Mard-i Silāḥ'dār: Persiska (Farsi) 1403

The guys in the platoon called me Robocop. I was part of the Acahuapa Battalion, the assault troops, but when the war was over, they demobilized me. So I found myself like a bird on a branch: I only had two AK-47 rifles, an M-16, a dozen magazines, eight fragmentation grenades, my nine-millimeter pistol, and a check for three months of my salary, which they gave me as compensation. I reached the rank of sergeant thanks to my qualities; my school was war. The American instructors liked me: once they sent me to Panama, to take an intensive one-month course; another time I went to Fort Benning for two months, to take training for officers and non-commissioned officers. But when the time came for demobilization, when our leaders and the terrorists agreed, they threw me out on the street. Not in the same way as the rest of the men, who were not even thanked. We were the elite corps, we were the ones who were most feared, who had stopped and pushed back the terrorists wherever we had confronted them. That is why the demobilization of our battalion was a solemn event that took place in the presence of the President of the Republic, the Minister of Defense, and other high authorities; there was a parade, a review of the troops, artillery fire, and speeches recognizing our intrepidity, the courage we had shown in defense of the homeland, what we meant to the armed forces. The guys in the platoon called me Robocop but behind my back. In front of me, they had to stand to attention and call me "sergeant," and not only because I was the leader, but because none of them, whether with bare fists, with knives, or with firearms, had ever been able to beat me; and none of them had been superior to me in tactics and intelligence. That is why I was the one who gave the orders, even though above me there was always a lieutenant, a captain, or a major commanding the company - in reality several lieutenants, captains, and majors who died or were transferred throughout the war. I had an advantage. I am not a rough peasant, like most of the troops: I was born in Llopango, a poor neighborhood, but in the capital; and I went to school until the third grade. I am remarkable for more than my height and my corpulence. I participated in the major battles against the best-trained units of the terrorists; in the most delicate special operations, those that involved going deep into the enemy rearguard. I was never captured or wounded. Many men under my command died, but that's part of war - the weak don't survive.