Today is Sunday, June 15, 2014. On Father's Day, we said goodbye to our son and placed him in the gentle, loving hands of the US Marines. This blog was created to give you his story from the perspective of his parents. We'll update everyone on his status and what he is doing today. We hope that you will send him letters of encouragement as he steps up to the challenge to earn the title US Marine. He's been working towards this goal since he first signed the enlistment paperwork about 1 year ago. He was a kid with aspirations of being a Marine but he wasn't ready. Over the past year, he has worked very hard to build his body and endurance and we all hope and pray that it is enough to get him through. He has always wanted to serve and now he gets the chance to make that dream a reality.
We have done everything we could do to get him ready for the world and it's now up to him. As a parent, you do whatever is necessary to try and get to that day when your child leaves the house and when that day arrives, it's a tough day for everyone. The small child that you brought home from the hospital many years ago is now a young man that is ready to jump out of the nest (and hopefully he doesn't go SPLAT!!) and fly.
Tonight, he is in Columbia and will spend the night there and in the morning head to MEPS in Columbia to begin processing into the military (and this time, they mean it). He'll spend the majority of the day at MEPS and then it's off on the bus to Parris Island, where the real fun begins.
If you want to write to him, you can use this address for now (it will be updated soon) but let's set some ground rules.
- Keep letters encouraging, no bitching about your life....remember why you are writing and let's keep everything postive. Remember, his only source of contact to the outside world for the next 13 weeks is through letters from home. He is in a foreign place and will need to know that we are all there for him and are praying for him.
- Do not put in the title of Marine, PVT or PFC, etc. Just his name. He has not earned the title of Marine yet so let's not tick off the Drill Instructor so he can be "educated" on how to have people send him mail.
- No goodies-simply letters. Simple enough but make it happen. Again, he doesn't need to be singled out because some one sent him cookies (Awww, Dudley has cookies everybody! Recruit, come here and let's do some exercises together. You exercise while I "instruct"! Now get down and beat your face!).
- No kissy marks on the envelopes, no stickers, just a place envelope with the address and a letter inside full of encouragement. Anything else will be a problem. You don't want a P-Oed Marine looking you when he gets back from boot camp now do you?
Okay, here is the address you can use until we update it.
Rct. Dudley, Warren
3rd Recruit Training Battalion Mike Company
Parris Island, SC. 29905
Thanks for your support and keep checking back in to see how things are going. Remember, they don't have Facebook (Oh the humanity!) and they don't have their cellphone to tweet (heathens!). It's all about the letters. We would appreciate it if everyone could send him one letter per week to help keep him going. So.....what are you waiting for, get to writin'.
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