See the master locks hang'n on the hasp.... imagine half the platoon being sent to the head to take a shower...
"Port side shower down"... = take a shower "Starboard side shin'm up"... = shine your brass and boots
When the port side comes back from the head they find a wad of locks all locked together..... leaving your footlocker unsecured never happened again after that...
I think the had 5 min. to UN-F$CK that mess... they didn't make it... LOL
I once met a retired Marine Sgt. and mentioned to him that my brother had been a Marine, he responded by saying "no, he's still a Marine" I answered back that he had died in 1990 and his response was, "He's still a Marine, once a Marine, always a Marine." It wasn't a matter for discussion, that's when I truly realized what the Corps means to it's men, it's family!
You should be proud, hell, even I'm proud for you!
I once met a retired Marine Sgt. and mentioned to him that my brother had been a Marine, he responded by saying "no, he's still a Marine" I answered back that he had died in 1990 and his response was, "He's still a Marine, once a Marine, always a Marine." It wasn't a matter for discussion, that's when I truly realized what the Corps means to it's men, it's family!
Absolutely true. And another Marine would do anything to help him or his family. It's simple system that has served the Corps for better than two centuries.
It's all about unquestioned allegiance.
You see . . . there are Marines I have never met in my life. But if we were ever together, I can know . . without asking questions or reviewing their SRB/OQR that they will do any and everything to cover my ass. I owe them but one thing . . . the same thing.
This doesn't depend on aligned personalities, politics or goals. It transcends politics and personality. It's why I went in the Marine Corps. Say Mark (Wolfridgerider) and I are together. . . our politics can be polar opposites, we can hate each other and disagree on any number of things . . . but when the crap hits the fan EVERYONE stands together. Some places talk about that sort of dynamic. . . the Marine Corps has proven it so many times they have become legend. Clerical folks have become war heroes when pushed. It the type of thing that to me, as a parent, would be one of my greatest sources of comfort. To this day it amazes me.
I recall that lock drill and the memories are not good. Here . . let me toss you one that may make you pass out. We're falling out for a run and I race in the head to pee and leave my RIFLE leaned against the wall outside . . .of course, I race back around the corner and find it gone! I lived. . . . but would never do that again. I'd pee on the rifle before I'd let it out of my hands after that day.
Great memories . . . and I am thrilled to see these pictures both for the memories and to see the caliber of young men joining our ranks.
22 May, 2009. Graduation Day. Today is the day he is officially a U.S. Marine. We got up early again and headed to Parris Island. We wanted to get good seats for the ceremony.
We got there early enough to wander around for a few minutes and take some snapshots of the rich history that this place embodies. Probably most recognizable is this:
The street in front of the parade deck is lined with flags from all 50 States.
Delynn took one of our home flag.
There is also a monument honoring the DI's
We then went to our seats and waited for the graduation to commence. It's hard to capture the magnitude of this event from the grand stands with a still camera, so I didn't. Just a few snapshots to serve as reminders to us of this day.
Here's one of THE best marching band we've ever seen.
Here's a shot of Platoon 1033 showing their discipline and precision.
A shot of the band marching by Platoon 1033.
The ceremony lasted about an hour, a fantastic display of many working as one, of time honored traditions, and of respect for not only what these new Marines accomplished, but for what those that have gone before them have as well.
It all ended when the orders were passed down to commence leave. I practically leaped out of the stands to run down and meat my son. I caught up with him still on the parade deck and gave him a congratulatory hug. We went back into the crowd to find my wife, as well as his mother and stepdad.
Delynn, the queen of one handed self portraits.
Here I am with the United States Marine's newest rifleman.
John wanted to catch up with is Senior DI so he could have him sign his class picture. It turns out that his Senior DI, Staff Sergeant Carl Jacobsen was scheduled to ship out the following week to Afghanistan. As such my son's Platoon pushed hard to become the highest scoring Platoon of that graduating class as sort of a going away gift. This they achieved and earned a special place in that DI's memory. The DI's of Platoon 1033 received awards for having the highest scoring group of recruits.
