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Mar. 14, 2009
The Making of a Marine
December 17th....D-day for us. We watched as our son was wisked away in a Marine transport vehicle (a van with a Marines sticker on the side)....just sounded better....hee-hee.....to become a Marine.
My husband and I walked upstairs and cried and cried and cried. We didn't stop crying for two days. Not that we were sad to see him go into the Marines...but we knew he was no longer ours. He now belonged to the USMC. I couldn't protect him anymore...except through prayer.
We have waited 3 long months to see and talk with our son. The day finally came. We packed up our camels, loaded them down with all the goods from our tents and crept our way to Parris Island, SC to watch our son strut his stuff across the Parade Deck with his uniform on and his cover pulled low. He was so handsome.
We arrived at the island at 6:30am and stood under this sign. We were told that they would come and run under here and we would see him. We made a sign that glowed in the dark the said, "WE LOVE YOU AUSTIN PLT 3020". We stood there and could here the platoons chanting their "joeys" in the background. We heard them take off from the Parade Deck area and then they were "supposed" to come and run under this sign.
WELL.......2 hours later that hadn't run under....we couldn't figure out why.
I went into the visitor's center to check out the status of this and found out that we were given erroneous information and we missed him. UUUGGGHH!!! A mama that hasn't seen her son in 3 months is not one you want to give erroneous information to!!! BEWARE!!!
Well, dejected and a little miffed we headed over to the All Weather Building. We watched them parade in and get introduced. The main honcho(can't remember who he was) said some words then we were able to go see our new Marine! I cried, laughed, held him, you name it!! I couldn't believe how grown up he looked, so distinguished in his uniform. :)
We spent the day being led around by our new man and he showed us everyplace where all his torturing took place. :)
This is the sand pit where they did "motovational" PT. Ya, know...the kind were you end up looking and feeling like a sugar cookie when you are done?
The Barracks. This is where they slept, wrote letters, shined their shoes, guns and pressed their uniforms. They did every unimaginable thing under the sun here. Too many to even write about!! Can you say..."I, sir?!" That is all you were permitted to say for 3 months!
The infamous Marine group shower hold. They had 64 naked recruits in here at one time....they had 300 seconds to shower and shave and be by their bunks ready to get dressed. (They could only get dressed if the DI said they could).
The rest of my family experiencing the Yellow Footprints......eeekkkss!!
Now a Marine...he can smirk at his DI. I shudder to think of what they would have done to him had he done this as a recruit. Actually, he told us some pretty scary stories of things they did to him and others when they broke silence. :(
Where did my curly headed little boy go? He is now a US Marine!
There he is #4 from the left. Struttin' his stuff!
We had a welcome home dinner.....he loved it!
His Uncle Chris (a former Marine) and Austin singing the Marines National Anthem. Very emotional evening.
We gathered around him and shared how it was for us as parents that survived boot camp. We listened to him tell us stories of his experiences while on the island. It was a wonderful reunion.
We are headed back to civilian life with our son. He has 24 days with us then he is off to the School of Infantry. He will be stationed in North Carolina at Camp Geiger. He is there for 52 days then off to more schooling....then off to Afghanistan.
Pray for our son. He is fulfillling his calling and defending our freedom.
We are so incredibly proud of him! |
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Posted by TMP 
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Mar. 14, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Thanks for stopping by my blog and dropping a comment!! Was nice to hear from you. ^_^
Pics didn't load on your blog since my Internet died for 10 seconds and then blocked all photos...ugh. Wonder of wonders...sometimes I think I could chuck a baseball bat at this computer if it didn't have all my books and writings saved on it. -_^ lol
Actually I think my beloved cousin was stationed at that base Austin's heading to...now he's somewheres in Germany or Russia, no one really knows. He's been to Iraq 2 or 3 times now...can't remember the last time I saw him, I must've been 8 or 9. He's my only guy 1st cousin, he used to be such a goof. =P Last time I heard from him was on his 2nd trip over to Iraq and that was...oh, 2 years ago? I miss him...
Hope everything goes well with Austin, glad you got to see him! I know I'm looking forward to seeing Brandon this summer, I haven't seen him in a year. ^_^
Hugs and Love,
Toria