Word: get
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...just spend all your time reacting, you'll never get anywhere," he said...
...course lessons get learned only one way around here, and it's not the easy way. First, you march to a dingy compound in the woods called NBC -- nuclear, biological, chemical - and you get to spend about 20 minutes flopping around in a sand pit to practice shielding your genitals from a nuclear blast...
...that's just the warmup for the main feature - to be led into a dark room, 25 privates at a time, and get tear-gassed...
Lesson 1: The masks work. You find out how well when you lift it up for the few seconds it takes to blurt your name, rank and Social Security number, and choke on the whiff you get when you do. Clear your mask - a puff out through the one-way mouth hole - and you're back in the pink, congratulating yourself on your fortitude and staring quizzically at the masked-and-gloved drill sergeants burning the CS sticks, wondering if the drama of this boot camp ordeal, like so many others, had been oversold...
Within seconds, I could see nothing but that heavenly-bright doorway and the flashing forms of several panickers as they threw themselves at drill sergeants and generally mucked up our line to get out. (They would try to make light of it later.) Some held their breath and closed their eyes, and got off easy. My plan was to breathe deep - take their best shot - and moan, moan, moan until it all went away, and not do anything to dislodge the big lunch the drill sergeants had gleefully served us just minutes before. It worked - that night I had less...