Who in the World is Nikolai Abraham Jackson *Part 7*

SO MY FOOTS ON THE BRAKE AND I CAN'T FIGURE OUT THE CLUTCH AND YOU RUN AROUND TO SAVE MY LIFE AND PREVENT ME FROM SMACKING INTO THE CAR BEHIND ME AND NOW...WE'RE HERE.

PART 7 OF THIS FANTASTICAL ADVENTURE RIDE OF WHAT IS MY LIFE.

NOT SURE WHERE I LEFT OFF, SOMEWHERE IN LOUISIANA ABOUT TO DEPLOY FOR IRAQ. SO LET'S JUMP TO IRAQ.

KUWAIT, IRAQ, GERMANY, BOMBS, GETTING SHOT AT, AND COMING HOME.

SO WE FLEW INTO GERMANY FROM THE EAST COAST OF THE US, NOT SURE WHICH AIRPORT I FLEW OUT OF, MAYBE KENNEDY? IS THAT AN AIRPORT? ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I FLEW.

ANYWAY, WE FLY OUT OF KENNEDY LETS SAY AND IT WAS EVERY OTHER SEAT.

LIKE EACH SOLDIER HAD A SEAT INBETWEEN HIM AND THE SOLDIER NEXT TO HIM. LOTS OF APPLAUSE AND PICTURES AS WE WENT THROUGH THE AIRPORT. FULL GIDDUP TOO, ACU'S, RIFLES, AND ALL OUR GEAR TRAVELING THROUGH THE SKY.

ONE OF THE THINGS I REMEMBER IS WANTING TO SLEEP THROUGH THE FLIGHT SO I BOUGHT SOME SLEEP AID BEFORE WE LEFT AND TOOK ONE BEFORE I GOT ON THE PLANE.

HAVING NOT FELT ANYTHING I PROCEEDED TO TAKE TWO MORE ON THE PLANE AND I WOKE UP IN GERMANY IN A HAZE.

WEIRDEST HOLDOVER AIRPORT I'VE EVER SEEN, EVERYTHING IS ALL SHINY AND MODERN AND ODD GERMAN VENDING MACHINES ALL OVER THIS PLACE. ALL I REMEMBER IS WANTING TO SLEEP.

I THINK I PASSED OUT ON A YELLOW BENCH FOR LIKE 15 MINUTES BEFORE WE WERE BOARDING TO FLY TO KUWAIT.

KUWAIT WAS AWESOME AND I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THAT PLACE.

YOU GET INTRODUCED TO THESE WEIRD MIDDLE EASTERN KNOCK OFF STORES THAT SELL EVERYTHING FROM POWER ADAPTERS TO RIP OFF, “FAMILY MAN” (FAMILY GUY) WHICH WOULD HAVE LIKE 5 FULL SEASONS AND A MISINTERPRETED BACK COVER.

ANYWAY ONE DAY I REMEMBER WE HAD FUCKED UP AS A UNIT AND WE WERE FORCED TO DO PUSHUPS ON EACH OTHERS BACK IN A SQUARE WITH FOUR OF US EACH ONE WITH THEIR FEET ON THE NEXT ONES BACK, AND I REMEMBER BEING THE CHICKEN FUCKER I WAS, I YELL, “C'MON GUYS WE CAN DO THIS!” AND EVERYONE ELSE AT THE SAME TIME WAS LIKE, “SHUT UP JACKSON!!!”

EITHER WAY WE SPENT ABOUT 2 WEEKS IN KUWAIT HEARING OUTGOING ARTILLERY FIRE AND GETTING INFORMED ABOUT OUR TRIP TO IRAQ AND WHAT TO EXPECT.

I REMEMBER BEING BRIEFED THAT WHEN A SUICIDE BOMB OR OTHER IED IS PLANTED AND GOES OFF THERE ALWAYS HAS TO BE A FILM PERSON TO FILM THE EVENT TO GET PROOF OF THE BOMBING. INTERESTING.

THIS WAS ALSO THE TIME WHEN THEY SCREENED ALL THE SOLDIERS AND ONE OF THE QUESTIONS BEFORE GOING TO WAR WAS IF YOU WERE UNDER THE AGE OF 18,...AND I REMEMBER I HAD JUST TURNED 18 AND I ALMOST HAD TO ANSWER YES TO THAT QUESTION. SO YOUNG.

FROM KUWAIT WE FLEW THROUGH BIAP (BAGHDAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT) AND THROUGH A FEW DIFFERENT BASES BEFORE LANDING AT FOB LOYALTY.

I GOT TO FLY ON A CHINOOK AND I REMEMBER THE FLARES WENT OFF TO DETER ENEMY FIRE AND IT SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE EXCEPT THE CHINOOK CREW.

WE LAND AND OF COURSE GET MORTARED OUR FIRST NIGHT THERE, ODDLY ENOUGH WE ALL SLEPT THROUGH MOST OF IT.

THE ARMY GIVES YOU SKIN TIGHT BLACK SPANDEX TO KEEP YOU WARM UNDER YOUR ACU'S,...BUT I GOT THE BRIGHT IDEA ONE OF THE FIRST NIGHTS TO PUT ON MY SPANDEX BY ITSELF AND RUN DOWN THE HALL LIKE A NINJA WARRIOR.

