OFFICIAL LEAVE DATES

December 19th, 2009 - January 5th, 2010

Leave dates:

December 19th -January 9th

(Pending)

Just another Saturday

Well, the week has come and gone, and our monthly 72's are just about over.

The first set of 72's we went to Okuma, which is always fun. I forgot my camera, but I am trying to find someone who did, I know someone has some somewhere. I had my first experience with "Tubing", it was a lot of fun, I didn't know a person could skip across the water more than 10 times, resulting in bruised ribs. We also did some jet skiing and some grilling. Easily one of the best section functions of all time.

Wednesday we worked and got a new confinement (a former Staff Sergeant) and a release all with in an hour of each other, that means I was really busy for most of the day doing paper work and dealing with someone who didn't want to be there, and someone that couldn't leave soon enough,

The second set of 72's some of us went to our new Boss's house and played some poker and just hung around.

This week has been good, and the next 2 weeks we get back in to the full swing of things, but soon we have the Marine corps ball, so here in the next week or 2, we start getting our uniforms ready and ready to hang out with all of our higher ups and stuff. It's going to be a good next few months.

Talking to my Sergeant, he was talking about putting me on a meritorious Corporal board if I get my Physical fitness score up to a first class after our next test in April. So I might get off of this island (if I don't leave early due to MSG or a Lateral move into another job) as a corporal, but either way I will probably get a promotion by the end of next year.

So after getting the run-around for the MSG Monitor for the past month, I think it's a sign I don't need to be aiming that high right now.

Talking to my Sergeant, he says I might like counter intelligence. Which would get me a (almost instant) promotion and a $72,000 bonus. So, it's looking like a good idea. I'll probably start that up in the next week or 2.

Meanwhile Monday (tomorrow for me), I will be on the range. I will be trying for my 2nd award Expert. But we also have a typhoon coming our way, and my Gunny says it's supposed to be a bad one. Could prove to be an interesting week.

Choices

So today while talking to my training NCO, I found out of a program that would put Marines with 2 years of college into Officer Candidate School, and they would have until they picked up the rank of Major (O-4) to complete their bachelors. All I am missing is 2 years of active duty (which I will have in February) and my transcript from Lon Morris, TAMUCC, and SFA.

Also in January the MSG screeners come back, and there is no way I would be denied it this time.

So now I am put to a choice. Which to choose? I am leaning more to the Officer side, which will push me to get my degree, more pay, and more benefits. Plus, I may be put in an MOS that I actually want to do.

But MSG will do other things for me, it's closer to what I want to do in life.

I am going to talk to my Training NCO tomorrow for more on these. Wish me luck!

MSG

So, after spending an hour on the phone, and getting yelled at by Staff Sergeants and Gunnys for "Not letting them do their job" I found out that I was denied for MSG...a month ago.

The reason being that I had not spent enough time at this duty station, which is waver-able. Fighting more and more for it, I found out that it wasn't even MSG that denied me, it was the screener for my job, that I currently have. So there is nothing anyone can really say about that.

Some festival out side of base.

(Above)
Some of the foods include Fried rice, fried noodles, Japaneses pizza, octopus balls, and chicken and sausage on a stick.

Kids play this game where they are put in a pool about a foot deep, then the run around trying to catch an eel. If you catch it, you keep it. They do not let 23 year old marines do this.
(Below)

This guy was cooking something, when we walked by, it smelled so good, and when he got closer, we saw it was squid, never have I smelled squid that smelled that good.

This guy was writing on shirts in Japanese, in oil crayons.

Inside there was a bansi plant show, this little guy was about an inch and a half tall.

We waited around for Lance to ride by, but I think he was busy in France.

The opening to the festival.

The goon squad that came with me.

Solar Eclipse

Today at 10:27:14 am there was a total solar eclipse, if it wasn't total, it was really close.

Mean while we had CS gas training. That's always fun. Still waiting on orders from MSG. I haven't heard anything about that in over 3 weeks.

Okuma

Just around the beach, it rained a lot so picture taking was terrible.

But the beach was beautiful.

The Section with whom I work, is going to Okuma beach for the night, I'll try to take some pictures.

Just a few things around where I live.

These mountains are where EOD and Artillery do all of their blowing stuff up. They catch the mountain on fire a lot. On the other side of the mountains are where the ranges are.

