Far From Home

Saving Jane is an musical group that Lisa likes. I thought the lyrics from their song "Far From Home" would make a great video. I like to learn new things and this seemed like an opportunity to learn a new computer program.

Cheryl said I need to issue a Kleenex alert with this video so watch at your own risk. Actually I'm pretty happy with the way this came out. In addition to pictures from here in Oregon there are pictures from the Parris Island Recruit Depot, Camp Johnson (mechanics school) and Twentynine Palms Marine Corp Air Ground Combat Center (permanent duty station.)

Enjoy and feel free to share.

First Day of Shooting

Friday was the first day of actual shooting.  Lisa had a good day.  Seems that she has her confidence back.  She felt bad for her former Drill Instructor who was really struggling.  I think Lisa has a lot more empathy about that situation now.  

As for her weekend Lisa said she is assigned roving patrol duty on Saturday; not her favorite way to spend a Saturday.  It is getting hot down there and they are now required to have a water bottle with them at all times.

What is going on in Texas?

I have always thought of Texas as a reliably conservative and patriotic state so when I saw these two stories in the span of 24 hours I was left scratching my head.


Marine told to remove his Marine Bumper stickers or be towed




Woman told to take down her American Flag.
Returns to her cubicle to find it on the floor. (Wait for the 15 second commercial)
Click Here


After further thought it actually made some sense. Because of their patriotism both these people were not willing to stand by and let it go. Really, I don't find that surprising in Texas. But it leaves me wondering how many other areas of the country that people are generally too intimidated to call the bluff of the small minority that pulls this kind of thing. Maybe that is why we don't hear about these kind of stories coming out of the NE or west coast. If that is true, it is a sad day for America.

Back to the Rifle Range

Lisa headed back to the rifle range to qualify yesterday. Turns out one of her drill instructors from basic training was there. Not only on the range but next to Lisa all day. She wasn't real crazy about that. I don't think that qualification day happens until next Wednesday and Thursday. Sounds like they had to paint targets all morning and then sit through classes in the afternoon.

I've been working on a video and hope to have that pasted on here next. I have to figure out how to convert it and upload it to a format that will work.

Memorial Day Tribute

I thought the following video was an appropriate tribute to the fallen men and women that we remember on Memorial Day.

Taking Chance

Cheryl and I watched the 75 minute movie called Taking Chance this evening. It is the short story, based on a true story, of a Marine Colonel who escorts the body of a young Marine back to his hometown in Wyoming. Kevin Bacon does an amazing job as the Marine Colonel. Surprisingly this was produced and shown on HBO. Free of any bias. They let the story tell itself. I would recommend viewing this is you get the chance.

Memorial Day

It is hard to believe that it was Memorial Day of last year that we drove Lisa down to Albany to turn her over to the Marine Corps. From there she rode up to Portland to the MEPS intake. We visited her the next morning before she was taken in with several others to take her oath. She didn't fly out that day so we had a couple of hours before we had to drop her off at her hotel. Time enough for a stop for another pair of socks, underwear and Swedish meatballs at IKEA. We gave hugs and left her with the clothes on her back, extra socks and underwear, her bible and $20. This is all they are allowed to take to recruit training.

I've mentioned before that recruit training in the Marines is different then the other services. Aside from a 10 second call verifying they have arrived at Parris Island, there is no contact allowed aside from snail-mail letters for the 13 weeks until graduation. Below is the video of Lisa's swearing in ceremony.

Rifle Qualification followup

I received a text from Lisa on the day she was qualifying. I immediately had flash backs to the month of softball in the past where I could not hit a ball other then to pop up to third base and another time where I absolutely could not hit the golf ball with my driver. Both things, that for the most part, had always come easy to me. So I shared her frustration when she texted that she had failed and couldn't shoot anymore. I sent her back a text that said, "you can shoot; just not right now."

Just a couple days earlier she had commented on how easy it was and she couldn't understand why so many had trouble hitting targets. From the start, many months ago in recruit training, Lisa seemed to be a natural. She finished second in her class and except for a rifle jam during the moving target testing she may well have finished first. She is doing ok with it and I'm confident that she will bounce back in a few weeks when she has to return to the range to qualify again.

It does beg the question though. How does something that seems so easy suddenly become so difficult. I've both experienced this and also seen this many times in golf. You are cruising along and suddenly miss an easy putt. You tell yourself to just relax, etc. But then you miss again and suddenly nothing seems right. It is one of the most helpless feelings in the world. Irritation becomes frustration and frustration becomes anger. After many years of examining this I've concluded that it is mostly mental. We have a tendency to over think things. Our brains will run on auto pilot when we have trained ourselves with proper technique. It is when we start overriding the "auto pilot" that we get in trouble. When I was in HS my golf coach gave me a book called Inner Tennis. It was written by a psychologist that worked with athletes. He theorized that there were "two" minds. The inner mind (auto pilot) and the outer mind (analytical/emotional.) The outer mind being the one that that we use when we worry or let other emotions get involved. His solution was to keep the outer-mind occupied by distracting it with other things. For example, in hitting a softball you just count to three. The pitcher releases the ball (one), the ball reached the top of the arc (two), you swing at the ball (three). It seems overly simple but is really quite effective.

So later on we talked a little and I sent Lisa an email explaining the various things that might have gone wrong and how she could learn from experience, both good and bad. I'm sure Lisa will do well again, just as I eventually broke out of my softball slump. Failures like this are painful to watch; especially as a parent. Among other things I shared with her this quote which I think is helpful when our confidence is low.

