My Marine Update

Grats Mr. B! Hope you get to see him soon You must be proud pappa! He will do well if he has your discipline!
 
He comes home late Friday night for a week or so, then back to base for a bit and then off to the sand box first of April.
He was told they would be back no later than Oct 31, but we've found that what they say now might be different tomorrow.
 
Awesome. Hmm somehow looks like my post on congrats on the new rank didn't stick. Ah well, basically I said that when I promoted someone to the Army equivalent of Lance Cpl I was basically saying, "you have some time in and haven't gotten in trouble yet so lets see if you have what it takes to be an NCO in the future" then after promotion you start getting assigned minor leadership tasks like a squad detail or something like that to evaluate you to see if you are just there to do your time and get a paycheck or have what it takes to move up the chain to Cpl. So tell him Congrats on his new rank. And enjoy the time while he is home. Hope their assessment of return before Oct 31 is accurate! Should be about time for his Security training soon after that too so that helps.
 
Yeah I asked him if I was required to salute him now and he said he was still a nobody in the game of Marine but moving up.
The Security thing is now once again up in limbo so he's not even certain if that's still on the table or not.

Hopefully hear more when I see him face to face. He said the next deployment is slated for 1 1/2 years and his enlistment would be over before that time is up so the generally don't send them??? He did say he can extend his time for it if he wants to go, add 6 months or whatever not another full 4 years. I don't think I'll ever figure it all out.

What I don't get is all the guys in his squad basically started at the same time, maybe a few newer guys in the mix and hopefully more new guys before deployment. So why aren't they all Lance Corporals. I know it's some sort of point system but seems like they'd all be close.

He's been playing squad leader pretty much all along on training exercises so he must be pleasing somebody somehow.

I sometimes get a headache thinking about it. Like MCRD the basic training base. Everyone is a nobody recruit or a Sgt, might have seen one or two corporals but vast majority Sgt's. So who's in charge?????

At least I know at work I'm not in charge so guess it don't really matter.
 
Good luck to him, Bawanna. Back him to the hilt. Growing into a man ain't easy.
 
I'm sure it's not but I'm looking forward to the challenge, figure it should be coming along any time now.

Pick him up tomorrow night, his momma is most anxious to have him home for a bit. He was always her favorite.
 
Military units typically get a certain number of promotion points. They only have so many, so they usually go first to the most deserving. PT performance, military bearing, schools, and how willing the SM is to volunteer or take on more responsibility are considered.

(This isn't the case in the promotion from O1 to O2, which is automatic, but it's true for all other ranks AFAIK.)

John
 
Yeah he explained some of that to me last night when we got home. I guess most of the other guys are already Lance Corporals and as I figured they kind of move up. Since they come in at different times they don't all move up at the same time as I figured.

Guess he flies to Kuwait commercial and then by helicopter to Baghdad when he goes back.

By the way he loved the little ARK knife when he opened it last night and so did I.
He ordered a pair of Oakley glasses, apparently somebody stole his other pair. Opened the box and all he got was the hard case, no glasses. Have to scramble to see about fixing that. Hopefully he can just pick up a pair at the Oakley store at the Mall on their approval.
 
Glad to hear he loved the ARK.

I also had a good pair of sunglasses stolen, while I was in Basic.
 
Well my Lance Corporal left base at 0300 hrs this am by bus headed for an airport on the coast. That's Odark30 for us civies. Just texted a few minutes ago, still sitting at the airport awaiting the second leg of a very long journey to Baghdad.

Guess he won't get there till sometime Sunday. Was told all the previous assignments and plans might be out the window, so no idea what's what now.
Suppose to share a room with 4 to 6 other guys. Was told originally 1 or 2 man rooms.

Sure seem to change their mind a lot.
 
Thanks Bookie. I'm pretty confident in him and his abilities.
I'm the one that has to live with his mother who will probably expect me to go over and inspect the neighborhood to make sure its safe enough for him.

I tried to instill situational awareness to him while at home. Head on a swivel, trust nobody, rely on his comrades but still don't trust them.
When in doubt full auto.

He'll be fine I'm sure.
 
Interesting note of just plumb luck. We took him to the airport and he usually makes mail plans with mom. But just by chance I asked him what he did with the ARK little neck knife since he didn't have any checked bags going back.
He was wearing it. Told him now way TSA was gonna allow that on the plane so guess we'll be mailing it to him in Iraq.
Got very lucky there since we just dropped him at the door. Some TSA agent would have had a really nice free knife.
 
Bawanna said:
Interesting note of just plumb luck. We took him to the airport and he usually makes mail plans with mom. But just by chance I asked him what he did with the ARK little neck knife since he didn't have any checked bags going back.
He was wearing it. Told him now way TSA was gonna allow that on the plane so guess we'll be mailing it to him in Iraq.
Got very lucky there since we just dropped him at the door. Some TSA agent would have had a really nice free knife.
Click to expand...

I accidentally left a pocket knife in my backpack once when I was heading home for the holidays. They let me walk over to a shop and buy a padded envelope and postage and mail it. I ran over and bought the stuff, addressed the envelope, and the agent put my knife in and sealed it, and put it in a mailbox. Mailing abroad would be tricky though.
 
I remember I was on a class trip to Disney in high school and I was using my "wilderness" backpack as carry on. Cleaned it out good. Packed up and went on the trip no problem. Month or 2 later went on a family trip and used the same backpack. Got stopped by TSA. They found my favorite Swiss Army knife in there. Only thing is, I hadn't used the backpack since the last trip. Which means it had went past their security undetected...twice :D mailed that one home too, it's a great knife
 
Swapped him from the generic "keep em safe" prayer to the specific "keep em safe over there" prayer. Good luck dealing with Mrs Bawanna, I am guessing that is not going to be better until he comes back home safe and sound again. But I do hope she at least keeps it under control and manages it well, for both your sakes LOL!
 
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