Nicknames

I find it quite amusing how nicknames can hang around. "Sledge"...Where does it come from? Am I just one of those guys who likes to make nicknames for themselves just to sound cooler and more manly? Well, I tried that once, and it backfired with a vengeance.

A group of guys and myself would get together and play poker frequently, so we decided to give each other nicknames. For example: one guy was named "No Face" because he displayed almost as good of a poker face a Chris Moneymaker. My buddy Nate (now known as Wardog whom is also a Marine) was awarded the name "Honker" for his overly large snout. And me, trying to be cool with my aviator sunglasses, tried to name myself "Mav." When the guys heard this, they laughed and said "too bad. Since you tried to name yourself, you are now known as tampon!" That sucked!

But that's not the feature nickname story for the day. Where, when, and how did some start to refer to me as Sledge? It was in early March of 2005, in Hit Iraq. Hit (pronounced heat) is roughly 40 west of Fallujah. Our FOB (Forward Observation Base) was actually an old Iraqi morgue. We slept on slabs of concrete about knee high, and a shade over six feet long. I can't go too much further because I would be getting off topic.

Back to the Sledge story. If you are unaware, a FOB is far different than a camp. A camp is much more established and has many extras a Forward Observation Base does not. For example: when we arrived in early March, our company realized that the simple line of defense, that being perimeter wire, was not there. Wow! So being part of our security platoon, myself and a handful of other Marines were volun-told to set up the razor wire around our perimeter.

Being master engineers in constructing walls and building lines of defense, we used 4 foot long stakes and a sledgehammer to pound them into the rocky desert. The razor wire would then be wrapped around the stakes, and from there be held in place. After a few hours of work under the sun, we were almost finished. All we needed to do is walk the line and shake each stake to make sure of its stability.

This is where "Sledge" comes from. While walking and shaking, I discovered a stake that was not up to par. So be trying to be cool like I always do, in a rugged cowboy voice, I said "gimme the sledge." And instead of tapping the stake lightly, driving it down a little at a time, I wanted to swing it like a man. So I grabbed the man hammer, swung it up and over my shoulder, and drove it down on top of the stake. The only problem...I didn't hit the stake like I planned.

Instead of driving that sucker down in one punch, I ended up driving that bad boy down and smashing my big toe. From there my toe nail fell off and the nickname Sledge took rise. Obviously, not everyone calls me Sledge. Pretty much only the people I was around I that time do.