The Netflix series “Boots” got it right— all of it. Down to the smallest detail— things only those who were there would recognize. The accuracy didn’t stop with set dressing and cartoonish Drill Instructor antics. What they captured most precisely were the intangibles — the depth and breadth of the experience, and the many roads that led each of us to those yellow footprints.
They especially nailed the alienation and isolation of being different. It was the equivalent of being a square peg jammed into a round hole with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Those depictions mirrored my own experience — the duality of surviving the most grueling, disorienting, and life-changing chapter of my life while suppressing the individuality I had fought to forge.
While some may flinch at depictions of homosexuality, I chose to find parity with my own experience. Ultimately, we all confronted the incongruity between who we were and who we had to become in the crucible of Parris Island — by doing what Marines do best:
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Mannino Acid 