Chapter 125: That Time We Got a Foreign Loan in South America (6)

TL: Skye

Libertad Naval Training Camp.

No, calling it a training camp was a bit of a stretch.

Hell would have been more accurate.

Ordinarily, basic naval training alone took at least three months.

Add shipboard operations training, and they should have allowed at least a year.

But San Marcos had no time.

They had to create a navy capable of operating warships in just fifteen days, so the intensity of the training had no choice but to go beyond all common sense.

Six in the morning.

It was time to wake up, but there was no reveille bugle.

Bang!

A tear gas canister flew into the barracks.

Hiss-

As the tear gas spread, the trainees leapt out of their bunks all at once.

“Gas! Gas! Gas!”

This was hell, where even waking up was turned into training.

Their eyes burned, and their noses ran like waterfalls.

They ran while coughing and lined up while coughing.

“Move it!”

The instructor roared.

The moment roll call ended, they went straight into a run.

They ran along the coastal road carrying 25-kilogram packs.

The Caribbean dawn air was humid and heavy.

The target was five kilometers.

Before they had even made it one kilometer, the first trainee fell behind, and an instructor came charging over.

“M-my leg...”

“Is it broken? It’s not broken! Get up!”

“B-but it hurts too much.”

“Trainee! Is that all the loyalty you have for His Excellency?”

“Ghk...!”

A rebuke that left him no choice but to get back up.

The trainee clenched his teeth and started running again.

At the two-kilometer mark, another trainee began to stagger, and the man running beside him caught him by the arm.

“You okay?”

“I-I can’t breathe.”

“Don’t breathe through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth. I’ll match your pace, so stay with me.”

“Th-thanks...”

“We’re comrades. No need to thank me.”

At the three-kilometer mark, the instructor followed behind them and shouted.

“If this is enough to make you collapse, how will you survive in Hormuz?! At sea, no one stops just because you fall! The waves won’t wait for you!”

“Yes, sir!”

“I can’t hear you! Would you answer His Excellency in a voice that weak?!”

“No, sir!”

Even with their lungs ready to burst, the mere mention of His Excellency made their legs move again.

At the four-kilometer mark, one trainee started vomiting, but even as he threw up, his feet never stopped. The instructor ran beside him.

“Want to quit?”

The trainee wiped his mouth and answered.

“...I will not quit.”

“Good. That’s a soldier.”

The instructor raised his voice to the sky.

“We sing a marching song while we run! The song is Warrior of His Excellency! Warrior of His Excellency!”

“Warrior of His Excellency!”

And with that, every last one of them finished the five kilometers.

Not a single person gave up.

After breakfast, the trainees headed to the beach without so much as a break.

Log training.

Six men formed a team and lifted a log three meters long and thirty centimeters in diameter over their heads. Once the instructor had finished dividing them into groups, he shouted.

“Do you know what this log is?”

“No, sir!”

“This is a naval gun shell! In actual combat, you’ll be carrying things heavier than this! Now, lift! Up!”

All six men raised the log over their heads at once.

“Down! Up!”

Agony made their thighs scream.

“You there! Number 113! You’re too slow! Can’t you see your teammates are suffering because of you?!”

“S-sorry, sir!”

“Does saying sorry get you through your military service?! Get up, now! That’s it. Everyone takes the logs into the sea!”

The trainees entered the water.

Splash-

They stood waist-deep in the waves, holding the logs aloft.

Every time a wave struck them from the side, their balance wavered. If one man slipped, all six went down.

“Team Two! Start over from the beginning!”

“Yes, sir! Understood!”

They repeated this for two hours.

Their arms trembled uncontrollably, and pain like their shoulder bones were grinding together tore through them, but no one put the log down.

“His Excellency’s soldiers can’t endure even this?! Is that all the loyalty you have for His Excellency?!”

If one man lowered the log, the entire team had to start over. Worse than that was the guilt of having committed an act of disloyalty toward His Excellency.

“If your arms give out, brace it on your shoulder! I’ll hold it steady from the side!”

When someone lost strength, the others supported him. What was impossible alone became possible when six men did it together.

The instructor watched them and nodded.

“That’s it. That is military spirit. You’ll do the same aboard a warship. I don’t need lone heroes. I need men who can hold out together.”

