Warren to Marine

A few things to update on the recruit.

First, everything is on schedule for September 12^th graduation.  He left us hanging with a letter we got 2 weeks back.  In that letter he said that he failed Table 1 rifle qualification.  He passed the pre-qualification but when it came to qualification day, he didn’t score high enough to get a passing mark.  According to him, he got screwed by the pits, meaning that he had hits that weren’t counted which resulted in the failing score.  It’s a plausible line since he scored 30 points less on qualification day and that’s pretty far off.  For those who may not know (and why would you know), if they failed qualification on Grass Week, they must go back during Team Week and qualify.  According to the information if they fail a second time then they would get recycled into another platoon and go through Grass Week all over again (basically dropping him 2 weeks back in the process).  In the letter he was upbeat despite failing and said “I will go out and qualify tomorrow (Monday) because I want to see my family in 31 days”.  It was exactly the right attitude to take on, rub some dirt on it Johnny, put on your big boy panties and get back in there.  Now, from our view, we expected a letter sometime on Wednesday indicating his score from re-qualification.  However, Wednesday came and went, Thursday no word, Friday no word,…..  Although we wanted to believe that he had passed, there was this small nagging doubt in the back of our minds.  However, after a few days we decided that no news was good news so we assumed he had passed.  We finally got the letter on Friday (2 weeks after his last letter) confirming he passed and we’re on schedule.  [WHEW!!!]  Now we cannot tell him that we doubted so we left it alone in our letters over the past weeks but when we see him we’ll let him know that sometimes we are just as stressed as he is, although in a different way.  He’ll never understand until he becomes a parent, all of the parents out there understand.  A few months ago he was living at home and we had some input as to what he did etc.  Now, we have turned him over to the Marine Corps and they control his life and no matter how much we want to help, all we can do is write encouragement from the distant sidelines.  It’s a transition for everyone so while he endures boot camp for the Marines, we are enduring parental boot camp (with just less yelling and screaming).

Second thing, if you plan to write to Warren – make it happen this week.  Next week is The Crucible (dun, dun, DAAA-AH!) and there is little need to write to him beyond Tuesday (9/2).  By the time he gets the letter if all goes according to plan he will be officially a Marine (not to get ahead of ourselves).  Sending him letters beyond that time means that he will probably not receive them so if you have been thinking about writing or wanting to write, stop thinking about it and do it!

Third thing, keep praying for him and his fellow recruits.  They are all so very close to the end and we want them all to complete boot camp safely.  The light at the end of the tunnel is there, the question is what kind of light it is?  Is it the Wil E. Coyote light of train coming down the tracks or is it truly the end of the long journey that started months ago with some yellow footprints.

Last thing, here is Warren’s schedule for this week - Training Week 10.

TD54 Monday

Last uniform clothing fitting

TD55 Tuesday

Land navigation 2 – mapskills
Confidence Course 2

TD56 Wednesday

Combat Fitness Test
Classes on Terrorism Awareness, Operational Culture, OpSec/CommSec

TD57 Thursday

Combat fitness Conditioning
sexual assault, sexual responsibility, marriage as a first term Marine.

TD58 Friday

Start off the day with a 3.0mi formation run
Practical Application Testing -- PRACAP (which is the practical application of what they have learned in First Aid & customs and courtesies such as how to board a ship and how to report to an officer. They will demonstrate these techniques to the instructors of the course to show that they are efficient in them.)
Classes on Personal Assistance, Intro to Mentoring, Military Career Factors
Core Values Discussion

TD59 Saturday

Field meet (like a typical grade school field meet -- sorta; the platoons compete against each other for bragging rights in various PT related activities such as a stretcher relay, an M16 rifle assembly relay, 50 yd dash, dizzy izzy, team ironman competition, and even a tug of war)
Drill practice for Final Drill

S10 Sunday

Free Time - Chapel, cleaning and maintaining gear
Core Value Discussion

One last thing, here is a photo of the recruit and platoon drilling.