This image, Copyright of Time Magazine most certainly tells a grim story indeed. U.S. Marine, Sgt. John B. Doe selflessly and heroically gave his dignity for the good of his unit. What you see in the image (warning: graphic) are his final moments of ever being taken seriously.

It started at 0400 hours when Sgt. Doe slept in only to wake up to find his unit had gone on a 12 mile training run. In a frenzy, he chased after them, recklessly knocking over some of his squad mates’ equipment in the barracks. This was the start of what would become a very difficult day.

He approached the tail end of the unit about an hour later and filled in to rank, but the Lt. was not easily fooled. He had known all along that someone was slacking. However, he kept this information to himself and instead of berating Sgt. Doe, he just picked up the pace.

A mile later Sgt. Doe started getting sluggish, and tripped up the marine to his front, a quarrel broke out, and the Lt. settled it by making everyone do 300 press ups. The fatigue started hitting everyone hard. By the time they were done with all the press ups none of the soldiers could hardly breathe, but the Lt. pressed on even harder.

Staggering and weary the group finally made it back to base. Some of the soldiers thought they could rest, but they were mistaken. The Lt. immediately had them start doing partner squats till they couldn’t feel their legs. After that, the entire squad was subjected to an array of humiliating exercises designed to break their spirit and cause them to turn on one another.

A base camera caught some of these on tape:
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The soldier you see in that last video was none other than Sgt. Doe. After that ordeal he thought it was over, but the Lt. had other ideas. He was still perturbed at Lt. Doe making the other soldiers laugh so he devised one final challenge.

“Which one of you soldiers will volunteer to eat this scorpion? If no one steps up the entire squad will perform today’s training twice tomorrow. The person who volunteers will have to hold the scorpion in his mouth while giving me 100 press ups, and afterward he must chew and swallow.”

Doe, feeling guilty, volunteered. The details of the act are too gruesome to describe in words, but the picture is worth a thousand of them. His heroic actions means he will never be taken seriously again, but his honor will live on in the hearts and minds of those he served with.

Thank you for your sacrifice.