"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward." ~Henry Ford

Rifle Qualification day

Today is the day Lisa requalifies with her rifle. The testing consists of two "Tables" which basically is two sessions. The first-table consists of fixed targets at 200, 300 and 500 yards. Of all the military branches, only Marines qualify at 500 yards. Shooting is generally done with open sights. As I understand it, they are moving to a new system using optic sights to match what they will begin using in the field. But this time around Lisa is using open sights, or what they refer to as "iron sights". The second table consists of 25 to 100-yard moving targets and also requires the shooter to move, set up, and fire a series of shots before moving again. It is designed to simulate combat conditions. The first table is worth 250 points and the second table is worth 100 points, totaling 350 points max.

There are three possible results, four if you count "unked" When someone unks it means they failed to qualify. This is something you definitely don't want to happen. The three qualifying levels are Marksman (250-279), Sharpshooter (280-304), and Expert (305-350).

Basic Marksman badge, known as the "Pizza Box".


Table one scores are taken in a variety of positions for each distance. Standing and kneeling for 200 yards; standing, kneeling and prone at 300 yards and prone at 500 yards. It just occurred to me that the measurement is meters and not yards. 500 meters is 547 yards, about 1/3 of a mile. Lisa said her biggest concern is the wind. The winds have been blowing at +/-30 mph and she said they can move the bullet two target widths. In other words you have to fire your shot 10' left of your true target and let the bullet blow back to your target. This would be easy to compensate for if the wind was always steady but it ebbs and flows enough that it is hard to predict with any precision.

Sharpshooter badge. Lisa's current rating.

Table-two requires that the shooter hit targets at various distances from 25 to 100 yards. Some targets are moving. Some shots require that they move, set up, fire, move, etc. There are time limits imposed in order to simulate a combat situation.

Rifle Expert badge. The goal.

There are also qualifications for pistol shooting. Lisa was disappointed that the unit she is in does not get to qualify on pistol.

After qualifying tomorrow I suspect Lisa will continue to work on the range on Thursday and Friday because she said she does not go back to working on vehicles until Monday. At the range, when you are not shooting, you are helping by working in the pits moving and replacing targets and helping score other Marines who are shooting. The targets are heavy and extra-hard to move in the wind. Lisa said she was not going to work out last night because her arms were dead from lifting targets for a good part of the day.

As for the picture at the top, if you look hard you can see the targets in the far background and in case you wonder, yes the sky really is that blue at Twentynine Palms.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Today is Lisa's 22nd birthday. This is the first time we have not been together as a family for Lisa's Birthday. I received my first reminder of this last week when a free hamburger certificate from Red Robin arrived for Lisa in my email. Somewhere along the line it became a tradition for our family to go out to Red Robin for a birthday dinner. Well, life changes, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. I miss my girl.

Every Marine a Rifleman

It is one of the core tenets of the Marine Corp.

It is time for Lisa to requalify so as of last Wednesday she has been spending most of her day on the rifle range. She will be there this whole coming week as well. In general Marine's have to requalify every year.

There are three levels that can be earned. The lowest is Marksman, than Sharpshooter and finally Expert. Lisa qualified as Sharpshooter during her basic training even though her score suffered on one set of tests because her rifle jammed. Even with that she finished second in her platoon. She is hoping to move up to expert but said she is not sure as the wind has been very strong, making it hard to calculate the drift on the longer shots.

I will write more later.

Two new Swine Flu Cases

According to the San Bernardino Sun there are now 3 confirmed cases of the flu at Twenty Nine Palms. Lisa knows at least one friend that has been tested but no word on the results yet. It seems they are being very cautious when it comes to testing which is good. There typically are as many as 15,000 stationed at Twentynine Palms so these seem to be pretty isolated cases.

Lisa seems to be doing ok and working and training normally. She is studying to pass her requirements for her next promotion, which would be Lance Corporal. She currently is studying courses in counseling and math.

Swine Flu at Twentynine Palms

I had a good scare Wednesday as I was finishing up Dinner with friends at their house. Earlier while on the road I got a text from Cheryl saying that Lisa said "a unit had been quarantined." Since I was busy driving I glanced at it and for some reason thought that was the same term they used when punishing a whole unit for the mistakes of a few.

Arriving at my friends I learned that their oldest son is in Mexico on a mission trip. As we were eating dinner someone called saying they heard they were going to close the border. So as I was savoring the last bites of my carne asada dinner I was watching Debby, like your typical mom, working herself into a mild panic about whether she would ever see her son again. I pulled out my iPhone and confidently said, "if they are closing the borders it will be on the Drudge Report."

As the webpage loaded I was scanning for an appropriate head line and my eyes locked in on the following:



California Marine may have swine flu? Cheryl's text came rushing back to me. You see I had glanced at it while driving and thought it said "her unit had been quarantined." so getting a sick feeling I clicked the link to see:


So intellectually I was telling myself that when you filter out the media hysteria that the real experts are saying it appears to be less dangerous then the typical flu which kills 36,000 a year, just in America. But I still had a sick feeling. It was only after about 10 minutes that Cheryl pointed out to me that her text said "a unit" not "her unit" Rather embarrassing.

Lisa did say that after being lectured at the end of work about how important it was for everyone to wash their hands, etc. that she arrived at her room to see her roommate tossing on her bed mumbling about how she was sick with the "pig flu." Lisa decided she didn't feel so well either and laid down to share in the suffering. But they must have talked things out because within the hour they decided to go out for mexican and they have been feeling ok ever since.

The good news is that the affected Marine seems to be getting a lot better and no other cases have been identified as detailed in this article.