Seconds Out: Boxing, Recovery, and a G-Shock That Took Every Hit
Sgt. D. isn’t soft-spoken, but he’s exacting. A former recon Marine turned amateur boxer, his G-Shock DW-5600 has taken more hits than most people he knows.
“I bought it at the PX in 2005. Still got it. Cracked bezel, broken strap pin—but it runs.”
He wore it through training, deployments, and post-service boxing tournaments. The G-Shock was never a flex; it was a foundation.
“Timing a round. Timing a medevac. Same discipline. Same tool.”
His story winds through a medevac mission gone wrong, a fight with addiction post-service, and a recovery process that started—oddly enough—with resetting the time on that old G-Shock.
“When I got clean, I dug it out of a drawer. Set it. Day one.”
For Sgt. D., the watch isn’t nostalgic—it’s symbolic. The ticking reminded him of progress. Seconds adding up to days, then months.
“It’s not a Rolex. It’s not supposed to be. It’s a damn tool that helped me keep punching.”