WE WERE IN TIGHT BARRACKS, BUNK BEDS, WITH SHEETS OVER THE OPENINGS LIKE YOU DO IN JAIL, PLAYING MADDEN AND GETTING READY TO MOVE INTO MORE COMFORTABLE LIVING AT THE AID STATION.

ONE DAY A SOLDIER TOLD ME I NEEDED TO MOVE MY STUFF SO HE COULD PUT HIS STUFF THERE AND I SNAPPED AND WANTED TO FIGHT HIM. THESE MEMORIES ARE ALL BUT FLEETING.

NO FIGHT OCCURRED.

FINALLY,...TO THE AID STATION, 4 WHITE LAWN CHAIRS AND AN ER WITH OVERFLOW ROOMS FOR HEAVY DAYS.

BETTER SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS ALTHOUGH STRANGE THINGS WOULD STILL HAPPEN LIKE SOMEONE LEAVING AN ALARM CLOCK TO GO OFF IN A LOCKED ROOM, CAUSING OTHER SOLDIERS TO TRY AND CLIMB OR BREAK INTO THE ROOM THE TURN THE ALARM OFF.

BACK TO THE BOMBINGS...

WE HAD A POOL WITH A SAUNA, IT WAS SADDAM'S POOL AND IT WAS AWESOME TO SWIM IN, EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT HAD AN ENORMOUS PATCHED BURNT MORTAR HOLE FROM WHERE THEY HAD BOMBED THE POOL WHILE I HOPE NO ONE WAS SWIMMING.

THE MORTARS WERE FREQUENT AND TERRIFYING, WE HAD AN ALARM SYSTEM THAT WOULD SOMETIMES WORK AND SOMETIMES NOT.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO SHOOT INCOMING MORTARS OUT OF THE SKY, BUT SOMETIMES IT WOULD JUST GO OFF AND YOU WOULD SHIT YOUR PANTS FOR NO REASON.

ONCE IT WENT OFF WHILE A MORTAR WAS ACTUALLY COMING IN AND I WENT TO RUN INTO THE AID STATION AND MY BATTLE BUDDY LAGGED BEHIND, AND WHEN I ASKED HIM WHY HE WASN'T RUNNING WITH SHIT IN HIS PANTS HE SAID, “I WANNA SEE WHERE IT LANDS”...BRAVER MAN THAN I.

MISSIONS WERE COOL, I WAS OVER EXCITED MY FIRST MISSION AND ON HIGH ALERT BUT AFTER A FEW MISSIONS OF REALIZING THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO IN A CONVOY OF 100 HUMVEE'S AS A BASIC MEDIC UNLESS SOMETHING HAPPENED CLOSE TO ME.

MOST OF THE TRAUMA I SAW WAS IN THE AID STATION.

ONCE A GUY CAME IN WITH A TINY PIECE OF SHRAPNEL IN HIS BODY AND I WAS SUPER TIRED AND MUST'VE BEEN LOOKING DRONEY BECAUSE MY SGT LOOKED AT ME AND TOLD ME, “DON'T GET WOOZY FROM THIS SHRAPNEL, THERE'S MUCH WORSE GONNA HAPPEN!!!”

AND BOY HE WASN'T KIDDING.

NEXT SERIOUS INJURY AND DEATH I REMEMBER WAS CAPTAIN SHUMAKER, AND IT WAS A QUADRUPLE AMPUTATION.

MY BATTLE BUDDY WAS ON THE MISSION WITH HIM WHEN AN IED WENT OFF AND THE FRONT OF THE HUMVEE CRUMPLED IN ON CAPTAIN SHUMAKERS LEGS AND BODY AND THERE WAS NO WAY FOR MY BATTLE BUDDY TO GET TO HIS LEGS AND BODY IN TIME TO RENDER MEDICAL TREATMENT.

BY THE TIME THEY GOT HIM OUT OF THE HUMVEE HE WAS BARELY BREATHING AND I REMEMBER MY BB TELLING ME HE PUT HIS HAND NEAR THE CAPTAINS MOUTH TO MAKE SURE HE WAS BREATHING, BUT BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO THE AID STATION IT WAS TOO LATE, AND MY BB HANDED HIM OFF TO US IN TEARS.

WE TRIED TO GET A MAIN LINE ON HIS FEMORAL ARTERY TO NO AVAIL AND HAD TO CALL IT.

I REMEMBER SITTING WITH THE BODY BEFORE WE PUT HIM IN THE MORGUE THINKING...

“RIGHT NOW THIS SOLDIER'S FAMILY IS PRAYING HE COMES HOME, AND HE'S NOT COMING HOME.”


RIP SGT SHUMAKER.


ANOTHER SERIOUS INJURY I REMEMBER WAS OF A GUY THAT HAD LOST BOTH LEGS FROM THE KNEE CAP DOWN, TOURNIQUETS ON EACH LEG, AND HE COMES IN SCREAMING, “GO COWBOYS!!!” AS LOUD AS HE CAN.

BLOOD, SO MUCH BLOOD. MOP BUCKETS OF THE STUFF.

