RSSLetters From Parris Island 6
Carl | July 29, 2011
In this letter from Parris Island, Marine recruit Andrews seemed much more upbeat about boot camp than she had in her previous letter.
And from the thickness of the envelope we thought that she must have been working on this letter for awhile.
Turns out we were right.
“I have some time to write because I just had an interview regarding my MOS schooling.
The interviews are one-on-one,there are a bunch of us being interviewed, and we have to wait for everyone to be finished and head back to our squadbay as a group.”
“I/we had to miss PT(Physical Training) and MCMAP(Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) practice which stinks, but I’m sure they’ll get us caught up.”
“This afternoon we have drill practice and a class in Marine Corps history.
We have our initial drill and first inspection on Saturday.
Most of the recruits in my platoon don’t pay attention during drill class so we are still lost as a whole.”
“By the way, we had our first bout with Pugil Sticks the other day and I won my matchup, I figured that would make Dad proud.” (Damn right it did.)
“I got my first taste of the quarterdeck yesterday for “trying to hide” my scuzzbrush.
Somehow it fell under my rack during showers and one of my Drill Instructors accused me of hiding it.
I was quarterdecked during drill practice, which put me a bit behind, not good, I still need lots of practice.”
“We have our first written test on training day 25, it will have 100 questions, and the Drill Instructors have been pounding the information into our heads to have us prepped.”
I saw the Parade Deck where the Family Day and Boot Camp Graduation ceremonies will take place, the place is huge, you might want to bring the binoculars you got me for Christmas, they are in Chester’s glovebox.” (Chester is what she calls her car,this is a picture of her and Chester when she was home on leave after boot camp.)
“How is Chester anyway?”
(As I write this, Chester is parked across the street in need of major surgery.)
“Did I ever tell you about the flags?
What we do outdoors is dictated by different colored flags that will be flying over the base on a given day or time.
Under green, yellow or red we can do basically anything outdoors, and a black flag means we have to get indoors, which is good during drill practice because when we mess up outdoors the Drill Instructors make us run on the Parade Deck until we sound off loudly enough.
Which is a problem with this platoon because for some reason it seems like no one wants to get loud.”
“Being the platoon scribe takes up a lot of my “free’time, i have trouble finding the time to get my own stuff done, and there are lots of times I will be helping someone else with something, but if i ask for help some of the girls here get really catty, but whatever, soon most of those people will get dropped for various reasons and they will be some other platoons problem and hopefully the drops that our platoon picks up will have better attitudes.”
“I can tell I am building up more arm/upper body strength, my flex arm hang times are improving.
The downside is that I still suck at rolling my sleeves and making my rack.
I’ll keep writing because I’m still waiting for the six other recruits being interviewed to be finished.”
“This stuff about don’t finish first but don’t finish last is a load of bull.
The people finishing things first are made guide until the Drill Instructors “fire” them, but they and the squad leaders get sandpitted a lot.”
“We have separate drill and squadbay squad leaders, the drill ones are better at drill.
I not even sure of who the squadbay/”house” squad leaders are because I’m always running around doing Scribe stuff for the Drill Instructors, along with keeping my own gear squared away.
When I pull firewatch, they rarely ask me for the reports about gear, footlockers, etc., instead it’s usually “Andrews, do this!” and “Andrews, do that!”
I got a real laugh last night because the girl on watch at the time had to ask the Drill Instructor to do a joint tour to count gear and when she banged on the D.I.’s office door she actually yelled out “Bang Bang Bang.”
You know that she caught hell for that one.”
“I hope my civilian glasses are OK for the trip home after grauation, they have been sitting at the bottom of my footlocker since i arrived at boot camp.
By the way, we can stay in South Carolina an extra day if you want so you guys aren’t driving like crazy.”
(I wish to hell I had listened to her. After driving straight through to South Carolina, for us an 800 mile trip, two days earlier, then getting up early to get onto Parris Island for Family day, then getting up at O-dark-thirty for Boot Camp Graduation, attended the ceremony, she showed us some other things at P.I., we went to her squadbay, gathered up her gear, got it stowed away and saddled up to head home.
BIG MISTAKE!
Except for spending a few hours in Charleston for a lunch break, and naturally stops for gas, Nick and I took turns driving non-stop to get back home. And we had some car trouble along the way (which I will relate to you at another time.)
By the time we got home the following day, i understtod what people mean when they say that they can’t see straight.)
“I LOVE YOU.
Only 9 more Sundays!
As long as I qualify in MCMAP,Weapons Qualification, Swim Qual/Combat Water Survival, Inspections,PFT and CFT, and the Crucible,that’s it!
(Oh, is that all?)
She ended this letter from Parris Island with something that really brought home just how much we take for granted in civilian life.
Keep in mind this is a squared-away young woman, a college graduate working her way towards becoming a United States Marine, and this made her day.
Pay attention to the parts that she (not I)put the emphasis on.
“P.S.
We got box chow for lunch with the batallion that did the interviews with us for our MOS training instead of recruit box chow.
It had TWO hard boiled eggs instead of one, two cookies, ketchup,(normally we only get mustard or Miracle Whip) and a BAG OF POTATO CHIPS!
But ssshhh, we aren’t supposed to tell
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