Two words... Stop Loss
Now, a brief history of my Marine Corps career...
June 16, 2003 - I step off of a bus at MCRD Parris Island at 1:30am, June 16 - I now have 6 years of Marine Corps life ahead of me. I get yelled at a lot and pushed to my physical and mental limits. I graduate Marine Boot Camp September 11, 2003.
September 22, 2003 to December 16, 2003 - Schools... Marine Combat Training and Military Police School occupy this space of time. Good times, good friends... hard work.
December 17, 2003 - I check into my unit in Dayton, Ohio. Good news - I'm going to Iraq.
January 15, 2004 - I arrive in 29 Palms, California... my first time on the West Coast! There was A LOT of hard work involved here... some of the hardest training that I've ever done. But with the rough times... there were great times. I played & bought my first Xbox (which I took to Iraq, it helped keep me sane), I visited Palm Springs - where I got drunk for the first time ever, I visited Los Angeles - where I got drunk for the second, third, & fourth times ever, and I saw some awesome sights.
February 15, 2004 - I arrive in Kuwait - Camp Wolverine, if I remember correctly. A very... strange and eerie feeling sinks into me upon first arrival. I can't really describe exactly how it felt. We are moved to Camp Udari, where we do a lot of relaxing mostly. I take A LOT of photos. After a while we start doing training and getting serious.
March 15, 2004 - I cross the Kuwaiti border and enter Iraq. I am driving our Humvee. I couldn't sleep the previous night - nerves I presume - and despite being awake for approximately 24 hours... I'm wide awake (oh the glory of being 19 years old). We are on our trek to the base that we will be spending the next 6 or so months - Camp Fallujah - a current hot spot. We stop for an overnight stay and continue the next day - arriving in Fallujah at 1:30pm.
We start out doing security for the DIF (Detention/Interigation Facility) on Camp Fallujah. Fun work, great hours (Nights!), loved every minute of it... could have worked it for the rest of my life. I see some of the most "breathtaking" sights I've seen in my life from the top of a 20ft guard shack (The Attack on Fallujah, a Full Lunar Eclipse, etc). In late March, the BlackWater incident happened, Fallujah became all that was evil in Iraq, and our "business" got busier. On April 4th, 2004... I lose one of my best friends from Boot Camp: LCpl Anthony P. Roberts, that took the breath right out of my chest. On April 5th, Marines started the attack on Fallujah - I watched from a guard tower. Over the next few days we did out first pick-up & drop-off missions with prisoners around the Fallujah area. Skip ahead... the Abu Graib incident happened and all the prisons & DIF's came under investigation - we had nothing to worry about, but the Captain didn't wanna take the risk - so we started doing Combat Patrols on June 6th, 2004. Things started out pretty smooth. We did our patrols - doing Convoy Security and Escorts every now and again.
Dropping off prisoners outside of Fallujah (April 9th, 2004)
Our first hot meal in over two weeks (April 11, 2004)...
Lunar Eclipse - It started as a full moon... and ended completely covered (May 5th, 2004)
Combat Patorl - our first day on the road (June 7th, 2004)
June 26, 2004 - I earn this: The Marine Corps Combat Action Ribbon. We were attacked right outside of Balad. 2 Marines lost their lives.
Me sleeping in the 100* heat the day of the attack (June 26, 2004)
About half an hour before the attack... Balad is an air base. This was landing as we were leaving base.
June 15, 2004 - A Roadside bomb explodes next to the vehicle in front of us. Everyone in that vehicle is fine - aside from lost hearing and concussions. My Turret Gunner takes shrapnel to the face and is awarded the Purple Heart. I lose a lot of the hearing in my right ear.
July 30, 2004 - We parked out Humvee's about 1/4 of a mile from the entrance to Fallujah and watched as the town self destructed - Insurgents battled Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Police right on the cities edge... a little bit less than 1/2 a mile away from where we sat and watched - ordered not to intervene.
September 8, 2004 - Its almost time to go home... let the jokes begin.
The Marines of MP Company C - 3rd Platoon - OIF2
September 15, 2004 - We leave Fallujah for the final time!
September 16, 2004 - KUWAIT!
Waiting for the bus to take us to Customs
On our ride home... what an AMAZING feeling! (September 19, 2004)
AMERICA! California to be exact! (September 19, 2004)
Our BEAUTIFUL ride back to Ohio! (September 24, 2004)
I then become a Reservist - hoping to get some college done... still haven't got around to that... haha. I do some interesting things along the way.. .such as going to Korea for 2 weeks in Late March 2005. After Korea, soon after my Korea trip... I meet a girl... and start counting the days until June 16, 2009 - the end of my Active Contract. We do a few interesting things here and there: ride in a Blackhawk Helicopter, rappel of of rock faces, blow stuff up... but other than that, it becomes pretty cut and dry... pretty simple.
Fast forward to December... I'm a Corporal in the USMC... I've only got 6 glorious months left. By now... I just can't WAIT to sign my Discharge papers and start making a life for myself outside of the Marine Corps. Then, the word comes down: All Marines that haven't deployed since 2007 will be deploying in WInter 2009. All Marines that are due to get out after May 1st will be retained.
So... it looks like I've got another YEAR in the Marines. I'm not sure if I am excited to be around the guys that I love for another year, if I'm upset that I am getting "fucked" into another year, or if I am pissed off because Iraq has become a pointless deployment for our company (No MP Co C deployment has done actual MP/Marine work since I was there in 2004). It shouldn't be that bad though... its just a real kick in the balls after eyeballing June 16, 2009 for so many years.
Updates as they come in...
Now, a brief history of my Marine Corps career...
