Scars (Award Response)

[Frank Laun]

Frank stepped out of the shower and wiped the fog off the bathroom mirror. He looked at himself, and slowly took inventory of the various marks on his body that he hadn't put there intentionally. They were numerous, and pretty ugly, since battlefield medics are trained to save lives, not to make it look pretty. Frank knew there were roughly 14 or 15 scars spread over his body. Most of them were combat related...except for the ones on his back, and those were torture related.

Frank had quickly risen to the top of his special ops class, and spent most of his time in the field. In fact, his worst injury and first set of scars occurred only a year out of training. He was sent in with an advance team to scout part of Afghanistan prior to Coalition invasion. While there his unit tied into it with a Taliban infantry unit are were severely out numbered. Frank took 3 bullets from an AK-47 across his chest. The light Kevlar he was wearing slowed them enough that he didn't outright die, but they still took a toll on the young marine.
But instead of medivacing out, Frank fought on, and so the wounds healed into the the 3 ugly, rough, pucker marks they are today.

His second prominent scar is the long slash on his left side, also a gift from Afghanistan. While raiding a cave complex, Frank was ambushed and slashed pretty good with a Russian AK-47 Bayonet, that luckily did not have an AK attached to it. Frank survived, and killed his assailant. A Corpsman stitched him up with heavy gauge thread and Frank fought on, resulting in the nasty band of rough tissue that twists around his side.

The scars on his back were perhaps the most painful because they were inflicted while he was helpless. After he and a small Recon team were captured in Pre-Invasion Iraq, he was tortured and the Iraqis were trying to get information about his mission. Frank managed to stick to his guns, and his cover story and that saved all but one of his men. The Iraqis soon saw that beating Frank was like beating a wall, so they decided to try and break him mentally. They executed one of his men right in front of him. Frank continued to stick to the cover story, so that if they were released his man's sacrifice would not have been in vain. A week after the execution, the remaining soldiers and Frank were released. And thanks to Frank's silence, certain elements of the invasion were not compromised. Frank considered the long thin scars from being whipped to be a badge of honor.

The most recent set were perhaps the most traumatic and the most profound. They were the wounds and scars that set in motion the events that would lead Frank to Bruja. While on a Black Ops mission into Iran, Frank and his team stumbled into a nest of Vampires, and engaged them. One by one Frank's  men were gunned down as they ran for their evac chopper. Frank made a last stand and was nearly killed by an RPG. The explosion tore apart his chest and face, peppering him with shrapnel and burns. But he survived, and his long beard grew to cover most of the facial scars.

Frank didn't really consider the marks on himself ugly, just different. A different kind of badge for a different kind of warrior in a different kind of war.

[Samuel Croft]

I've no idea if I'm allowed to comment, so delete this if I'm not. I just had to say how much I loved this. Absolutely PERFECT response for his award. ^__^

Awesome work, Cody!