thedrifter
10-06-07, 04:58 AM
Published on Saturday, October 06, 2007
Monarch hits field with war stories
The Fayetteville Observer
Meet Eric Blalock, a 24-year-old freshman linebacker at Methodist University.
A 24-year-old freshman?
Yep. He spent six years in the Marines after graduating from Apex High School, including an eight-month war stint in Iraq.
Boot camp at Parris Island was no piece of cake, but Blalock didn’t do much out of the ordinary to prepare for the grueling indoctrination.
“Well, it was different. There’s always somebody in your face and that makes you grow up quick,” he said. “I’ve always been in pretty good shape, so I didn’t do anything to better prepare myself. I always lifted and ran and that was enough.”
That should make a tongue lashing from a football coach seem tame by comparison, right?
“I’m not intimidated by them or what they say to me,” he said, “but at the same time I don’t want to be hardheaded. I want to be a coachable guy, there’s a lot to learn, and I’m trying to make myself a better player.”
Blalock left the Marines as a corporal, and with memories he’ll never forget. His assignment in Iraq was mortuary affairs.
“We were responsible for all the American troops that got killed,” he said. “We had to go get them if their unit didn’t bring them to us, and we’d annotate what killed them, get the doctors to sign off on death certificates, and make sure the personal stuff they have on them at the time gets home with him.
“My dad was a mortician, so I had seen dead bodies — but you don’t see them to the extreme you do in a war zone.”
— By Thomas Pope
Ellie
Monarch hits field with war stories
The Fayetteville Observer
Meet Eric Blalock, a 24-year-old freshman linebacker at Methodist University.
A 24-year-old freshman?
Yep. He spent six years in the Marines after graduating from Apex High School, including an eight-month war stint in Iraq.
Boot camp at Parris Island was no piece of cake, but Blalock didn’t do much out of the ordinary to prepare for the grueling indoctrination.
“Well, it was different. There’s always somebody in your face and that makes you grow up quick,” he said. “I’ve always been in pretty good shape, so I didn’t do anything to better prepare myself. I always lifted and ran and that was enough.”
That should make a tongue lashing from a football coach seem tame by comparison, right?
“I’m not intimidated by them or what they say to me,” he said, “but at the same time I don’t want to be hardheaded. I want to be a coachable guy, there’s a lot to learn, and I’m trying to make myself a better player.”
Blalock left the Marines as a corporal, and with memories he’ll never forget. His assignment in Iraq was mortuary affairs.
“We were responsible for all the American troops that got killed,” he said. “We had to go get them if their unit didn’t bring them to us, and we’d annotate what killed them, get the doctors to sign off on death certificates, and make sure the personal stuff they have on them at the time gets home with him.
“My dad was a mortician, so I had seen dead bodies — but you don’t see them to the extreme you do in a war zone.”
— By Thomas Pope
Ellie