I've got a few things to share with you guys that have happened to me in the past week.
On Tuesday, I got braces
. And spent the night at X-Virius's house. Wednesday morning at about 4 o'clock am, X's family and I drove to South Carolina from Baltimore,Maryland with about 3 cars of people... We checked in at our hotel about 20 mins away from The Marine Corps Base at Parris Island, South Carolina.
On Thursday Morning, we woke up at about 6:30 am and got our free breakfast at the hotel (Which was a hot breakfast not just a continental one !). Then we headed out to Parris Island at about 9 am. Did a couple of activities such as a Q&A Period with a panel of officers and what not. At 1 pm 4 Platoons of Company "I" and 2 Platoons of Company "O" (Ladies) marched into the all weather warehouse. At this time the Recruits got their Eagle, Anchor, and Globe Pins for their Headwear. They were Marines now. We ran out onto the Warehouse floor as did all the other families there.. and greeted our Marine... Pvt. Josiah "X-Virius" Gootee of 3rd Batallion, India Company, Platoon #3045. This was a very emotional moment for all of us... alot of tears were shed.. Jo, was completly differant... Barely talked, when he did it was polite... a changed man.
After this greeting that took about an hour... he had some liberty to show us around base. We took him out to a buffet on campus where I met up with my cousin Andy who served in Iraq and was in on the storming of Fallujah. He is now stationed there at the Island running a Rifle Range. We sat down with the entire 3 carloads of people and my Cousin and his Wife.
Heh... on a sidenote.. eating has been difficult... my mouth is killing me even though i'm constantly taking tylenol every 6 hours... I think i've become immune
. At 7pm we said goodbye to X and headed back to the hotel.Friday morning we woke up at 3 O'clock am !! We drove back to the Island where we waited around till 9 am for the one hour formal graduation. The marches were very intricate an they amazed me!! After all of the graduation was completed. We ran down onto the Parade deck where we greeted the New "Official" Marine. Alot of pictures were taken, I'll post some up when I get them emailed to me (I only took them with my phone... I left my camera here in Maryland). He went back to the barracks and got the rest of his stuff and we left. We headed back to the hotel and hit the pool where I got sunburned and managed to get a decent tan with it
. Alot of goodtimes...This morning.. We drove home at about 7 am after we took some of that free breakfast
. Made it home at about 8pm because we stopped at "South of the Border" for an hour (A like uhh huge cool place between the borders of North and South Carolina. Then we stopped for another 2 hours or so in Wake Forest, NC to visit some X's familie's friends.I learned alot about the history of the Marine Corps.. This was an eye opening experience for me. This is making me put alot of thought into what branch I want to join myself. I had my eyes set on the Air Force for the longest time.. But now it's a toss up between the two branches. But I have another two or so years before it will be time for me to enlist anyway. I also found a new love... Cadences!! Theses are the songs the Marines sing while they run. Alot of them are nonsense but they motivate you... I have three 45 min. Cd's full of them!! I got home and put on some rock music while I was checking my email and writing this and it didnt appeal to me.. I needed my Cadences !!!
X's Future in the Corps... After his Ten day leave which ends in 8 days.. Instead of going to Combat Training in North Carolina, He must return to Parris Island for medical rehabilitation. In phase 3 of his recruitment process, he broke his knee on during the Crucible (Toughest challenge spanning over 4 days with only 3 rations and 4 hours of sleep a night). Jo still managed to work through the pain and run back 10 miles to the base with the rest of his company. The Docs say he is healing fine but they want to look at just to make sure. Then he will head out for Combat Training. After the 54 days there he gets flown out to 29 Palms in California... This is a base in the middle of no-where, in an extremely hot desert. This is where he will be doing his job training and be posted until further notice. His M.O.S. (I forget what the words are but its his job) is Data Systems. He plans on making a Career out of the Marines. He wants to be in the Corp till he retires..
That's all I have to say for now... Im exhausted... Gonna get some rest. Thought I'd fill ya in though.
-John
