Coach Corporal: Football, Military, and Internal Discipline

So there I was, a 20-year old United States Marine sitting on a giant KC-130 refueling plane. I was a part of Operation Northern Watch in Southeastern Turkey. The goal of our operation, in short, was to prevent Sadaam Hussein from traveling north of a certain point. My unit had just loaded all of our equipment and materials onto our plane in a hurried 45 minutes time, as directed by our Commanding Officer. He then informed us that we were headed for Germany. It had been brought to our unit’s attention that Hussein, and his counterparts, had scud missiles pointed in our direction, hence the rush to head west. As I sat on the plane, scared out of my mind, I was listening to what I hoped was the roar of jets taking off. However, in the isolation of the windowless airplane, I had no way of knowing if the roar was a result of jets leaving or missiles coming, assuming they might sound