A Year of Change

A year of wonders, a year not to be forgotten, two thousand and five years after Christ’s birth, I have finally come to the conclusion and decision of how I wish to become a man, this year I truly chose how I wished to live my life, and this year has changed the path I walk upon for the rest of my years, I hope it was a good choice, because it was the one I made, and the one I’m sticking to. 1

A little over a year ago, around the third day after the new year, I had found myself at an odd position, my feet were firmly planted upon a paved street, in the middle of some unknown land upon some unknown island.  Sure I wasn’t alone, there were roughly about sixty or so other men to stand there with me in the middle of this funny road, the odd thing is we weren’t standing there just for the fun of it, or because hey we wanted to, or even because we wished to have a good time, no we were there because it was our first order, that we were commanded to obey, it was the first time of many times to come, that I PFC Parks was told to stand at the position of attention, and let me tell you, the first time is the time you will always remember.2

Looking ahead about a year later, around the time right before the end of this marvelous year I had just spent in the Marine Corps, I found the one I can truly say I love, and I found her here and on this site, we are just developing our love, but I oddly get the same feeling with her that I had back upon that fateful day, I get the feeling that what we share is something meaningful and will last me for the rest of my life, and I only hope that I will do my best and treat her right, I feel the same way about my blessed Corps, and I hope to treat them right, and hope that they treat me right.  So I will write this lovely piece of reflection upon the year of previous, and before I get set upon this year of reflection, I wish to state that I hope I can only balance my two loves and not cause either one pain, cause I love them both dearly and deeply.3

“Yes maim, Aye maim, Aye maim.” The lovely image that is very vividly imprinted upon my brain housing group, as I am rushed inside a large two story wide brick building the first thing I recall is the many feet rushing in a single file line, many different types of sneakers from many different backgrounds all rushing and doing as this short powerful young black women wearing a deep brown brimmed hat that we call a Smokey, cause Smokey the Bear wears the same one, wearing her digital green cammies, she holds an authority over us, that we never expected form such a women, or even from a man, and as she barks in a loud and hard to understand voice, we are herded past large metal doors with the ornate coin that is larger than life upon them, that holds in its center the Marine Corps Emblem, the Eagle Globe and Anchor.4

Roughly around three months later, another drill instructor is barking commands, this time though it is a short and powerful black man, strong and inspirational, powerful and scary, he is the striking image and representation of what a Marine should be, and he does what needs to be done and does it in the right way, he is marching us to a large parade deck, barking orders as we hustle along the hot spring day, we march past others like us heading in the same direction, we are now one, our platoon of fifty or so young men soon to be Marines, we have gone through a lot together, and we are soon to graduate, today is one of the final days we spend here on Marine Corps Training Depot Paris Island, we are heading for the First Battalion Parade deck the Graduation Parade Deck where we will practice our graduation.  We are all wearing our digital cammies, and our sleeves are rolled for only the second time since we are here, and we feel the pride it is to be a marine and to roll your sleeves which makes the practice that much more meaningful to us.  Our drill instructor carries his NCO sword proud as he marches us on, and we feel proud to be under his leadership for he is one hell of a marine.  The most memorable and harsh memory is standing their again at the position of attention, on the center of the Parade Deck listing to the Graduation Ceremony, and the horrid reminder of the fact that I didn’t listen to my drill instructors, cause to my dismay hundreds of little gnats from hell begin to nibble on my arms, and I must maintain military discipline, I must stay still through the long speech while hundreds of little annoying bugs bite at my arms.5

Pensacola, doesn’t that say it all?  I mean, if you’ve ever been there, you know what I mean.  This horribly nasty naval base, I am sorry I do not mean to offend, but it is truly an awful place to be for a marine, who is just starting his military carrier, but I can say I truly learned a lot from there, and since it was my MOS  A school, then I guess I did what I was supposed to.  Coming strait from MCT, that’s marine combat training if no one has heard of it before, I still have that ‘yes sir, no sir, and aye sir’ mentality stuck in my head, as do ninety percent of all the other young men or women who come to the area, and adjusting to the new atmosphere is quite unique, so I will skip ahead a little and describe what one of the typical, and more average days are like at this lovely place I had once called home.6

“buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz….slaappp” my hand slams down hard upon the alarm clock that is right next to my head, rolling over in my rack, which is very small, and not rolling far my nose is up against the wall that is right next to my bed, sighing I pull the covers over my head, already knowing its 0430 in the morning and already hating my life once again, the quick and painful thoughts once again run through my head, “why the hell did I do this?” as I hear my other two roommates rolling around and saying their morning curses at me for being Barracks Support, both of them are classed up and already in school, while I have to stand by for my classes to start, which means I have to start every three days at 0430 in the morning, and run before the sun even decides to rise.  Finally getting out of the rack and pulling on my green shorts which are way to short for my liking, only reaching down to about mid thigh on my big white thigh’s, pulling my tight fitting green t shirt on and tucking it in, I put on my running shoes, and grab my arm strap that holds my ID and my meal card, then I grab my glow strap, which is this annoyingly bright yellow strap that goes around your waist and its mandatory to wear it if your running in the dark.  Which at 0430 in the freakin morn it is.  Running down the brightly lit halls, past all the dorm type rooms, I run down stairs, hitting the first floor, I wave to the guy on duty as he says good morning, running out the double glass doors, I head off to morning freeze your balls of in the cold Pensacola PT morning run.7

Running in after an hour and half of a run, I run past the ID watch, while he checks my ID and yells “Kill!” running back upstairs and down the hall, to my room, I have less than an hour to shower and shave and get back downstairs in uniform, sucks cause it does take its time, especially when one has just finished running over five miles and doing pull ups, push ups and crunches.  My roommates are both gone to class by now, each had secured all their stuff and have left the room clean, good to go, as I get my shower and get ready, I check to make everything is in order before I leave.  Blousing my boots, and making a quick check in the mirror, I rush out the door, this time not running, walking at a fast pace, cause I got less than five minutes to be in formation, but never running, at least not in uniform.8

Standing in the hot morning sun, waiting amongst the forty or so other men and women in formation around me, I await to hear my name, and even then I must wait longer, till we get the command to fallout, and when we do we have to form a giant circle around the Barracks Support leader, which is usually some NCO who has it halfway in his mind to hold us as long as possible, just because he wishes to waste time, cause that’s what Barracks Support is all about, wasting time…9

Day in, day out I deal with generally this same bull shit, a little different when I finally do class up, but even then I get up early, and work hard all day, still having formations, and still having to deal with strict rules, I don’t wish to bore you with the meaningless details of how bad it sucked, just take my word for it, seven months of endless mindless bullshit, tends to annoy a person, even a Marine.  The one thing I got from Pensacola, was patience, I learned the true meaning of military discipline, forget all the other crap I learned there, like the theory of some Russian guy came up to make the principals of electricity easier, or how to troubleshoot hundreds of feet of wiring and circuitry inside of an aircraft, none of that compares to the lesson learned of how to take one giant pole called Military Bullshit, and taking it all the way up ones ass, with out flinching, cause my reader, and dear friends, that is the most important lesson I learned in Pensacola.10

Which brings me to right about where I am now, the final leg of my training, yes I know it sounds long doesn’t it?  Well, joining the Air Wing isn’t exactly what most of the Marine Corps is about, no actually most of the MOS’s / or jobs that Marines train for, actually only require about two weeks of on the job training, but I of course wanted the most challenging and interesting aspect of the Corps, the Air Wing, well besides being a Grunt, every marine wishes to be a Grunt, but not every man is cut out to be one, so I chose wisely and followed my path here.  And you might ask well sir, where exactly is here?  Well, right now I am in my C School, which is the on the job training, it teaches me everything I need to know to be tactical and proficient at my job, and guess what, I am again waiting, still not in my classes, and I am again with Barracks Support, but I am glad to say that here isn’t as bad as Pensacola, the atmosphere is much better, and much friendlier, and also here is where I met the love of my life, so I guess I can’t complain too much now can I?11

Alright that pretty much sums up my year, kinda boring wasn’t it? Yea, it really was, but as to the next year…well only time will tell, all I can do is pray that the lord blesses me with a safe and pleasant journey.  I thank you for listening to me ramble, and I hope you have a nice day…12

PFC Parks, USMC Active Duty13