This is where I live, my room is trashy right now, I'll take a picture of it later.

This is where I work.

This is my badge, it's impossible to keep clean.

Class: 1-10

So I skipped half a day of work, just to sit in a theater for 4 hours, but it was worth it. My package is going up to higher powers. I will be recommended for Class 1-10 in October, so I will be coming home in September if it all works out right.

So by the end of this week, it will go to someone else, and by the end of the month, I should have my orders, and know exactly what's going on.

Embassy Duty

I had a meeting with the Battalion Sergeant Major today.

Recently I have been putting together my package for MSG duty. The Sergeant Major looked at me and a few other marines, and signed his spot on the form.

That was the only spot in the package I was worried about, so it's looking like here very soon, I will be going to Quanico, Virgina for MSG school. It will probably be in September... I hope.

My mouth is numb.

So, today I got my wisdom teeth taken out. All four. It was probably one of the most painful things I have ever done. The dentist kept asking me questions about my job and when I would answer, all that would come out is "Aaaahhh laaa bllllaaaaallalalalaaa". So I got laughed at a lot by him.

Sometime next week, we'll be doing "Spy-rigging" which consist of a couple of marines hanging from a helocopter. I WILL have pictures of that up when it happens. It should be fun.

Phone Number:

Everyone, I have a phone number:
936-622-6603

If you call it, I may answer.

A couple of pics:

Squid... Not much else to say about it...it had a horrible texture but an alright taste.

You know those shirts in America, that are so cool because they have oriental writing on them? Well, here they have really cool shirts with english writing on them. They say things like this.

EARTHQUAKE!

So, the other day (Saturday), there was an earthquake. Nothing major... in fact, I slept through it. I didn't know it happened until I woke up.

2 Weeks Later.

The last 2 weeks I have been out at the range. The first week was nice and sunny, the second week it rained and rained and rained. I thought gortex was water proof, but apparently is you soak it in water for 6 days, then it's not.

It's monsoon season, and that's what happens. But I still shot expert.

Something Big...

Something big may be coming up.

I'll let you know if/when it's going to happen.

Code Blue:

Code Blue means a general disturbance. It's used for all disturbances from where a prisoner raises it's voice to when he's freaking out in his cell.

Yesterday was my first "busy" week day working in Master control. That's the post where I call announcements over the PA system and hand out keys and open gates. I pretty much control the in-flow and out-flow of the brig.

So, after lunch everything was calm, I was in the flow of things and just getting stuff done. The brig supervisor came by and told me to get the Corporal in charge of keys and security. So I got a hold of him, and they went down the hall to Special Quarters. I didn't thing of it, and then I hear over the radio in a very calm and quiet voice:

"Base....Code Blue Special Quarters."

You know those moments where you have been preparing to do something crazy for a while and when it gets to be that time, you freak out. So I got in the PA and called out the alert and we went into lock down. I look up at the gate going into to main part of the brig, where the inmates are, and I see every one yelling "Open the gate!" So I look down and open all of the gates that lead from the lounge to SQ. We got around 25 people down the hall way and into SQ in 15 seconds.

So what was this all about?

A drill, they got there and there was Master Guns sitting with his feet propped up, looking at his watch. He said "15 seconds? Not bad!"

In the mean time a fellow Lance Corporal was running to SQ and she slipped on the freshly mopped floor. She broke three fingers. That was the only injury.

So my day yesterday was pretty crazy.

Almost there...

Running guard is almost up. We get a 48 after tomorrow, so I'll catch up on much needed sleep. The day off has been giving me time to this place called the "gym" (sp?)

Rumor has it you go there and lift heavy things. You go there and it makes you stronger? Something like that.

Running Guard

Division Rifle matches are next week, and only selected people with high rifle scores get to go. Unfortunately, that means almost an entire section will be missing from out schedule making the other two sections go into "Running Guard". This is for the next two weeks where my section and the other section will be in a constant state of 24 hours working, and 24 hours off. So all, if any, free time will be used sleeping.

Also, my MOS is in the long process of being shut down. According to the Marine Times the 5831 Corrections Specialist MOS is closed to re-enlistment in 2009.

So if it's still around if and when I decide to re-up I'll have to make a lateral move into another job. Bitter sweet if you ask me, it just means more training if I decide to stay in. But, nothing will come out of it in the near future, this is something that could take years.