WE FOUND THE CURE FOR AIDS, OR RATHER, A TABLET ADDED TO MOP BUCKETS TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF HIV AND AIDS IN BLOOD.

THE NIGHT OF THE RAPE I AM WOKEN UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT INFORMED THAT I NEEDED TO DRAW BLOOD.

APPARENTLY A NEW COMPANY HAD COME TO TOWN AND BROUGHT ALCOHOL IN, AND OF COURSE A GIRL GOT RAPED.

THEY FOUND HER FACE DOWN IN THE DIRT WITH NOTHING BUT HER UNDERWEAR ON.

RAPE KITS, I HAD NO IDEA RAPE KITS EXISTED, BUT THEY DO. ITS A KIT WHERE, TO PLACE BRA HERE, PLACE UNDERWEAR HERE, AND THE WHOLE KITS LOOKS LIKE ITS FROM THE 1980'S AND NONE OF THIS IS EVER GOING TO BE LOOKED AT BY ANYONE.

ME DRAWING BLOOD FROM EVERY IDIOT IN THAT COMPANY WAS MORE OF A TORTURE FOR THE COMPANY MALES THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

I FEEL VINDICATION FOR THE WOMAN WHO GOT RAPED.

AND FOR THE GUY WHO SHOT HIMSELF IN THE LATRINE BEFORE A MISSION. APPARENTLY HIS GIRL STATE SIDE HAD CHEATED ON HIM. YOU COULD STILL SEE THE BULLET HOLE IN THE LATRINES AFTER THEY CLEANED UP HIS BODY.

SOME GUY WAS ON A ROOF SHOOTING AT MY CONVOY ONE NIGHT AND I REMEMBER THE GUNNER'S SHOOTING BACK AND TRYING TO SEE WITH MY NIGHT VISION WHERE THIS ASSHOLE WAS. LUCKILY NO ONE GOT HURT.

MY GIRLFRIEND STATE SIDE WAS IN MEDIC TRAINING AT 232, AND GOT A MILITARY SEXUAL TRAUMA SO I WAS ON THE PHONES WITH HER FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR WHICH LANDED ME AN ARTICLE 15 IN WHICH I LOST ALL PRIVILEGES AS A MEDIC AND WAS FORCED TO COUNT HYPODERMICS AND Q TIPS IN THE SUPPLY ROOM.

ALONG WITH BUFFING DOWN THOSE SWEET LITTLE 4 WHITE LAWN CHAIRS IN THE AID STATION WITH WATER, BLEACH AND A BANDANA.

I WOULD WORK FROM 6 IN THE MORNING UNTIL MIDNIGHT, GET OFF AND STILL CALL MY GIRLFRIEND TO MAKE SURE SHE WAS OKAY.

THIS WENT ON FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS UNTIL MY ARTICLE 15 LAPSED.

I THINK THAT’S ABOUT ENOUGH FOR THIS BLOG, ITS GETTING KINDA HEAVY FOR ME, AND I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE ANYTHING OUT.

I THINK I'M GONNA DO A PODCAST ABOUT THIS ALL NOW, IDK MAYBE, WE'LL SEE.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 8.

-NAJ

‘I don't know how they can't see that he's just got a broken heart. It's so broken, his poor heart.’

*Part 5* Who in the World is Nikolai Abraham Jackson?

AIT right Britani?

You had quite the different experience at the old 232 didn’t you? Doubt you were Tusker Blood. Probably too weak from your 9 week vacation at Fort Relaxing Jackson while I was eating shit and dirt and listening to the loudest artillery that side of the Mississippi ;p

Okay, I’m fine,…your fucking rotten corpse cum zombie pets are shriveling my frontal cortex. Sex. Sexy Lexi. Oh the things I did to that dog pale in comparison to your indifference when I told you she died.

For God’s sake even Gillian Jacobs met up with her douchebag ex to have a fucking moment.

And I do find you flirting with Matt while married to Brendan, while interviewing Black guys for Trump on TikTok,…kinda weird.

So what’s up with those yoga pants? You fuck in them? Before? After? Now? LoL

Sorry my little Russian stump went limp in you and you jellyfished pumped me out of you and laughed but,…we were still dealing with the felony.

I drove away from that motel listening to dire straights “money for nothing, chicks for free”…

You were married right? Idk

Back and forth, back and forth, and Jim Carey, and Will Smith,…

Oh ya the Silver Surfer Vaporizer!!!

Give it back lol

But that thing is so weird, I did chacruna and god knows what out of it the first time I got it, tubes been changed a couple times I’m sure…

Conservative views have uhh,..occupied me.

So,…AIT is over and I’m going to Airborne School, I probably flew,…I flew today. I might have been on a bus though,…getting so hard to remember…

That’s when I found out my grandma died, on the bus right outside of Fort Benning now known as…Fort Moore.

Just worried for my mom, like always. My grandma was a Russian grandma, you know, cold, fucked up from Hitler still, grandpa got his leg blown off while conscripted IN the Nazi army. Kills a bunch of nazis and loses his leg,…

I know, and I bitch because I didn’t deploy with a battalion that allowed cell phones.

