Ken's Photo Album 2/Ken England.jpg

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This picture was taken in England after having been out of the Marines for about a year. I had not surprisingly received a General Discharge for "other than honorable" reasons. The truth is that I was actually a very good Marine who was well respected and in a high position of rank for the time I had in service. One of the things I respected about the Marines were things like the "Humps" we did (hiking with a lot of heavy gear at a fast pace for a long distance). On these Humps we would routinely have people "fall out," sometimes falling flat on their face from pain and exhaustion. I never fell back in any of these and sometimes carried the very heavy radio or even other Marines weapons. I can honestly say that when others became weaker I became stronger, I fed off the inability of others and literally became stronger despite often times having terrible blisters and great pain myself. Ah but strength and endurance is not enough, you must be a good robot as well. A year into my Marine Corps career I spoke out and "jumped my chain of command" by openly reporting the unjustified behavior of my immediate superiors. From that point on my life was a living hell. My Platoon Sergeant (Staff Sergeant Stanley) pulled me into the back room of the ship after this subordination and told me something I will never forget; "Nichols, your the biggest piece of shit I have known in my 17 years in the Marine Corps and I'm gonna fry your ass first chance I get." He was true to his word and soon I was losing rank and looking over my shoulder for likely and desired retribution because my fellow Marines were being punished because of me. I honestly do not know how I avoided a serious ass whippin by my platoon. Then we went to the Gulf War and I found myself with a man directly in charge of me who hated me with a vengeance while going into Gulf War combat. Disobeying a lawful order under the Uniform Code of Military Justice is punishable by death in a time of war by the way. That is when I realized that the Marine Corps was bullshit and my awakening had officially began.

Before getting kicked out I had what became the greatest adrenaline rush of my life when I basically said fuck you to Military Police (MP's) and got into a full scale high speed car chase with my 1973 AMC Javelin that I had bought for $450. During the chase I had four MP's chasing me (in much faster cars) with lights flashing and sirens blazing for approximately 8 miles. At one point my car stalled from overheating and a very abrupt stop, but it then restarted and I am happy to say that the motherfuckers did not catch me. I got away from the whole lot. I always get a kick when I see those bullshit cop shows with high speed chases where the "bad guys" never get away, well I did! Fuck'em. I do acknowledge however that I put other peoples lives in danger and I definitely consider this the most immoral act of my life,... aside from joining the Marines in the first place that is.

Soon after this I was discharged from the Marines and to this day it was the happiest day of my life. The most important lessons of my life were learned by that bullshit, and the main thing I learned was just how precious freedom is. I vowed to never relinquish my freedom again, instead I vowed to defend and exercise my freedom 100%. I have not strayed from this since that time and as a result I have lived a very rich life even at the young age of 33.

It is so true that the biggest mistakes are where you grow the most, I certainly did.