"Do not do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

-Unknown soldier, US Army Logistics

Miguel Angel Santos has turned the above words into a twenty year Army career. Having the rank it takes normal soldiers four to six years to attain after twenty years, SSG Santos is short, fat, late, and lazy when he gets there. MAS wasn't always this way; his current poor performance has been two decades in the making.

Growing up in Mexico City, a young Miguel Angel came from a middle class background. He was a Castizo; he had three of his four grandparents descended from Spanish settlers to the New World. When he traveled as a boy and later a young man to visit distant relatives in Buenos Aries, he was often mistaken for a Frenchman or a Spaniard and one time even an Italian.

MAS learned English since he was in elementary school and was comfortable with the language. When his family had money he went to the local Catholic schools in the area. He learned from an early age to shun the Santeria; a religion which was Catholicism heavily mixed with voodoo coming from Cuba that was practiced by more and more Mestizos, which were descendants of European settlers heavily mixed with indigenous peoples, like the Aztecs and the Maya. Miguel's mother wouldn't let him play with the Mestizo children down the street. That's just how it was.

MAS's love of cooking came from his maternal grandmother, who figured prominently in his life. As a child the future US Army soldier was skinny as a rake from playing Futbol, and his grandmother tried fattening him up by making him cook for the family with her. He continued to play the sport well into high school. Although his mother hoped he would do something more cerebral with his life his father supported Miguel Angel in his asperations to go pro: professional footballers had some of the biggest haciendas just outside Mexico City.

Santos's mother's brother had a son named Enrique, who was a few years older than Santos was. Cousin Enrique could do no wrong in Miguel's eyes. Enrique rode a bike before Miguel could. He learned to read before Miguel could. When they were older, Enrique got a girlfriend before Miguel did. In short, Enrique was like the cool older brother that Miguel never had.

It had been Enrique's idea to come to America. The lure of American dollars was strong, and Miguel, mostly because Enrique wanted him to, wanted to live the American dream too. Enrique had it all figured out: since they both spoke English well, they would apply for work visas instead of coming illegally like 'those Mestizo border jumpers', as MAS's father had said. Once they had work they would apply for business loans and the pair of them would open up a panaderia, or sweet shop, selling empanadas, churros and bunuelos to fat gringos for four times what they sold for back home.

Neither of his parents wanted him to go, but an eighteen year old male is hard to argue with when he gets an idea in his head. In this case, it was an idea in Enrique's head, but he sold it so well that Miguel Angel started to believe it was his dream too. He said goodbye to his dreams of becoming a professional soccer player and boarded a bus for El Norte and the promise that lay beyond Mexico's northern border.

The two cousins from Mexico City ended up in San Antonio, Texas. For the first two months everything was as Enrique said it would be. They got jobs washing dishes in a Mexican restaurant while the paperwork for their Small Business Loan went through. When their Loan Officer got back to them, he could only finance the pair for half of the cost of a bakery. Apparently their American Dream would have to wait.

Not long after, Enrique changed. He drank to excess, started to experiment with drugs, and started hanging out in bars with the wrong people. This was the late 1970s and cocaine was starting become in vogue in Texas. Enrique confided in Miguel Angel that the foray into America had been a failure, but the younger cousin disagreed. They could save up the money they needed to open their bakery if they just put their heads down and worked at it. For a time, it looked like it would work; Enrique drank less and only got high on weekends. Things were looking up.

MAS would never see his bakery dream realized. Enrique slept with the wrong cholo's girl, and the subsequent beating he got was so bad that his doctors told Miguel that Enrique may never walk again. Unable to run a bakery on his own and unable to support other workers on his dishwasher's pay, MAS needed some real money in a hurry and he needed steady pay afterwards to pay for Enrique's ongoing hospital bills. He saw a commercial on TV telling him to 'Be All You Can Be' and the recruiter told him over the phone to come into his office that day.

In the recruiter's office, Miguel Angel Santos looked through the binder that described each MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty. MAS wanted something with a sign on bonus to pay for Enrique's expensive hospital stay. As a non-citizen, only certain supply/support MOSs were available to him. He chose 92F Petroleum Supply Specialist. The Army had a lot of choppers and tanks, and it would be his job to fuel them from a fuel truck.

MAS did twenty years in the US Army in what felt like the blink of an eye. By the time he had paid for Enrique's physical therapy he had already done six years active duty. The job was easy; his family hardly recognized him from all the weight he put on when he went back to Mexico City on leave. He decided that the panaderia would wait until after he retired. The outbreak of the Twilight War changed his plans, and by 2000 he was just lucky to be alive.

Staff Sergeant Santos has been with the US 5th Infantry Division long before it crossed the border into Poland. He knew the situation was grave, but every time he thought of his father's mention of 'Mestizo border jumpers' he had to smile. As near as Santos could tell, they were ALL border jumpers since the Fifth crossed the Oder River into Poland.

MAS is armed with an M16A1 and an M9 service pistol. His size 4XL BDUs look like they are spray-painted on him. SSG Santos uses his brain and not his brawn to tackle any obstacles in his way. He no longer has the energy of that young soccer player he used to be, and has learned to pace himself in both his Army career and his personal life. Somehow he's made it this far; what happens next is up to him.