Anyway, just different I guess.

You can’t shove one time period down another time periods timeline, zeitgeist, or sub-conscious, I mean you can, but it just seems irreverent.

Or one life against another’s.

Airborne school was dope. If AIT is like college (bachelors) , then Airborne and I would assume everything from Special Forces, to SEAR School, to Air Assault school is like a Masters,…and of course deploying,…would be a PhD.

So. Much. Water.

So much fucking heat omg

If you puke you’re out, if you want to be out, you’re out, if you fart, you’re out.

Red Berets. Tan Berets. So many fucking berets!

Yes, had to down a full canteen when you woke up, before Physical Training, during PT, another whole one after PT,..

And they would have you hold the canteen upside down to show you drank it all.

Black flagging at fucking 5 in the morning,…please kill me.

I got addicted to NyQuil because I was so tired I couldn’t sleep.

My uniform would be soaked from the inner shirt to the edges of the ACU pattered fatigue.

Then another canteen of water before and after chow…

One guy puked from the water and chinups alone.

10 chinups before and after chow,…lol

Walking my laundry a mile up an incline dirt path to do laundry…

All hopeful and waiting for the next hardest part RIP.

And the zip line thing, I’m like, “after high ropes course at BFCCC Black Forest Camp & Counseling Center,…this ain’t shit!”

And the 250 foot tower, that was wild, hurt a lot, lol even at 180lbs I still hit the ground so hard Sgt. Airborne thought I blew my boot out but it was already torn from marching me around.

Needless to say the week of PLF, Parachute Landing Fall preparedness had not prepared me.

Then, yes, the worst day of my life, thanks for asking…

The day I got kicked out of Airborne school and my dreams died,

Airborne school consists of 3 weeks with weekends off, not that hard right?

On one of my weekends I went into Columbus and bought soft core porn DVD’s. That’s how easy it is lol

Anyway, first week is ground week, then Tower week,…then jump week!!!

It’s Friday of tower week and the troop is getting giddy for the weekend and they are going to dismiss us soon,…

Let’s say like 4:30PM right?

So they are doing paperwork, finishing things up, the Sgt. Airborne comes in and out to our formation every few minutes,…just like waiting, like you do in the military,…

And, everyone would start to get chatty and bubbly when we thought no one was there, then a Sgt. Airborne would tell us to shut up,…then we would…then 5 minutes later there would be a lull and people would start talking again.

Like any classroom you’ve ever been in.

So…

One of the murmurs,…I must’ve been talking,…and Sgt. Airborne didn’t single me out…

…it was this Marine Colonel.

See, you train with all branches in specialty schools, or Airborne anyway, and, he was a marine, had that marine attitude.

And yea, he was right, but everyone was talking, it wasn’t just me.

They start smoking me for being irreverent, and I’m in such good shape I’m talking shit back to them as I’m doing push-ups as fast as I can.

Cut to,…me crying in Sgt Airborne’s office begging for him to keep me in airborne school.

Nope.

Sent to a fuck up/drop out company in the then Fort Benning.

I ate a lot of HoneyBuns out of a vending machine, I was broken. Airborne school and RIP were all I knew and they had been ripped from my hands.

I pulled 24 hour shifts guarding empty buildings. Got off so tired I didn’t feel like sleeping.

Reprimanded to bum fuck Fort Polk 3 weeks before deployment, like just kill me.

…I remember being in my tiny ass barrack room in fort Polk and I took a call on my flip phone from my girlfriend at the time,…

And I was just like, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think I would get deployed, or at the least didn’t really think about it.”

And I remember her saying, “ I figured you’d go”

And I was like, in my mind, “oh ya…9/11…Iraq…all that shit”

Alright gals and guys, stay locked and loaded.

Sorry if part 5 was a little erratic but your conductor is VERY f*cked up ;)

Thanks! Love you all always!

Stay tuned for inbetweens, flash forwards, and Ft Polk & Iraq

✌🏽

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson?

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson?

Well, if I weren’t to say a washed up, burnt out, ex-hippy who had a severe drug and alcohol problem,….I would have to say I’m just a person.

Born October 2nd, 1989 in Aurora, CO to a set of beautiful parents. Russian-American Mother & African-American Father Vera Demidon & David Jackson.

My mother was born in Germany but her heritage hails from Belarus in Russia & all I know about my father is that he’s big, black and bald.

My parents were already divorced at the time of my birth so I would be considered a Bastard I suppose, and I guess at times in my life I have been quite the Bastard.

Nonetheless my mothers maiden name is Demidon. Her mother’s name was Nina, also the name of my oldest niece, and my Mother’s Father’s name was Iwan.

I knew my mothers parents very little, and know nothing about my fathers parents. Maybe that’s for another blog.

I was on a United States Army bus to Airborne School when I had heard the news of my Mother’s Mother passing. I was only 17 and she was my last living grandparent.

My mother had me at 46. I wasn’t the first or last. She had my youngest sister at 52 and the oldest sister at 19.

I have 2 more siblings, another sister and a brother making for the infamous Jackson 5.

