Terminal Lance #412 “The Difference: Morning PT”

It sucks, but we love the way it sucks! No we don’t.

They say the grass is always greener on the other side, but in the case of POG’s and grunts, the grass on the POG side would be a fluorescent safety-green (almost like a glow-belt) whilst the grass on the grunt side would look something like this:

We don’t even have grass and we’re not allowed to walk on it. You’d better believe that if one of those Lance Corporals took a step on that barren dirt, a Staff NCO would materialize out of nothingness and shove 3 knife hands in his face over it.

There’s always a lot to say on the subject of POG’s and grunts, but I think the argument often gets twisted into a “combat” vs “non-combat” sort of thing. This is only half of the issue, really. The other half is that grunts, as a general thing, are treated like the lowest of the low on a daily basis even outside of a combat zone. Of course there’s POG’s that do hardcore shit outside the wire, but at the end of the day, they’re not treated like a grunt.

Grunts take pride in knowing they have it the worst, at all times.

In other news…

It is official. Look for The White Donkey on Amazon starting February 1st.

If you were a Kickstarter backer 2 years ago, there’s a good chance the book is already on its way to you, as myself and a bunch of really great folk have helped me get over 700 books mailed out over the weekend.

The White Donkey is the story of Abe, and his surreal journey to and from Iraq. It is the world’s first 284 page graphic novel about Iraq written and illustrated by an Iraq veteran. This book has been a long time coming, over 5 years in the making since the day I started writing it. Believe it or not, Abe and Garcia were written as characters for this book even before they were meant to be in the comic strip. I’m terribly excited and a little nervous to be putting something that has been so personal to me out into the world next week, but I’m also proud of it and optimistic that it is in fact a good book.

You can read more about the book in the special edition article I did for the Marine Corps Times.

I’ve mentioned before that there will be some changes to the site coming soon–they’re already being worked on. My goal is to expand the site so more people can contribute–to kind of give Terminal Lance back to the active duty junior enlisted. If you’re interested in writing for Terminal Lance next month, email me with some writing samples. Active duty Marines are preferred, but not required.