Slow Weekend

Well I made it through another weekend. The good part is that I didn't spend much time playing computer games, which is what I normally do.

I talked with my niece, Alex, about what she would want for her birthday. She's my favorite niece because we like to hang out together whenever I'm in town. The other two nieces have other interests. I asked her if she wanted to go to a Hillary Duff concert in August and managed to get permission. So she will get dropped off with her friend Ella for that night to go to the concert. In preparation for this visit I decided this weekend was as good as any to start cleaning up the place. I spent Saturday cleaning and re-organizing the ground floor and Sunday doing the same on the second floor.

I briefly mentioned this in the first blog, that I was a Marine. I thought I'd add a little each blog entry describing my experience.

Boot Camp:

My high school days could best be described as an invisible entity. I had a few friends, didn't do any extra activities and I did the bare minimum for school work. I had no push from my parents to do anything so I didn't. My only physical activities were biking, everywhere, occasional backyard baseball/softball and backyard football. Other than that I played on the computer and played war games with my brother.

Once I signed up for the Marine Corps I had about a year before I actually went to boot camp. This meant weekly meetings where we would do running, pull ups and sit-ups to help prepare us for bootcamp.

I departed for bootcamp in January 1989 aboard a greyhound bus headed to downtown Detroit from Traverse City. I had two other people that I knew go on the trip with me. I forget the guys name but I went to high school with the girl. When we arrived we commenced the physical exams and other entry related paperwork. When the day was through the guy I went down with suggested we hang out with the girl. The end result was about 3 hours sleep before we flew out to bootcamp. The first thing that I thought of when I stepped off the aircraft in San Diego was "wow it's warm here". I left the 3 feet of snow in Detroit for a balmy 70's in San Diego. We waited in the airport for everyone to arrive and got on board a shuttle bus that ran back and forth from the airport to the boot camp facilities.

The first thing we did once we arrived at bootcamp was to line up on the yellow footprints and hear a few rules and regulations being announced to us. From here we stripped down to our underwear and went through an assembly line to get our gear. After a few hours of this we got together in the temporary barracks. Our first assignment was to stamp all our gear with our last name first two initials. This wasn't an easy task as the recieiving drill instructor would announce the instructions and give us 10 seconds to complete it. So there I was fumbling with the rubber stamp trying to get my name on it correctly. After the hour or so that the gear labeling took it was time to "shit, shower and shave". This activity was preceded with the usual instructions. After the instuctions I boldely went to the drill instructor and asked him if I still had to shave because I didn't have anything to shave. His reply was to go through the motions anyway. The other shocker of course was the fact that this was my first public shower, something that I would eventually get used to. There were racks (beds) for every recruit but we only got shown how to make them. There would be no sleep for us that night. I also got informed that night that my MOS (job) that I was guarenteed wouldn't be possible because my mom wasn't a citizen of the US. So I picked my first alternate (Aircraft Technician).

The next morning we were introduced to the chow hall and were introduced to our real drill instructors. They had two junior drill instructors, the mean ones, and our senior drill instructor, the nice one. They do this intentionally so you can feel like you feel like you have someone to go to. There was 3 phases to boot camp the first phase was mainly physical conditioning and drill. My physical conditioning was pretty rough. I developed shin splints in both shins by about the half way point of 1st phase. It got so bad that after a run I had to prop myself up from the guy in front of me just to stand. The funny thing about that injury is that it doesn't hurt while running but when you stopped, very severe pain.

One painful experience was after my brother-in-law at the time called my drill instructors. He was a recruiter for the Marines at the time. This took me out of annonymous and they started to screw with me. Saying that I wasn't pulling my weight and asked me if I wanted to go to another platoon. After intense grilling I caved and said "sure I know another guy that's here" so they said "pack your shit" and gave me 2 minutes to stuff everything into my duffle bag and run over to the other barracks. They were out at drill at the time so I didn't get to see the guy and was sorry that I dragged him into it.

Second phase we were bussed to Camp Pendleton for infantry training. By now I was on light duty for the majority of the time. This meant that I didn't have to go on "humps" like the others. I started to feel the resentment from the other recruits that I wasn't doing equal training. I didn't want to be excluded but the pain wouldn't go away. The biggest excercise that I did during that phase was a 3 mile run in "boots & utes". This pretty much sidelined me after attempting that.

Third phase started back in San Diego and half the platoon was given mess duty and other half some other detail. I had the pleasure of mess duty, that meant waking up at 0430 and marching over to the permanent personel chow hall. The only memorable moment of this was the day that I got a coke for one of my meals. Before bootcamp I was a coke addict. I could drink about a six pack a day. So that was the best tasting drink I've ever had after a few months of no sugar :)

After chow hall duty I was told to report to my series commander, an officer. He asked me if I felt that I should be dropped back due to lack of training. I sensed a trick question so I agreed then he asked me how far. Well I didn't know, whole thing? 2nd phase what. So the end result was that I was sent to the physical conditioning platoon (fat body platoon) for a weekend. They all looked at me like I didn't belong. There I was with my dress uniform, not given out til third phase. During my stay there I did a PFT, which they did once a week. It just so happens that my old platoon was doing theirs the same day. After the weekend I got hooked up with my new platoon which just finished their 2nd phase.

My entry into this new platoon wasn't unenventful. First of all I left a platoon who didn't win any events into a platoon which won everything. Secondly the new platoon didn't speak with a "sir sandwich". This meant starting and ending your sentence with a sir. After a few warning of not to say it the excercise punishments began. It was second nature to say it by this point and was a tough habit to break. Third phase was mainly clean up activities like polishing your drill and swim qualifications. The one thing I couldn't participate in was the obstical course because of my light duty. I went to boot camp not knowing how to swim so that week of training was interesting and I ended up learning how. I learned the backstroke and had to tread water for 5 minutes to prove I could start the qualifications.

My parents planned out a road trip to San Diego to see my graduation and now that I didn't graduate on time they missed it. But my new drill instructors felt sorry for me and I got a couple of hours that sunday to see my parents.

Our drill instructors also gave us the priviledge to watch the super bowl on tv that year. Probably because that's what they wanted to do that day more than giving us the pleasure of it. Another relaxing activity which we enjoyed was going to church. To say that one grows spiritually during bootcamp is an understatement. Just about everyone went to church. For one thing it was time away from your drill instructors into a peaceful setting. It was a struggle not to sleep in the nice dark church though.

The final week of boot camp we got our orders... I got my orders to go to the Memphis, TN area for basic aviation electrician training.