The First Campfire

Jean Ayala, United States Marine Corps

During my senior year of high school, I decided to enlist into the Marine Corps. Since I was 17 years old, it was a difficult decision for my parents to sign off, but they knew my dream since kindergarten was to be a Marine. After graduation, I enjoyed my last summer home until I jumped into boot camp on August 8th of 2017. There I spent the next 3 months completely changing who I was and becoming part of an elite fighting force. At that moment, I thought it was the toughest thing I ever did, that is, until I went to the fleet.

Reaching my unit was a whole different challenge. I had to learn how to work with a brand new team and prove my worth. But as our workup went on, I established my value to the group and they slowly let me become part of the family. We knew we could count on each other and be reliable no matter what. One thing I can tell you for sure is that some of my better times with them were also some of my most miserable times.

One of the best memories was when we trained with the Japanese Self Defense Force. This was in Hokkaido, Japan, during the winter so most nights hit below 0 degrees. During one of our training events, we spent the whole morning in the mountains learning from the Japanese how to create shelters and survive cold nights with limited gear. After the lesson was complete, all the platoons gathered into a giant circle and our company commander surprised us.

"Now that you learned these skills today," he said, "you will now apply them for tonight."

He left us there, taking a majority of our gear with him, leaving behind only our sleeping bags and a few warm layers. From that point, we had the rest of the afternoon to build a shelter and a fire. Immediately, we gathered in groups of twos and threes and got to work to survive. The day was bright when we started, so the weather wasn’t too bad. But once the sun dropped below the mountain range, we could feel the rapid drop in temperature. And that night was one of the coldest nights of the year. Frigid, bitter.

First, we dug a shelter low enough to block out the wind but with enough room left over to crawl inside. The space was kept a bit tight so that our body heat could circulate later. We laid tarp over as protection from snowfall.

Making the fire was memorable. All we had was a tiny ax so it took a lot of time to cut down trees for wood. The blocks were needed in order to keep the fire going until bedtime. From hacking away at the trunks, I got all sweaty and the cold breeze stuck my slick shirt to my skin.

Once the fire dried me off and everything was all set, it was just a bunch of joking around with my buddies. We shared our experiences with the Japanese Self Defense Force and also tried each other’s food that has been Made-Ready-to-Eat (MRE) that we call “Winter MREs”. I traded my chicken and rice for their BBQ chicken and rice. Their MREs were interesting. While ours required boiling water added, theirs just needed water and their food would warm up somehow. I would say in the end, theirs tasted better, a lot more natural.

Eventually, we killed the fire and called it a night. What started off as survival practice turned into one of my best nights in the service. The little kindergartner in me loved my first campfire.