We PT as a shop three times a week, which is the Marine Corps standard. Mondays and Wednesdays are standard issue running around and doing calisthetics. Fridays we try to mix it up with something more fun, usually a game of some kind.

Today we met outside at 0500, where Cpl P (whose day it was) announced that we were going to run to the gym (a mile), then play raquetball. Now, unusually, our OIC had showed up. That's unusual because officers do not generally PT with enlisted. Running PT is an enlisted function, and if officers are there it can interfere with the NCO's authority. In addition, officers can almost always carve an hour or two for PT out of their normal workday, so they don't have to get up extra-early like we do. Lastly, leaders are expected to be more enduring than their troops, so if the officer falls out, it looks bad.

Now, our OIC falling out is not a credible risk on a normal day, as he's built like a truck. (Callsign: "Shreck"). So I suspect I could dust him on a very long run, but I wouldn't catch up to him until mile five or six.

So anyway, P announces that we're going to play raquetball, and our OIC snickers. "You do realize that not only do I own my own raquet... I own my own gloves and goggles?" But too late now, we set out on our run.

He hadn't brought his gear, so he checked out kit from the gym like the rest of us did. And he was the only one that actually knows the rules, so we just divided up into a group of three and a group of four, and wacked balls around inside the court. All was going well until I took a hard richochet in the face, right over my left eye. Nothing too strange to me, I am used to participating in athletic activities that involve me getting struck by stuff.

The goggles they issue don't fit over glasses, so my regular spectacles were the only protection I had. The impact knocked them off, I cursed as the other guys laughed, I picked the glasses up and put them back on and we got back to business.

My vision was a bit blurry immediatly after the impact, but that's normal, and it goes away in a few seconds. Except it wasn't! After a minute of play, my left eye was still very blurry, although my right was fine. I started to get worried. Was I concussed? Was my eye injured?

Then I realized that my left lens had popped out of the frame. I called a time-out while I found it on the floor, popped it back into the frame, and blessed 20/25 vision was mine once again!

Posted by: Boviate at 04:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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