The intention of our play is to tell stories about remarkable events in history, both famous and less-known, from a unique or specific perspective. Our goal for the performances is to tell these stories in a clever, humorous, and powerful way. Our production accomplishes this by having relatively lighthearted and simple dialogue broken up with powerful monologues. This takes the audience on an intentional emotional roller coaster. 

My monologue is based off of the events experienced by Cpl Kyle Carpenter in Afghanistan when he jumped on a grenade to save the life of a fellow marine. I write from the perspective of the person that has to call Cpl Carpenter’s parents telling them that he’s injured. In it, I tried to use shorter sentences to make it seem like the character is nervous and has a high heart rate. I also included some longer sentences that had words that no human would ever actually say without reading them to show that the he is reading from a piece of paper in front of him. At the end of the call the mood changes when the character begins the call to Cpl Carpenter’s parents. 

Ok. I’ve got the information I need. Corporal Kyle Carpenter. Wounded in action  on November 21st during a firefight as an Automatic Rifleman with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division (Forward),  Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), at Camp Dakota in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. I'm calling Robin and Jim Carpenter in South Carolina to tell them their son is getting ready to be flown from Afghanistan, to the United States via a military trauma hospital in Germany. Holy shit this is a bad one. Alright alright don’t get distracted. What are they gonna ask? Probably if he’s going to die, and honestly I don’t know but I’ve got the info I’ve got. That should lead into me saying he’s being treated by the best doctors in the world, exactly what they expect me to say. Is there really anything I can do to help them? 

What is this. Call number one hundred and something? Sounds about right. They add up. The more you do the more sensitized you get and it starts to feel normal. This is not normal but it is the norm. I’m just a lieutenant sitting in a temporary office complex in Virginia who the hell am I to have a higher rank than this kid. Goddamn. Ok settle down. 

Hello - This is Lieutenant Aaron Hudson of the United States Marine Corps calling to inform you