Civilians who have never served often overestimate the intensity and impact of military training. Possibly the phrase itself evokes a montage of movie memories: scenes of grueling obstacle courses, brutal hand-to-hand combat sparring, or intense weapons qualifications. While military training sometimes doesn’t live up to pop-culture imagery in real life, the results can be dangerous when it fails to take hold.

I recently heard a story about Marine Gunnery Sergeant Black, who was reminded of this in a dramatic way at Kandahar Airfield in the Afghanistan War. It was one of those situations most service members and veterans would have trouble believing actually happened, but this story is true.