategy designed to confuse and overwhelm the enemy. This idea was scrapped after excessively many people broke their legs and dislocated ankles in training,I also learned about a training accident that killed twenty one people. His men were practicing a beach style invasion, everyone was fully equipped and had landing vehicles, boarding craft, b... ...e of his accidents and the nature of the officers above him. I may have even asked for more expand about his involvement in security detail, I got lots of various detail but no finite description. I dont spang the details which is what I largely base my writing on. I take details and make the reader see it clearly, I did not receive the optic detail I would have enjoyed writing about. I would have asked him more of what his day to day life was like and what he felt at any given time. I expect anxiety but thats not something I can just assume. I will be looking in the archives for other people with similar stories.Perhaps I would ask about his involvement with the Commandant, four star general in the Marine Corps. I would ask what it felt like to be near the most powerful man in the marines, and to be in a position of securing and protecting him from harm.