The new recruit company took a photo, the first on the right in the back row is the author
In March 1976, I joined the army and became a glorious People's Liberation Army soldier, and came to the hot military camp with my dreams. During my years in service, I have integrated my youth into the life of the army, faced various difficulties and challenges, and accepted the transformation of my mind and the tempering of my muscles. For an "intellectual", every step of the transformation is profound, even painful, and at the same time very rare.
Before joining the army, I was a private teacher. At that time, I was a decent profession. The salary was subsidy processing points. Although the income was not high, I enjoyed respect from all aspects. Especially in my students' hearts, I was a trustworthy teacher. But since I put on the military uniform, the teacher's halo instantly retreated, and everyone was an ordinary soldier, accepting the strict requirements of the troops.
My new recruit company life is spent in a village near the army. It is on the floor of a fellow villager's home, laying a layer of wheat straw, and ten backpacks lined up in a row. In the northwest, the weather in March is still cold, so you can only keep warm at night. The following basic training, standing in military posture and marching, created a large gap compared with the teacher holding a teaching stick. After
was officially removed from the company, our regiment expanded and the barracks needed to be expanded. All the companies needed to build bricks, walls, and houses were undertaken by each company. We were responsible for building walls in one company, and we used to hold the chalk hand to pick up the mud and tile knife, dealing with bricks and cement from morning to night. In order to catch up with the progress, my comrades and I always entered the construction site in advance, without resting at noon, and weaved the cement and bricks, we wrinkled a pair of gloves, and thick calluses appeared on our hands.
Due to the conditions at that time, the company's big pot rice was not as good as color, fragrance and delicious. During the intense construction, our appetite was wide open and we were hungry. Therefore, during the meal time, we could test the "ability" of the students on duty in the class. In order to eat well, everyone has summarized the skills of "eat less in the first bowl and add full in the second bowl". For example, eating rice, if you don't have time to chew it carefully, they all "rinse" down with soup.
It’s okay to be busy in normal times, but my mind has no time. When it comes to holidays, my thoughts will fly to my hometown. I miss my elderly mother and sick father. For the sake of my son’s future, they resolutely sent me away from the distance. With their patience and responsibility, they silently endured the loneliness and disease in their later years. How many times have I been unable to repay my parents’ grace for raising me, and shed tears of guilt.
I did not disappoint my hometown’s expectations, keeping in mind the instructions of my relatives, over the past few years, I correctly treated the "difference", corrected my service attitude, overcome my own shortcomings, and tried to become the first-class. With the help of the troops and comrades, I have been comprehensively improved in all aspects. From being a squad leader to joining the party organization, to being promoted to the platoon leader in the third year, I have achieved leaps in my life.
The years are gone, and it is already a thing of the past decades ago. Looking through the photos when I first joined the army, I feel a lot of emotion!
November 2, 2022 West An
