Special Guest Appearance

Today we had an instructor from Ben Clark Academy in Riverside visit. The Riverside Academy is a high stress academy, where the instructors are up in your face yelling and making you do push ups all day. I was fortunate enough today to experience what that was like. While in formation the instructor walked around belittling a few of the cadets. The following script is a small piece of what happened this morning (the capital text is the instructor yelling)...

To the person next me, "WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR CHEST? DO YOU THINK THATS CUTE (points to guys chest hair)? YOU BETTER SHAVE THAT."

Person next to me, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

"YOU BETTER HAVE IT DONE BY TOMORROW, NO, HAVE IT DONE BY LUNCH."

Person next to me, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

Instructor walks in front of me, "WHAT IS THAT? (pointing to my hat and some visible hair)"

Looking straight ahead I didn't answer

"YOU BETTER ANSWER  ME."

Me, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

"YOU ANSWER WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU. YOU BETTER PULL THAT HAIR BACK."

Me, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

"WHAT? I DIDN'T HEAR YOU. SOUND OFF BRAY."

shouting louder, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

"I SAID SOUND OFF BRAY! USE YOUR BIG GIRL VOICE."

Louder, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

He walks away, to another victim, "HOW MUCH YOU WIEGH?"

Victim, "Sir, 190, sir."

"YOU'RE FAT... YOU BETTER LAY OFF THE DESERTS."

Instructor comes back to me, "BRAY, WHATS THE CODE OF ETHICS?"

I start the code...

"BRAY. YOU'RE ALL MESSED UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU, WHY ARE YOU BATTING YOUR EYES AT ME? WHATS THE CODE OF ETHICS."

(The code of ethics that we have learned is different from what cadets learn in Riverside, so, I started off the code wrong to his standards.)

"WHAT IS THAT YOU SAY, THATS NOT THE CODE OF ETHICS, IS THAT THE CODE OF ETHICS? THE LAW ENFORCEMENT CODE OF ETHICS IS THE BIBLE. YOU ARE CHANGING THE CODE TO FIT YOU. YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE CODE. GET ON THE GROUND AND START PUSHING. DOWN! (I count out and did 20 push-ups). STAND UP, RUN IN PLACE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP. WHAT'S THE CODE? SAY THE CODE. KEEP GOING AND GET IT DONE. (He walks away.)

I continue with the code, and went completely blank.

"BRAY! I CAN'T HEAR YOU." He walks back over to me, "WHAT IS THE CODE?"

I close my eyes to recite again,

"WHY ARE YOU CLOSING YOUR EYES, YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR EYES CLOSED WHEN YOUR AN OFFICER. OPEN YOUR EYES. THEY CAN ATTACK YOU. YOU NEED TO GET SQUARED AWAY. OPEN YOUR EYES. DON'T LOOK AT ME."

"Sir, Yes, Sir."

"WHAT?"

louder, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

This is just a small part of what happened this morning. He came to me several times to hassle me, what I wrote above is all I can remember. It was myself and one other guy the instructor picked on the most. I have never been yelled at like that before, it was hard for me not to crack a smile. Afterwards, many of my wonderful classmates came up to me and asked, "are you okay?" Several of the guys said they wanted to jump out at the instructor to defend me, they wanted to tell him not to talk to me that way. Everyone felt so bad, they wanted to back me up. One guy even said he wanted to cry for me. It was sweet that everyone was supportive and feeling for me. It was a rough morning, and the instructor will be here all week!