June 16, 2003 - I step off of a bus at MCRD Parris Island at 1:30am, June 16 - I now have 6 years of Marine Corps life ahead of me. I get yelled at a lot and pushed to my physical and mental limits. I graduate Marine Boot Camp September 11, 2003.
September 22, 2003 to December 16, 2003 - Schools... Marine Combat Training and Military Police School occupy this space of time. Good times, good friends... hard work.
December 17, 2003 - I check into my unit in Dayton, Ohio. Good news - I'm going to Iraq.
January 15, 2004 - I arrive in 29 Palms, California... my first time on the West Coast! There was A LOT of hard work involved here... some of the hardest training that I've ever done. But with the rough times... there were great times. I played & bought my first Xbox (which I took to Iraq, it helped keep me sane), I visited Palm Springs - where I got drunk for the first time ever, I visited Los Angeles - where I got drunk for the second, third, & fourth times ever, and I saw some awesome sights.
February 15, 2004 - I arrive in Kuwait - Camp Wolverine, if I remember correctly. A very... strange and eerie feeling sinks into me upon first arrival. I can't really describe exactly how it felt. We are moved to Camp Udari, where we do a lot of relaxing mostly. I take A LOT of photos. After a while we start doing training and getting serious.
March 15, 2004 - I cross the Kuwaiti border and enter Iraq. I am driving our Humvee. I couldn't sleep the previous night - nerves I presume - and despite being awake for approximately 24 hours... I'm wide awake (oh the glory of being 19 years old). We are on our trek to the base that we will be spending the next 6 or so months - Camp Fallujah - a current hot spot. We stop for an overnight stay and continue the next day - arriving in Fallujah at 1:30pm.
We start out doing security for the DIF (Detention/Interigation Facility) on Camp Fallujah. Fun work, great hours (Nights!), loved every minute of it... could have worked it for the rest of my life. I see some of the most "breathtaking" sights I've seen in my life from the top of a 20ft guard shack (The Attack on Fallujah, a Full Lunar Eclipse, etc). In late March, the BlackWater incident happened, Fallujah became all that was evil in Iraq, and our "business" got busier. On April 4th, 2004... I lose one of my best friends from Boot Camp: LCpl Anthony P. Roberts, that took the breath right out of my chest. On April 5th, Marines started the attack on Fallujah - I watched from a guard tower. Over the next few days we did out first pick-up & drop-off missions with prisoners around the Fallujah area. Skip ahead... the Abu Graib incident happened and all the prisons & DIF's came under investigation - we had nothing to worry about, but the Captain didn't wanna take the risk - so we started doing Combat Patrols on June 6th, 2004. Things started out pretty smooth. We did our patrols - doing Convoy Security and Escorts every now and again.
Dropping off prisoners outside of Fallujah (April 9th, 2004)
Our first hot meal in over two weeks (April 11, 2004)...
Lunar Eclipse - It started as a full moon... and ended completely covered (May 5th, 2004)
Combat Patorl - our first day on the road (June 7th, 2004)
June 26, 2004 - I earn this: The Marine Corps Combat Action Ribbon. We were attacked right outside of Balad. 2 Marines lost their lives.
Me sleeping in the 100* heat the day of the attack (June 26, 2004)
About half an hour before the attack... Balad is an air base. This was landing as we were leaving base.
June 15, 2004 - A Roadside bomb explodes next to the vehicle in front of us. Everyone in that vehicle is fine - aside from lost hearing and concussions. My Turret Gunner takes shrapnel to the face and is awarded the Purple Heart. I lose a lot of the hearing in my right ear.
July 30, 2004 - We parked out Humvee's about 1/4 of a mile from the entrance to Fallujah and watched as the town self destructed - Insurgents battled Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Police right on the cities edge... a little bit less than 1/2 a mile away from where we sat and watched - ordered not to intervene.
September 8, 2004 - Its almost time to go home... let the jokes begin.
The Marines of MP Company C - 3rd Platoon - OIF2
September 15, 2004 - We leave Fallujah for the final time!
September 16, 2004 - KUWAIT!
Waiting for the bus to take us to Customs
On our ride home... what an AMAZING feeling! (September 19, 2004)
AMERICA! California to be exact! (September 19, 2004)
Our BEAUTIFUL ride back to Ohio! (September 24, 2004)
I then become a Reservist - hoping to get some college done... still haven't got around to that... haha. I do some interesting things along the way.. .such as going to Korea for 2 weeks in Late March 2005. After Korea, soon after my Korea trip... I meet a girl... and start counting the days until June 16, 2009 - the end of my Active Contract. We do a few interesting things here and there: ride in a Blackhawk Helicopter, rappel of of rock faces, blow stuff up... but other than that, it becomes pretty cut and dry... pretty simple.
Fast forward to December... I'm a Corporal in the USMC... I've only got 6 glorious months left. By now... I just can't WAIT to sign my Discharge papers and start making a life for myself outside of the Marine Corps. Then, the word comes down: All Marines that haven't deployed since 2007 will be deploying in WInter 2009. All Marines that are due to get out after May 1st will be retained.
So... it looks like I've got another YEAR in the Marines. I'm not sure if I am excited to be around the guys that I love for another year, if I'm upset that I am getting "fucked" into another year, or if I am pissed off because Iraq has become a pointless deployment for our company (No MP Co C deployment has done actual MP/Marine work since I was there in 2004). It shouldn't be that bad though... its just a real kick in the balls after eyeballing June 16, 2009 for so many years.
Updates as they come in...
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
I promise to stay safe, haha. I will sort of be making bank while I'm there... so it won't be all that bad. My income will pretty much double while I'm over there - and its all tax free. So... we'll just hope for the best while there.
be safe.
xo