Somebodys' Killer

It was hot in Iraq in August. Much hotter than Georgia this same time a year. Some would say that is not fair though because the heat in these two places are two different types of heat. To Anthony though, heat was heat, and Iraq was the worst. He had lived in the desert most of his life. He lived in Palm Springs for many years and had experienced what he thought was the worst. Of course, he was a kid then and was not wearing 40 pounds of military gear.

Maybe that was the real discomfort in Iraq. Not so much the heat scorching his inner layer of skin black so his outer layer of black brought out what his friends called his true roots, but the heaviness of everything while deployed. The heaviness of no family, no room of your own, no shower of your own, and sometimes in extreme circumstances no bed to sleep in. It's the discomfort of not having anything of your own except for the gun by your side.

Anthony could hear the Drill Sergeant say in his nicest, arrogant and annoying voice that that's what makes soldiers strong. "A comfortable soldier is a weak soldier Jackson!" "Yes Drill Sergeant", Anthony would always reply in as humble and kiss ass tone as possible.

Action Jackson is what the platoon would call him. Mainly because Anthony was the only black man with the platoon, and his last name was Jackson. It didn't take long for his white platoon sergeant to think of, and Anthony not long to not understand that he was being referred to by the 1988 hit movie Action Jackson. This movie was about a black African American action hero, which was very rare for the 1980's and even rarer that it made the movie theaters for all the white people to watch.

For Anthony this was all but to common in the military and even more common in the Infantry. To them it was brotherly love, but you never saw a platoon full of black men calling the only white guy Forest Gump. Of course, to see more than three black men in an Infantry Platoon is a site to behold also. Racism is common when you’re black and a soldier in the military. It came with the territory. There were many time were the platoon would try to get a rise out of him and a reaction. “Hey Jackson why are you so dark?” or “Hey Jackson the slave master didn’t get a hold of your ancestor did he? Man, because you are black man!!” Jackson would always reply with “Fuck you honkey”, mainly because he was not good at comebacks and in the end it was not beneficial to be on the bad side of the people who had your back in war.

War is where Action Jackson was right now. War had come and gone and was here once again with ISIS. Soldiers were getting lazy and comfortable with the role around them though. No more patrols, only training of the Iraqi soldiers and dealing with the uncomforting that surrounded them.

Anthony was dealing with that uncomforting one hot day in August. A day where the heat was as unbearable as any he has felt. This wasn’t because the air conditioning had just gone out for the 100th time in the last month, or the fact of the small spinning fan in his room not being able to move the air in the room.

Something was wrong with the platoon. Everything felt different. Or maybe it was Action Jackson that was different all along.

Stay tuned for chapter 2