I’ve had decent relationships with my siblings my whole life. Besides getting smothered with pillows until I thought I was going to die as a kid by older siblings, and the occasional family drama, things have been somewhat peaceful between us all.

I remember waking my brother up early as a kid on weekends and holidays I didn’t have school to play his Playstation.

GTA III and Final Fantasy VII, VIII, & IX were staples along with the memory I have of us 4 huddled around my older brother playing Super Mario Brothers and almost beating the whole darn game.

Another video game memory I have is of me saving over my brothers Final Fantasy VII game as he was in the very last stages of a very, very,…very long game, inside of crater at the finale of the game, with my brand new save slot, not understanding the damage I had done to the 80+ hours he had put into the game. Nonetheless he was serenely calm and shrugged it off with all the non-chalantness you could hope for in an older brother.

My mother raised me 99.9% of the time and did it with all the honor, dignity & class a lower/middle class single parent could. Working at the Aurora Police Station taking non-emergency calls for 35 years she saved every penny and still managed to make my life a living heaven.

She sent me to Black Forest Camp & Counseling Center with the little she had. She sent us all to camp because as she says she never got the chance to go to camp and wanted to make that dream a reality for us all.

This camp was the formative years for me becoming the Jesus Freak I became in early life.

Long before the war, before my loss of faith, and before my substance use, addiction & mental health problems.

I would spend my summers on high ropes courses, 20+ feet off the ground in the trees swinging from rope to rope, or balancing each foot on a separate rope. Ziplines, bible studies at High Vespers, campfires with acoustic guitar, and lots of fellowship with other young Jesus Freaks built a strong conviction of faith in my life.

I would Always come back from camp trying to make damn sure both my parents and all my siblings knew about Christ and had accepted him into their lives as their personal Lord and Savior.

Later in life my faith waivered as I got too old for camp, but I was led by the hand into a youth group at Colorado Community Church by a childhood best friend and rediscovered the fun of being a Jesus Freak.

We would take church funds and buy 100 McDoubles and go Downtown Denver Handing them out to the homeless, or missions trip to Mexico & LA.

In LA we were almost the victims of a drive by shooting but were able to huddle into a nearby school and got out unscathed.

In Mexico we helped build a church and ministered to people.

I helped run a worship group with the girl that brought me into the youth group, lighting candles & preparing lessons of the spirit for other kids.

I even got to deliver a sermon to the church once! I was told I would become a Pastor in later life.

Little did I know the wild twists and turns the Lord had waiting for me later in life.

That’s all for today,…thanks for reading and I will update this blog or start a new one tomorrow picking up where I left off.

Peace!

Nikolai A. Jackson

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson? (Part 2)

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson?

I wonder the same question to myself most days.

Am I an addict? A Christian? An ex-Soldier? Or just a person?

I would have to say all of the above and then some!

During my formative years in Bible Camp and Church Youth Group, I was also going to school obviously.

I went to Iowa Elementary School, Aurora Hills Middle School, and Gateway High School. Go Olympians!

I was a “Gifted Child” I suppose. I was in Kindergarten for only a few weeks before I was told that I would be skipping Kindergarten and going straight to 1st grade! I felt so smart!

My first grade teacher had classroom pets like rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, and even a Tarantula!

One time, a kid brought home two hamsters to keep over the summer and he came back to school with 5-6 new baby hamsters!

Another time I remember we came back from the weekend or recess and it looked like there were two tarantulas in the tank, but it had just molted and shed its skin! Such a learning experience for us!

Another time, after a recess where I had spent most of my time staring into the sun….(I wasn’t the brightest young child…) I came into 1st grade and asked my teacher why she had changed the color of the string lights on the puppet show from white to orange….little did I know she hadn’t changed the lights, I was just getting after effects from staring into the sun so long at recess!

Maybe that’s why my glasses prescription is so strong as an adult!

After elementary school I was still looked at as “Gifted” so I entered the International Baccalaureate program at Aurora Hills Middle School.

I enjoyed the curriculum and was always the first to have the answers in class but my grades suffered due to too much homework and not doing it.

I even tried to forge my mothers signature once and the teacher got suspicious and asked if it was actually my mothers signature before I went to recess and I told her it was…

…let me tell you, when I got back from recess she had called my mom and asked her if she had signed my progress report. to which my mom said no, and that teacher grabbed me by my ear and dragged me through the hallways, to the classroom, all while berating me for my behavior!

I think this is absolutely unacceptable behavior for anyone, let alone a teacher of children.

Either way, I went on through all my grades, enjoying the lessons in school, but never really “applying myself,” as the teachers would put it. What they really meant was that I didn’t do homework.

I hear a lot of kids nowadays don’t have homework and I applaud and envy that!

It really was a matter of me never doing homework to be honest. I would come home and put on UPN and watch Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or Blind Date or Stand-Up Comedy and forget about the homework most days.

I played in little league & high school football, as well as mastering the Trumpet, Mellophone, & French Horn in Band & Marching Band.

I also did a little A/V work for my high school, trying to turn the Pep Rally videos into MTV style music videos.

I remember sitting in the first Pep Rally where my video work was being presented and I heard a kid go, “Whoa! The videos this year actually look dope!” or something to that accord! I was so proud of my work.

