Parris Island

On our way home

The fatigue of graduation has finally caught up with Lisa above. This was on the flight home. The fact that she had a 102 temperature two days earlier didn't help. Expect a withdrawal from your recruit shortly after graduation when all the activities have died down. In addition to being fatigued your marine will have to adjust to 10 days of civilian life. After 80+ days of having almost every minute of their time scheduled it is suddenly very difficult to adjust to having "free time" " My advise is to step back, smile a lot, don't try and make them talk a lot. And whatever you do don't ask them what is wrong with them. There is nothing wrong; they have just finished the most intense military boot camp in the world and now they just need to decompress and take in what they have been though and what the future holds. Just be close and ready for when they do want to talk.

Lisa and her Grandma

Lisa and some of her fellow marines. Expect the joy of graduation to be followed by withdrawl as your marine adjusts to civilian life during their 10 day leave. They have been through some intense shared experience with their fellow platoonmates.

With her Senior Drill Insturctor (SDI)

SDI, the person you marine will remember for the rest of their life.

Graduation Ceremony

Sharpshooter

I almost forgot to add that in spite
of having to clear a rifle jam and only getting half her shots off on
the moving target table, Lisa still managed to qualify at the
Sharpshooter ranking and finish with the high score in her platoon and
the 2nd highest score among all the female recruits.

Squad Bay

Marine Museum

Family Day Leave

Lisa was still showing the affects of the 102 degree temp she had the
day before. But we were thrilled to have her for the afternoon.

Less then 3 weeks!

This last week was BWT - Basic Warrior Training. The recruits do a lot of crawling around on the ground, running through the trees, more crawling around at night. They also spend the week in tents. Several graduates have said that BWT week in whole is more difficult then the Crucible.

We saw a note from on coach on the shooting range, posted on the marine parents message board, that indicated that all november company recruits had qualified on Saturday. This was different from the first qualification which was done on static targets at 200, 300 and 500 yards. The Saturday qualification was on moving targets at what I'm sure were shorter distances. As I understand it from my daughters earlier letter they are allowed to count any points over 60 onto their first qualification score. So I know she was hopeing to pick up the 5 points needed to move up to the Sharpshooter ranking.

We finalized our order for graduation t-shirts and the days seem to be flying by now.

Flag bracket is mounted

A little over a week ago our order came in for the Marine flag we will be hanging out front with our US flag once our daughter completes the Crucible and has earned the title of Marine. Today was chance to get the flag mount attached to the front porch. It turned out to be a rather simple project.