Lunch. Fifteen minutes to eat.

The menu was tortilla kebabs stuffed generously with chicken. There was no time to chew properly, so they practically swallowed them whole.

The afternoon was devoted to classroom instruction.

Once they sat down indoors, their bodies ached from running and rolling around all morning, and their eyes threatened to close.

And yet, not a single person nodded off.

“The basic structure of the Aegis Combat System. The SPY-1 radar can detect targets across a full 360 degrees simultaneously. It can track more than two hundred targets at once. Do you understand so far?”

“Yes, sir!”

They fought off sleep through sheer loyalty to His Excellency.

Procedures for operating the naval guns, methods for reading radar, identifying enemy aircraft, friendly identification codes, procedures for changing communications frequencies, emergency firefighting procedures, flood-control procedures in the event of flooding, they drilled every bit of theory into their heads without pause.

By the time the afternoon classroom training ended, it was six in the evening.

In an ordinary military, the day’s training should have been over.

But the training was not finished.

Nighttime maritime training remained.

Splash-!

The sea at night was completely different from the sea during the day.

Nothing was visible.

Only the sound of the waves could be heard.

Wearing life jackets, they jumped into the sea.

The Caribbean was warm, but spend more than an hour in the water at night and body temperature would inevitably drop.

Their teeth chattered.

“Hold out! In actual combat, you may have to survive three hours before rescue! One hour is nothing!”

An hour later, they climbed back onto the beach.

Their whole bodies were trembling.

The moment one trainee tried to collapse face-first onto the sand, the instructor threw water over him.

“We’re not done yet! Stay sharp!”

That was right.

The training still was not over.

Every night from ten to eleven was reserved for political indoctrination.

Political indoctrination.

In other countries’ militaries, it was a period for teaching national identity and security awareness. In San Marcos, it was a little different. More precisely, it was very different.

[The Sun of San Marcos]

Because its purpose was to cultivate loyalty toward His Excellency.

[Six years ago, San Marcos was one of the poorest countries in the world.]

The documentary showed the Presidential Palace destroyed in a bombing, then a young Yu-jin in a shirt standing in front of a broadcasting station and declaring martial law.

[He was a foreigner. A young man from Korea. But he did not run away.]

Crushing the gangs.

Highway construction.

Education reform.

Economic development.

Six years of miracles had been compressed into a sixty-minute documentary.

[And today, he made a request of you.]

Footage of his address began to play. Yu-jin appeared, bowing his head.

[...Please lend me your strength.]

The classroom fell silent. Some trainees were crying, while others sat with their fists clenched.

The political indoctrination instructor turned off the screen and stood before them.

“What did you feel while watching today’s footage?”

A trainee in the front row answered.

“It reminded me once again... how much His Excellency has suffered.”

“Good answer. But that isn’t what I’m asking.”

The instructor tapped the blackboard.

“I’m asking what loyalty is. Who wants to answer?”

After a brief silence, a trainee in the back raised his hand. He was a young man who had been a fisherman.

“I believe it means obeying His Excellency’s orders!”

“Wrong.”

The instructor shook his head.

“Obeying orders is a given. That isn’t loyalty.”

As the trainees tilted their heads in confusion, the instructor slowly gave them the answer.

“Loyalty means helping His Excellency accomplish what he seeks to accomplish. Then what do you think His Excellency wants to accomplish?”

This time, several trainees answered at once.

“He wants the people to have enough to eat!”

“He’s making the people prosperous!”

“He wants a strong and wealthy San Marcos!”

Only then did the instructor smile in satisfaction.

“Correct. His Excellency wants the people of San Marcos to be warm and well-fed.”

The instructor slowly looked around at the trainees.

“You are going to Hormuz for the same reason. In other words, every day you endure at sea is another day your families back home get to live better lives.”

A heavy silence settled over the classroom. The instructor’s voice rose.

“That is loyalty. Loyalty to His Excellency is loyalty to the nation, and loyalty to the nation is loyalty to your family.”

The instructor looked at the trainees.

“I’ll ask again. What is loyalty?”

“Helping His Excellency accomplish what he seeks to accomplish!”

“Good. Never forget that.”

“Loyalty!”

And fifteen days later.