I learned to edit video and make motion graphics at Colorado Community Church from an older guy who worked doing the video editing for the church.

This was probably around 2003-2005 that I learned the in’s and out’s of programs like Adobe After Effects & Premiere. I had truly found a new passion.

I spent a lot of time doing editing and motion graphic work, a passion I still enjoy to this day!

Another hobby of mine as a kid/teen was Street Magic!

After getting temporarily turned down from my first job due to my age of 15, I stayed home instead of going into my first day at work and I watched a David Blaine special!

His style and mystique captivated my young attention and although I had learned simple tricks as a younger child, this special invigorated my desire to practice and perform Card Magic, Slight of Hand, & Flourishes.

I spent countless hours on sites like Ellusionist & Penguin Magic, just trying to learn the basics of magic tricks.

I performed magic at Prom with another Magician so I got in for free, and I even shot my own magic special going to 16th Street Mall in Denver & School.

I still practice Street Magic to this day!

I was quite the romantic and dated between 5-10 different girls from school and church in this period.

I was always breaking hearts or getting my heart broken!

My grades continued to suffer deep into high school and during my senior year I was told I would have to pass every single class in order to graduate.

Needless to say the pressure was too high and homework too much and I ended up dropping out and getting my GED.

I passed my GED with Flying Colors getting the highest scores possible in all catagories. This reaffirmed my belief that I wasn’t stupid, I just didn’t like doing homework. I felt 8 hours institutionalized was enough, “learning” for me.

I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday.

We were sitting in Middle School Shop Class and the other side of the Shop Class got to have a TV rolled out as they watched the news, but the teachers were told not to show kids any of the footage after a certain time and I had to wait until I got home to see it.

All we had heard was that planes had hit the World Trade Centers.

We were kids and making lots of jokes like singing, “It’s The End of The World as we Know It,…and I feel FINE!”

Hilarious.

When I got home I got to watch the footage and it was mind-blowing!

My sister was in New York City at the time and had to watch as the towers fell.

Horrifying.

I used to play an online computer game called America’s Army that is still available I believe. It’s a conscription tool used by the US Army to show kids what Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training is like, and then you get to play a Call of Duty style First Person Shooter similar to Call of Duty. Like that is ANYTHING like real war or Combat.

Also I saw a movie called, “The Guardian” with Ashton Kutcher about the Coast Guard and the training montages really inspired me to serve.

The real reason I joined was because of a girl.

She broke my heart and left me in the front of her house clinging to her front door while my best friend had to peel me off. That combined with 9/11, America’s Army & The Guardian convinced me to join the service.

Stay tuned for the next addition to my life story where I will talk about joining The Army, Training & Iraq.

Thanks & see you next time!!!

-Nikolai A. Jackson

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson? (Part 3)

Okay so I’m a dropped out senior, in high school, who got the highest score on the GED you could possibly get, the year is 2007, and I am properly brainwashed to join the military in the biggest American war of my time.

After taking the ASVAB test, basically a military entrance exam, and going through the Military Entrance Processing Station, I picked to become a, “Health Care Specialist” which is just Army speak for a Combat Medic. 68W.

I bid farewell and goodbye to my family, girlfriend, friends, and through tears and goodbyes I went to a local hotel awaiting the bus to Basic.

I was in a room with another guy joining the service and all I remember was writing our initials on our socks and packing our bags to get on the bus.

On the bus we watched, “Flight 93” an All-American selection about how the passengers on one of the flights during 9/11 took down the plane in order to prevent it from hitting its target. Thorough brainwashing.

After the bus pulled up to the un-docking station in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, we were shouted at high volumes, by brown rounds or Drill Sergeants, to get off the bus and file into alphabetical order by last name.

One of the first memories I have of that night was that we were exhausted as the bus ride was non-stop and very long. We probably got in at 11 PM, and were processing all night long.

The Drill Sergeants at one point told us to put our heads down on the desk and close our eyes but not to sleep. Literal torture…

We finally got back to our bunks at around 3 AM and had to be up at 4 AM. I passed out sideways on a bunk for an hour and woke up to a Drill Sergeant that looked akin to Smoky The Bear screaming us out our bunks and outside to do Physical Training and start to learn basic marching drills like, “Left FACE” “Right FACE” About FACE” and the infamous, “Half-LEFT/RIGHT FACE.”

See a “Half-LEFT/RIGHT FACE” we learned quickly would usually be followed by the command, “Front Lean and Rest Position!” which meant to get in the pushup posture, and was usually followed by profuse push-ups, or just leaving us in the front lean and rest until our arms collapsed after say a half an hour or so.

Another favorite discipling trick we learned was over-head hand claps! By 4-count, which means, “1-2-3-4—-1! 1-2-3-4—-2!…” so on and so forth, each 1-2-3 or 4 being raising your hands over your head from by your side and clapping over your head,…and we would do thousands of those! As well as flutter kicks, lots of running, and tons of strange physical fitness maneuvers.

Before I joined I weighed 260 and lost 30 before joining and another 50 in Basic, AIT, and Airborne School!

I remember the first time I saw steam coming off of some ones head from running in the cold was in Basic. It mystified me.