After this brief ceremony the DI's all scattered, but one of John's was kind enough to pose with John for a picture. Thankfully he was patient enough to stand there while I fumbled with my now malfunctioning camera. It finally fired but would become increasingly unusable for the rest of the trip.
Ironic that on a motorcycle trip of this magnitude, the only mechanical failure would be with my up until now bulletproof 5D!
Here's the shot:
And just like that, it was over. The purpose of our 1276 mile journey was done. It was now time to change back into riding gear and point it North.
We had the daunting task of squeezing in what took us 4 full days into the now less than 3 and half. We mailed our dirty laundry and various memorabilia home to lighten the load on the Uly, packed up what was left and started the return journey.
Delynn snapped this parting shot as we headed out of Beaufort.
We got on the road and didn't take many pictures today. We had a lot of ground to cover in a short time. We needed to be in North Carolina for Delynn's treat tomorrow.
We did have time to stop at historic Buddy's General Store though. (I've never heard of it either.)
Later in the afternoon, we were passing through endless farmland. Some of the fields had been recently plowed, and the freshly turned up red dirt gave you the sensation that you were ripping down a highway on Mars.
Delynn took another one of her speed shots, this time of the big puffy clouds that were all around us.
And that's it for this day. We rolled into North Carolina around 8:00 and got ready for tomorrow. In 72 hours we would be home to sleep in our own bed, with some amazing memories.
23 May, 2009. Got up and got coffee. Up to 4 cups before breakfast now just to get myself firing on all cylinders, guess it helps when it's complimentary. Our room had the worlds loudest toilet, so when I got up I made sure the door was shut so the racket wouldn't bother Delynn. I went down to the lobby to suck off the coffee tit and when I returned Delynn was in tears. She had gotten up and not realizing the door was closed to the bathroom walked into it. This was the first time in a week of being constantly together on a motorcycle, sleep deprived as well as being physically, mentally, and emotionally drained - that we started to get on each others nerves. But it quickly passed, and we went down for breakfast. I had sausage gravy on biscuits...is there a such thing as low cholesterol in the South?
We packed up the bike once again and hit the road. We rolled into Charlotte and it's associated race weekend traffic for Delynn's treat.
Since we couldn't stay for the race (good thing since it was a rain delayed/shortened mess) we went and visited the Hendrick garage.
There were a few of these in the parking lot.
It's hard to believe that a week later, the company that produced these cars would be filing for bankruptcy and becoming majority owned by the government....sad, very sad.
Here's a happy girl.
Seems that my 5D came out of its seizure long enough to get some of these shots, may as well take advantage of it.
Here she is with her hero. Not nearly as much fun as the shot of her with him in person I'm sure.
This was as close as you could get to the garage.
I guess there's a reason I was lugging around 5 lbs worth of fast telephoto glass....
It would be nice to get back here on a non race weekend (in Charlotte) for less crowd and an opportunity to get a tour. Some day.
We skipped over to the museum/gift shop.
They had a ton of stuff to see over here, it was pretty neat. Of course my camera started to get cranky again
Here's one for you old guy fans.
The had a few cars that won key races that got rolled in here just as they came off the track.
And that was it for our brief tour of Hendrick Motorsports. We headed up the road to a outdoor vendor area that was selling race memorabelia and I got this shot - after much talking to the 5D - of the coolest ice cream churner I've seen.
After that it was time to hit the road. We didn't do much sight seeing or picture taking. This was probably the least memorable leg of the trip. We just needed to get into Virginia, at least getting into a different state gave us a psychological sense of achievement; even if we were way behind schedule.
