You really don't miss them, do you?Just a brief update, a few of you may have heard that I shaved my eyebrows on the 15th. It didn't go over too well with my superiors Monday morning, but they've decided not to charge me for it, as they originally said they would.
--posted 991019
I'm finally updating my page. I've added a new poem which I wrote a couple weeks ago, but decided to let it stew in my mind for a bit before posting. I thought I might change it, but in the end I decided to leave it as is. I'm rather pleased with it, especially being the first poem I've written in just over a year. Other than that I haven't been up to much. October 5th we left for the field, with the intention of returning on the 13th. That was cut short when 1st Lieutenant Delgado, an officer from Headquarters & Service company, died a few minutes after finishing a hike on the 8th. We returned that day, a Friday, and promptly received two 72s (Saturday through Monday off, followed by Friday through Sunday off). Now, I can't argue with two extra days off, but I was a little bit perturbed that we cut short valuable training because someone died in a unit that wasn't even a part of our field operation. Anyway, life goes on for the rest of us. Tomorrow we start what is known as grass week, a week of preparation for the rifle range the following week. On the 22nd we'll have a battalion hike, which will be immediately followed by a formation in alpha uniforms for the purpose of presenting the new Marines with the French Fourarege (myself and the Marines I arrived from SOI with have already received them), a braided cord worn by members of 3rd battalion 5th Marine regiment. Then, on the 29th, I'll get to rifle qualify once again. I won't, as I had previously passed on, get to qualify with the 9mm. But I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to trade up my pizza box (a nickname for the marksman shooting badge) for an expert, or at least a sharpshooter's badge. Well, that's about all there is to say right now, except that I'm in the process of securing some images for my page. I just got some pictures developed which I intend to use, but I have to arrange to have them scanned and so forth, which will take a bit of time. Rest assured however, they will be here, sooner or later.
--posted 991017
I got promoted to PFC today, for time in grade (meaning I'm getting promoted for having survived an entire six months in the Marine Corps). Supposedly several of us have been getting paid at that rate for a while. I wouldn't know, since I don't receive bank statements and the only atm in this area doesn't wish to give me an account balance. But now I'll be grossing $1075 a month, and I'll be seeing almost $800. We still haven't gotten to learn any more about the mortar, although we did get to carry it today for about 12 miles. Although that might be closer to 10, because the Battalion Commander decided to go around the last hill (which wouldn't have been much fun anyway). We had lighter packs than in SOI, so it wasn't too bad except for the fact that the mortar tube (which I faithfully carry) sits on the top of the pack and pushes your neck forward and your shoulders backwards, and gets quite painful after a while. I guess we did alright though, because our section leader was expecting to have to carry the whole system, and all but one carried their piece the whole way. Tuesday we had a little competition that we really sucked at (in part because one of our section members broke his foot and we lost a great deal of time carrying him) which didn't really do much but get our boots very wet and beat the hell out of me. I think my favorite part was trying to do a 100 yard fireman's carry on one of my section members and tossing him on the ground about a dozen times. Either that or trying to drown myself, but I won't get into that. Now I have to figure out what the hell to do until Tuesday morning. We're on liberty until then, but I think I'll just go hang out in one of the beach towns around here and try to get into some fights or something. I'll let you know if anything comes of it.
--posted 990902
Well, I've arrived at Camp Pendleton. San Diego looks pretty awesome, from what I saw of it. It's an hour or so away from us. I don't plan to be seeing much of it anytime soon, on account of the fact that I need to save my money. We've been here two days and still haven't gotten finished checking in yet. We need to go to the armory and sign for our weapons and then go get our career issue gear. They did however inform me and the others in my company that I checked in with that we're no longer 0311's. I'm now going to be crosstraining as an 0341 mortarman. This means I'll be operating a (heavy) 60mm crew-served weapon with three other Marines, and although I'll still be carrying an M16, I will get to pistol qualify, which otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a chance to do until I made Corporal. Well, that's all I know so far, I'll do my best to update regularly.
--posted 990825
I'm preparing to leave tomorrow morning. I'm flying out to San Diego, where I'll finally get to call myself a 'fleet Marine', after spending thirteen weeks in boot camp and five weeks in SOI. I suspect I'll be able to check my email and update this from time to time, if I make the effort to. It'll be a little while before I get computer though. This one is too old to mess with anymore, so I'll need to save a couple grand before I can purchase a decent computer. I don't expect to be coming back here (I guess I'd call this home, as much as anywhere else) for quite a while, but nothing's certain. I would appreciate it if those of you who take the time to visit might actually email me, something that only two or three of you did during the past month.
--posted 990822
Well, the deed is done. I graduated Thursday, flew into Albany that night, and got a room for the night. From Monday through Friday afternoon, I attempted to call Sheryl several times, actually speaking to her once, during which no real information was passed, or at least retained. I took a bus into Oneonta at 1700. I arrived at 1700, and finally tracked her down in person at Wal-Mart. I spent most of the next three days walking around Oneonta, sitting around the house with people I don't know, and generally waiting for Sheryl to wake up, get ready, or come home from work. I'd say I actually spent about 10 hours with Sheryl, roughly half of which were spent also in the company of her boyfriend Calvin, a pleasant fellow whose hobby is time travel, and perhaps other things which I can't publicly comment on. The lack of time spent with Sheryl was quite frustrating, but not totally unexpected. I'm glad I went...but not necessarily happy about it.
--posted 990816
I'm near the end of SOI, one more week of real training left. I've fired the M203 grenade launcher, the M249 SAW (5.56mm Squad Automatic Weapon), the M240 (7.62mm medium machine gun), and the AT4 (84mm antiarmor rocket). In addition, I've fired the M16A2 wearing some very screwy night vision goggles, gotten lost in the woods for seven hours, spent a day and a half in a fighting hole being eaten by chiggers, and cleaned weapons for 13 hours straight. I received my first official reprimand on 990630, which was quite vague, but was probably the result of my falling asleep on fire watch (and being awakened by the Officer of the Day). I graduate on 990812, at which time I'll be on ten days leave before heading to my permanent duty station in Camp Pendleton, CA (near San Diego). During that leave I'll be embarking upon an unwise and ill-fated adventure. I'll be flying to Albany, NY, to visit my ex for a few days. I'm 99% sure it's a bad idea...but that doesn't often stop me.
--posted 990802