Also it was so cold in Fort Sill during February that they allowed us to bring our civilian jackets to drill the first morning we were there….it was bitterly cold.

They had running groups like A, B, C & D for the faster runners in A and the slowest in D. I was in C & B alot. I tried running with A group one morning and it was so intense I fell really far behind!

I remember the day we got our gear issued to us in Basic. It was literally thousands of dollars worth of backpacks, canteens, and all kinds of military gear that they told us would get docked from our paychecks if we lost. I think I kind of disassociated for a few minutes. It was the most responsibility I had in my whole life…to hold onto this extraordinary amount of gear. Little did I know the responsibility that would be placed in my hands and eyes later on in my short 2 years in.

The obstacle course was fun, the shooting range was really cool, and I learned I love the smell of gunpowder! Also I was a terrible shot! It actually took me extra tries apart from everyone else to qualify with a rifle, but I eventually got it.

At the range we would get a little notebook and try to write down and memorize the order and direction the targets were coming from. It was fun and I still have some of the notebooks!

One other memory I had of the range is they picked one guy to shoot the rocket launcher! Only hitch was, was that it had no rocket….just a tracer bullet for accuracies sake! Kind of funny seeing a huge rocket launcher with a puny single tracer round come out of it!

Either way I qualified with the rifle, kept doing pushups, flutter kicks, and over head hand claps, completed the obstacle course including climbing the rope at the end and I was moving through Basic like a breeze in the wind.

Chow hall was an experience that I think every civilian should have to experience at least once! They pack you like sardines into the chow hall until the brim of your hat is touching the back of the guys head in front of you, and the guy behind you has his brim on the back of your head. Nuts to butts is what I believe it was called! Maybe clits to shits for ladies? Either way it was packed.

You would line up on the drill pad every morning and recite the Army Creed and get, “Smoked” which means forced physical fitness like pushups and flutter kicks and from the Drill Pad we would go about our daily activities.

One of my favorite things was when we did Combat Simulation training. Which was similar to SWAT training I would assume. They had a fake Iraqi town with buildings, stairs and fake objectives and we would line up by 4 and kick open the door and raid the rooms, learning which turns to take and which to avoid.

The yearbook actually has a picture of me at the head of the team about to raid the room! Exciting stuff!

We got to throw grenades! I actually made the mistake of trying to see where the grenade was going to land, which they tell you not to do, and I got dirt planted by a Drill Sergeant into the ground!

Another thing was this CO2 powered fake rifle range that was indoors where terrorists or enemies would run at you and you would have to aim at this massive 50ftx30ft screen and shoot the targets accurately. I always thought they should have some of those in the states for civilians to get drunk and have a great time!

I still remember the day I called my at the time Girlfriend at the phone booths, where you have limited time to talk, and I was exhausted talking to her,…and in lieu of pursuing her Scholarship at a prestigious Christian University, she told me she wanted to join The Army during a time of war, and become a Combat Medic like me. I remember taking a tired pause on the phone and telling her that if she really wants to, then to do it.

And she did.

We’ll get around to more of her later…

Either way, I was cruising and bruising in Basic with the best of them!

We did some liminal medical training, just the basics and nothing compared to what I got in Medic school later on.

We had mandatory Rucksack marches like a 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K, and 30K that we had to accomplish in order to graduate and I always loved them.

You learned to march with heavy gear on your back for miles and miles! Also how to keep your feet healthy from sores and blisters. It was the first time I learned about moleskins!

I would always think about the years and years and decades of soldiers who had passed down these very roads…doing the same marches,…for the same reasons.

War games was fun too, we would play strategy against the other guys and try to out wit them and defend our position.

We made tents in the mud and ran around stealing the other teams flags after war games…tons of fun!

I loved to clean my rifle, just getting into the nooks and crannies, and how all the cleaning tools fit just perfectly was so satisfying.

We had one really long rucksack march for graduation from basic,….and after marching through the sand and dirt, we finally made it to the end where we just waited and waited,…and waited some more until they announced we were done and started playing some music and we had a little celebration!

We hung out in the bunks for a few days while we got our orders for our AIT school, which mine was Fort Sam Houston Texas near San Antonio, Texas!

On graduation day, after 9 weeks of hell, pushups, flutter kicks, running, marching, lots of shooting a gun, and tons of training and other things….I got to see my girlfriend and family.

We wore our Army Greens and I still remember the coy look on my girlfriends face with her hand covering her mouth in awe of me in my Greens and looking sexy AF.

My family was there and they were so proud of me and all I had accomplished.

We got one day out of the base to have with our girlfriends/wives and families and they told us not to change out of our Army greens,…and although my family begged me to change seeing that no one was watching I was trying to be a good soldier and was still so scared and shaped from everything it took a few hours of them begging me to change.

I still remember taking my first, “Civilian” shower at the hotel, and my girlfriend being in the next room, and I was waiting for her to come in with me, but we were so young and innocent nothing happened…oh well!

Either way I headed back to base and packed up for AIT in which my family and girlfriend got to drive me to.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for Part 4 where I talk about medical training and getting ready for Iraq!

Peace!