Delynn got a couple shots of the track on our way by:
And
We finally stopped in Charlottesville Va. for the night. Unfortunately, being a holiday weekend we were relegated to a smoking room. It sucked big time, you could smell the stench as soon as you got off the elevator. Even though this was a nice hotel, we would long for the Value Inn of our first night. Oh well, we're getting closer to home at least.
24 May, 2009. We got up, once again had a complimentary breakfast, loaded up the bike and hit the road. This would probably be the best ride of our return trip. Once again, Virginia had the most scenic roads.
Not to mention miles of smooth twisty pavement. Here's a shot of the "Old Blue Ridge Turnpike"
Just another....
Scenic byway indeed. Virginia gets our award for best roads we traveled on!
We zipped through West Virginia and Maryland, and were hoping to make it through the road kill capitol of the East coast - Pennsylvania
She even managed to get my Bentley's Saloon sticker in there, a little taste of home!
We made it as far as Scranton and had to call it a day. We were hoping to get into New York so tomorrow would be a nice easy day for the last leg of the journey, but it just wasn't going to happen....
Can you tell that life on the road is starting to get to us?
25 May, 2009. Memorial Day. A day to honor our military, past and present. Fitting end for the given purpose of this trip.
We got up early and were welcomed to a chilly start. Yep, we're getting closer to home. We crossed the border into New York and were down to just a few more States.
They call it the Empire State. I think the Silo State would be more fitting.
We got caught in a couple of Memorial Day parades, had we been thinking we could have flown the Marine flag.
We finally made it into Vermont, and took Rt. 7 across.
It was a pleasant ride, but we were both spent. It was time for us to get home.
Pit stop in Vermont.
The 100 mile view.
We plodded our way through NH, stopping to eat just before the border. It was so nice to see this.
In 30 minutes we would be home. What an unbelievable trip. 2507 miles total in 9 days. In that entire time we saw tons of bikes. From Harleys to crotch rockets, BMW's, and Goldwings. I even saw one (yes only one) Buell. Not one single Ulysses in all that time. I guess it makes the trip that much more epic - how many other bikes can you ride half way across the country without seeing a single one like yours.
It's been a week and a half since we got back. The first couple of days were odd, not having to get up in the morning and load up the bike for another all day ride. But we're now back into the routine of life. We're already talking about our next trip though.......
+1. Your report was just excellent, as well as the photographs. Glad you chose to share with all of us, and I hope you two share again real soon!
Congrats on your son's graduation, you are right to be so proud. With so many of our youth taking the wrong paths in life it is amazing to see what your son is making of his.
No problem! Thank you all for your support and putting up with such a long winded post. It was fun to relive the trip. I think I'll archive this post as a pdf file for future reference.
And thanks especially to all of you for your heart felt support of my son in his endeavor to help safeguard this country. And I'd like to return the well wishes by thanking all of you that served for your service to our country, some of us truly appreciate it!
MOS 0311, rifleman AKA Grunt. My MOS also 89-93. There is no more pride a young man will have than to stand on that parade deck and finally be addressed as a United States Marine! Congratulations.
I thought I would add a what worked and what didn't post. But, this thread is long enough so I will start a new one and give you the rundown on the good the bad and the ugly.
Wolfridgerider - Shit.... I'm get'n a watery eye just reading this...
I wasn't until just now. This was my first week back to work, and everywhere I went I met someone that congratulated me!!! The only thing I did was try to bring a son up to the best of my limited ability. He's the one that volunteered for the Corps, he signed his name on the line, and he gave up his freedom as a civilian to serve.
At the age of 19, he's done more, sacrificed more, and earned more than I have at more than twice his age.
I finally read the words to the Marines' Hymn. I got a little watery eyed at the last line of the last verse...... Now I know he's better off than 99.9% of his peers.
I went to MCRD San Diego, and my nephew graduated from MCRD San Diego this past year, so I flew out to watch him. I have to say, it was amazing to revisit boot camp. Things haven't changed too much, but there are some changes. Overall though, it's the same now as it was 25 years ago when I went in.
