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Contrary to what Henry had imagined, by this era the U.S. military no longer relied on troopships for large-scale troop deployments.
Transport aircraft and supply ships were needed to carry heavy equipment and large quantities of supplies.
As the richest military in the world, the U.S. Army transported its soldiers by chartering large passenger airliners, flying every soldier in the mutant battalion directly to the staging area in Kuwait.
Once they arrived, they still had to undergo desert-environment acclimatization training.
One night, Platoon Leader Frank Castle gathered everyone together.
With a serious expression, he said, "I know that for many mutants, the limits of their abilities, and which abilities must be kept secret, are matters of great importance.
"But everyone can see that the U.S. military is serious this time. We're definitely going to war with Iraq. I need to know everyone's abilities and limitations so I can make the best possible arrangements.
"After all, on a battlefield, the smallest detail can mean the difference between life and death. If even one person makes the right decision at the right time, it could save a comrade's life. Do you agree?"
People responded in ones and twos.
"I agree."
"I do."
After twelve weeks of grueling training, during which everyone had eaten and slept together, some degree of battlefield camaraderie had naturally developed.
What Frank said wasn't unreasonable.
In particular, everyone's eyes turned toward Henry Brown.
Henry was even more popular in the military camp than he had expected.
No matter where he went, people would take the initiative to greet him. He even received certain convenient privileges, such as people voluntarily letting him move to the front of a queue.
Sometimes, refusing the courtesy took more effort than accepting it.
This wasn't surprising at all.
After all, in a battalion of nearly two thousand people, there were fewer than five mutants with "bulletproof" characteristics or similar abilities.
Some were bulletproof, but only against bullets below a certain caliber. High-powered firearms could still penetrate their defenses.
Others could alter the composition of their skin to make it bulletproof, but they couldn't maintain the state for long.
These people had the greatest chance of surviving the brutal conditions of the battlefield.
So those who were friendly toward them inevitably had another thought in the back of their minds: when things reached a crisis point, they hoped their mutant brothers might be able to help them out.
However, most of these particularly useful mutants were assigned to ordinary human officers as clerks or messengers.
Although nobody explicitly said that they were expected to sacrifice themselves to protect those officers, everyone knew exactly what the arrangement meant.
Henry being assigned to Frank Castle's platoon showed that the young second lieutenant was also one of the battalion commander's trusted men.
However, Frank didn't accept the protection of a mutant.
Instead, he put Henry somewhere where he could make better use of his abilities: Corporal Blair Proudstar's squad.
Blair Proudstar was an Apache Native American and a squad leader with the rank of corporal.
Aside from his experience of reenlisting—which made him trustworthy—his greatest strengths were his exceptional vigilance and observation skills.
He didn't have any obvious mutant characteristics, nor did he possess any particularly "special" abilities.
But his physical attributes were all considerably superior to those of ordinary humans, to an extent that was almost abnormal.
He even occasionally experienced glimpses of the future.
Whenever he talked about this ability, Blair would jokingly emphasize that he'd never once seen the winning lottery numbers.
According to Blair himself, almost everyone in his family was like this.
They traditionally served as medicine men or warriors within the tribe, and when they grew old, they could become elders.
So he'd never considered himself a mutant.
Until one day, he got bored and decided to play around with a mutant-suppression collar at the reservation's police station.
After putting it around his own neck, he discovered that all of his abilities had declined severely.
That was when he finally confirmed that he was a mutant.
With someone this experienced leading the squad, most of its members were also mutants with similar abilities, or at least people whose natural physical abilities were exceptionally strong.
That made the squad the sharpest blade in Lieutenant Frank Castle's hands.
Henry's presence served as a guarantee.
In a crisis, he could shield his comrades with his body and save them from gunfire.
When necessary, he could even survive long enough to run back to the rear units and report enemy activity.
That was far better than having a reconnaissance unit get wiped out by the enemy, leaving the following troops to blindly walk into the trap.
In short, although Frank Castle, this tactical master, racked his brains trying to devise the most appropriate tactics for every mutant, his advice to most of them remained the same:
Just pick up your rifle and shoot.
During this period, Henry sincerely came to feel that any mutant who could make it into the X-Men was a heaven-blessed prodigy.
There wasn't a single X-Man whose ability was either useless or weak.
This mutant battalion, which the U.S. military had gone to such lengths to recruit, was still predominantly composed of Epsilon-level mutants.
Most people's abilities looked impressive on the surface, but in terms of practical application, they might actually be more of a hindrance than a help.
However, Frank Castle wasn't the only one doing this.
The mutant battalions that had arrived in Kuwait early for acclimatization training were all doing essentially the same thing.
Everyone was adjusting the assignments and equipment of their soldiers.
The officers who had actually fought in wars, in particular, were doing everything they could to teach the others the rules of survival on a battlefield.
If someone's mutant ability really proved useful, the officers would design a set of tactics around it.
But most of the time, these veterans still advised everyone to forget about those flashy tricks.
The rifle in their hands was more trustworthy than their mutant abilities...
When it was Henry's turn to be assigned equipment, the young second lieutenant who had not yet become the Punisher merely glanced at the mutant with a body of steel.
"Kid, you're lucky. This new toy is yours, right? Get familiar with it. Take care of it like you would caress your girlfriend."
Henry hadn't been issued a rifle.
Instead, he was brought to a distinctive weapons crate bearing the Stark Industries logo.
When it was opened, he found three squad automatic weapons assigned to Castle's platoon.
They weren't the M240B standard light machine guns used by the Marine Corps.
Instead, they were Stark Industries' J-508 light machine guns.
They also used 7.62×51mm ammunition and could be fitted with either linked ammunition belts or drum magazines.
Contrary to the common belief that U.S. soldiers could freely replace whatever equipment they used, there were actually two major restrictions.
First, the equipment had to be purchased from a manufacturer approved by the Department of Defense.
The reason was simple: compensation after someone got hurt.
If an accident occurred because a soldier used substandard equipment or a defective weapon malfunctioned and discharged accidentally, would the U.S. military be responsible for compensation?
Certified equipment was generally expensive.
If something was suspiciously cheap, its quality was likely questionable as well.
The principle of "you get what you pay for" applied everywhere in the world.
Wanting cheap equipment might mean gambling with your own life.
Second, it depended on whether the unit's first sergeant strictly enforced the authorized equipment allowances listed in the Modified Table of Organization and Equipment, or MTOE.
Special forces were relatively lax about this, while conventional units tended to enforce the requirements more strictly.
The mutant battalion happened to occupy an awkward middle ground.
Some mutants had physical characteristics that differed from ordinary humans, meaning they couldn't use the standard-issue equipment as issued and had to have it modified or adjusted.
Fortunately, anyone who managed to become a first sergeant was not only experienced but also highly professional.
And the first sergeants assigned to the mutant battalion had no particular issue with discrimination—or rather, they'd already been warned about what they were getting into.
So the company's first sergeant quickly helped each mutant soldier adjust their equipment, either modifying it directly or recommending privately purchased accessories that were authorized for use.
Only then was the mutant battalion truly armed.
And ammunition was issued.
There wasn't much feeling attached to receiving the guns.
But when the ammunition was distributed and everyone began loading their magazines, the realization that war was truly coming suddenly struck everyone.
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