This report landed on Yu-jin’s desk.

[Training Results - Skill level insufficient, but mental fortitude ranks among the best in the world. Capable of combat deployment.]

***

After fifteen days of hellish training, dawn broke on the day of departure.

The Aegis destroyer and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were docked at the pier. These were the three ships bound for Hormuz, while the remaining three frigates would stay in Libertad to defend the nearby Caribbean waters.

The sailors’ families had gathered at the pier.

Wives embraced their husbands, children clung to their fathers’ legs and cried, and mothers straightened their sons’ uniforms while repeatedly touching their faces.

“Eat your meals on time. Understood?”

“Mom, it’s the military. You think they won’t feed me?”

“As if military food could possibly be good. At least take this.”

What his mother held out was a bundle stuffed with homemade tortillas. Her son accepted it with a smile, but he could not hide the redness gathering around his eyes.

“This’ll last me a month.”

The son hugged his mother. Her shoulders trembled, but she did not cry. If she cried, her son would worry.

Nearby, a young married couple stood holding hands. The wife’s belly was slightly rounded, as if she were pregnant.

“Come back. No matter what.”

“Of course. I have to come back and get our house in the New Town.”

“Right. Once you come back, we’ll finally have a home of our own. We need to make a room for the baby too.”

The wife squeezed her husband’s hand tightly, as if she never wanted to let go.

Scenes like this unfolded all along the pier. With 5,000 sailors, there were 5,000 farewells, and every single one had a story behind it.

Then Yu-jin arrived at the pier.

Every eye turned toward him at once.

Yu-jin stepped out of the car and walked toward the sailors standing in formation.

Then he approached the youngest soldier and held out his hand.

“Your name?”

“Ramon Carvalho, Your Excellency!”

Yu-jin took Ramon’s hand in both of his.

“Ramon. Where’s your hometown?”

“Santa Maria in the north, Your Excellency!”

“Santa Maria. It really is a beautiful place.”

“It’s all thanks to Your Excellency!”

Yu-jin smiled.

“Please come back safely.”

“Yes, Your Excellency! Understood!”

Yu-jin’s gaze moved to the soldier beside him.

The man was in his early thirties, his hands covered in calluses that suggested years of hard work on construction sites.

“What is your name?”

“Diego Mendes, Your Excellency!”

“What did you do for work?”

“Until recently, I worked at the Tourism City construction site!”

“Goodness, you enlisted right when the pay was getting good.”

Diego grinned brightly.

“If Your Excellency calls, I’ll go anywhere! Shovel or rifle, I’ll pick up whatever it takes!”

Yu-jin smiled as he shook Diego’s hand.

“Come back safely. When you do, I’ll invite you to the party celebrating the completion of the New Town.”

“I will absolutely be there, Your Excellency!”

This time, he stopped in front of a young soldier who had not yet completely shed the look of a boy.

“Miguel Andrade, Your Excellency!”

“Miguel. How old are you?”

“Nineteen, Your Excellency!”

Yu-jin’s expression wavered for a moment. Only for a moment, but Isabella did not miss it.

Yu-jin placed his hands on Miguel’s shoulders. He had only shaken hands with the other soldiers, but with this boy, he held both shoulders.

“You must come back. This is not a request. It is an order.”

“I’ll remember that! Your Excellency!”

Next. Then the next. And the next.

As far as circumstances allowed, Yu-jin greeted as many sailors as he possibly could.

He shook hands without pause, asking their names and hometowns and urging each of them to return safely.

Two hours passed like that.

Yu-jin’s hand had swollen, but he did not stop.

Isabella cautiously spoke beside him.

“Your Excellency, perhaps you should stop...”

“I’m fine.”

Bwooooooo-

Only when the ship’s horn sounded to announce departure did Yu-jin finally stop shaking hands.

As the sailors boarded their vessels, the anchors were raised and the gangways connecting the ships to the pier were withdrawn.

The Aegis destroyer left the pier first.

Its massive hull began to move slowly out of the harbor, with the two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers following behind.

The families left on the pier waved. Mothers cried. Children cried. Wives cradled their swelling bellies and cried.

And Yu-jin did not move an inch from that spot until the ships vanished beyond the horizon and dwindled to mere dots.

*****

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