-naj

Who is Nikolai Abraham Jackson? (Part 4)

So I’ve finished the brutalities of Basic Combat Training in the US Army during wartime and I am ready for a nice trip with the family down to San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, for my Advanced Individual Training to become a 68W or better known as a Combat Medic.

Should be easy right? Like, Basic Training has to be the toughest part of Army life right? Wrong.

I remember rolling up to my first Drill Pad asking the Drill Sergeant where I was supposed to be, and amidst the chaos of soldiers getting screamed at and a cacophony of military protocol, he turned around to me and screamed out, “Why are you NOT AT EASE PRIVATE!?!?!”

My ex-Army older sister later informed me that the Drill Sergeant looked at her after I had scampered off like a dog with my tail between my legs,…he looked at her and smiled as if to say he had control and this was just training.

That was the last time I saw my family until after AIT. We had said goodbyes and that question to that Drill Sergeant would be the last they would see me as a non-qualified medic in the US Army.

AIT was everything Basic Training was but worse. You had constant physical training, running, pushups, getting ‘smoked’, and a litany of other physical demands with the added pressure of having mental and collegiate demands such as learning everything a Combat Medic would need to know during wartime.

We had our time with Drill Sergeant’s, learning the more emergency part of medicine, and school time with Civilian teachers that would include testing and studying. I remember taking a lot of no-doz and consuming ungodly amounts of caffeine in order to keep up with everything.

AIT consisted of 3 or 4 phases in which you would get more and more freedom imparted upon you.

In the earlier phases you aren't allowed off base on weekends or holidays but as the phases ramp up, you get to explore the city of San Antonio which I must say is beautiful.

I remember specific parts of AIT through the phases such as learning IV, IM, and sub-cutaneous pricks, war preparedness rooms where strobe lights and sirens would go off as you practiced your emergency medicine, and other things like the chow halls and The Hacienda, which was a hall for the training soldiers to come watch a movie, rent a guitar or have a drink if you were of age.

I remember eating a lot of Pecan pie during this phase of my Army career and also lots of fights. Almost more than in Basic Training.

Again, you are confining 100's of young testosterone filled men, to a tiny barrack, where alcohol, getting freedom back, and lack of sleep attribute to lots of physical confrontations.

I had the most personal fighting with other soldiers in AIT.

I remember after getting into it with one soldier, our drill sergeants took us to the drill pad, not to smoke us or have us do pushups until we were exhausted, but to tell us that if were were going to fight with other soldiers to fight soldiers from the other companies and not ours.

I thought this was funny, not to not fight, but to simply fight soldiers in the other companies.

I came close to attempting to kill another soldier in one fight and in another I almost choked out the opponent then he almost choked me out. Scary times.

I was Echo company, Tusker Medics go!

Back to needle sticks and practicing them. Obviously the Intravenous or IV sticks were the hardest to handle for most training medics. To say it shortly, they got to that part in training and pretty much gave us needles and let us just practice on each other and ourselves until people were passing out or there was blood everywhere.

This part of IV sticks would be easy compared to training further on with the Special Forces Drill Sergeant who would have us carrying a stretcher with a soldier on it, up a steep incline and across fields and streams, yelling every 1-2 minutes, “MORTAR!” then point at a random Soldier in the troop and scream, “YOU'RE DOWN” and in that time we would have to simulate a mortar attack and get an IV into the randomly selected soldier by the time he counted backwards from 10.

I loved this part of my Army training, it was like college for the military and besides Airborne school was the best part of my time in.

I remember on the day we learned about stabilizing broken bones and joints, at the end of training we took all the gauze and boards and wrapped one soldier up like a mummy! It was so funny.

The days were spent between physical exercise with the drill sergeants, training to become an EMT-B in a few months with the civilian teachers, and getting out eventually on weekends to Sam Antonio and seeing the local culture.

San Antonio is again, beautiful, and the Riverwalk there, if you've never been, is quite the place to see with your own eyes.

Pan flute bands, floating parties and weddings, and tons of restaurants and bars litter the banks of the Riverwalk. Word was, some places would serve you alcohol even if you were underage!

Alcohol was common for certain trainees at that time, they would smuggle it back to the barracks and drink to excess. One soldier got so drunk and in so many fights his face was beaten so badly he looked like he got stung by 1,000 bumblebees and was not allowed to walk at graduation.

One thing you do before graduating is STX, Situation Training Exercises. This is where you're shipped off to the middle of nowhere, away from the Barracks, and you sleep in tents and endure the heat, and intense real life training drills. I still remember the smell of bug spray and the heat.

Through the fighting, the IV sticks, the constant pressure of having to study for my EMT-B, eventually passing my EMT-B, keeping up with rifle qualifications, lots of pecan pie, STX, and touring the Riverwalk, I eventually graduated and became a full fledged 68W.

Before I graduated, I decided with another soldier to try out for Airborne School and RIP, Ranger Indoctrination Program, after AIT.

Some were selected for Airborne School but I believe I was the only one in the Company to get selected for RIP.

Stay tuned for Part 5 where I will talk about Airborne School, getting kicked out of Airborne school and heading to my home Station at Fort Polk, Louisiana for 3 weeks before deploying to Iraq.

Peace!