Semper Fi!

"Bravery is misunderstood. It is not the absence of fear, but the will to overcome it." - USMC Recruiting Website

19 years ago this week I graduated from Marine Corps Basic Training at Parris Island, South Carolina.

Wow. As I reflect back on those 13 weeks, and my 6 years in the Corps afterwards, I am really very grateful.

Becoming a Marine was just about the toughest thing I could have decided to do at that time, and I did it really well. I completed basic training with my integrity intact and with the feeling that there was NOTHING on Earth I could not do. And really, I was right.

Being a Marine set me up for a lifetime of being able to handle really difficult challenges. It set me up for a life time of living the Marine Corps Motto: "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome". It was the best decision I ever made.

The young 18 year old Marine who graduated that September day [Sept 12, 1988] would never have imagined becoming the person I am today. I had many plans, many dreams, and many goals - and none of them involved being a full time mom to 5 kids, or being a Lamaze Instructor, or being an abandoned wife, or anything remotely similar.

But God had other plans - better plans - in mind, and He has led me here, to this time, and this place. And that's alright with me - I am grateful for the amazing blessings He has bestowed. And being a Marine equipped me for every challenge God set before me, AND the ones Satan threw out there as well.

Marine Corps boot camp also really gelled "who I am" at the deepest level.

Allow an old Marine to share a "war story" if you will. :)

This is the story of "The Garbage Pail Kids". There is one week in boot camp where each Company takes a turn at kitchen duty. Basically, each group of recruits spend time doing all the grunt work required to feed all the recruits and staff on Parris Island.

I'm a "helper" by nature, and I also tend to work quickly and do a ton of stuff all the time, apparently abnormally so [according to my husband anyway]. I was assigned "garbage duty" along with one other recruit in my Platoon. But I was helping all the other recruits get their jobs done too, in between garbage runs, because that's just what I do.

At one point, there was a situation where one of the Marine cooks messed up a cake. It cracked or something and was deemed unworthy to be served in the Mess Hall [scary thing that - considering some of the stuff that WAS worthy to be served in the Mess Hall! LOL!]. So, the baker tossed the cake in the garbage.

Now, probably nobody that has never been in the military will understand this, but when you are in Marine Corps basic training, you are working and exercising non-stop all day long, and you get exactly 2 minutes to eat at each meal [and the good Lord help the recruits at the back of the line!]. So, consequentially, you are always hungry. Well, some of the recruits that were working in the bakery section of the Mess Hall decided to sneak and eat the cake out of the garbage [yes, its true, believe it or not - and if you were in the military you understand easily how this could happen LOL!].

As fate would have it, the baker walked in on the recruits eating out of the garbage, and well... the crap hit the fan I guess you could say. They called our Senior Drill Instructor. Oh my word! All the other Drill Instructors started laughing at her and calling our platoon "The Garbage Pail Kids". Anyone of you who has ever been in the military KNOWS how bad this is... I bet you are cringing at this very moment in fact :) .

Sooo...to say all Hell broke loose that night in the barracks would be an understatement. Our Senior Drill Instructor lost her stinkin' mind. And, that meant our other three Drill Instructors lost their minds too... oh boy oh boy. I bet they heard these ladies screaming at us all the way in Tennessee.

So, after the screaming and raving quieted down, our Senior Drill Instructor [who did not yell - that was delegated to the other DIs] quietly informs us that we are going to chow, and after chow she is going to ask the guilty recruits to come forward and admit on their honor that they were guilty.

Chow was a sad affair. :) But here I was, and I had this idea see. Our Drill Instructors had been trying to teach us team work - we all got punished whenever one of us did something wrong, and we all got credit together when we succeeded. But our DIs felt that our platoon was having a problem coming together properly with our team work. So, I had this idea - when the DIs asked who was guilty, we could *all* step forward - as a TEAM - and we could all pay the penalty together. It would have made our DIs so proud, and would have given them bragging rights vs being the laughing stock of Parris Island with their Garbage Pail Kids.

So, ALL the other recruits thought this was a great idea - and they all said they would do it. So when the time came, we'd all step forward. [The 6 guilty recruits were really relieved by this idea too LOL!]

So, after chow we march back to the barracks and the DIs line us up and ask the guilty parties to step forward. The 6 guilty garbage pail eating recruits step forward. There is a second where I realize that *nobody* else is stepping forward, and I have a choice to make - do what is RIGHT or do what is EASY. Stepping forward at that moment was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do, and it was scary as heck.

But I stepped forward.

The next hour consisted of punishments I won't even recount - it was bad. It was painful. It was hard. It was very loud and also involved a relative lot of spit in our faces. I hurt for days afterwards.

But I stepped forward.

The next day, I was the only one holding my head high. I had been tested and I had succeeded - I knew at that moment that NO MATTER WHAT I would always be able to make that choice between doing what is RIGHT and doing what is EASY. I knew that the core of who I am is a person of strength and integrity and the guts to do what is right at all costs.

It set the stage for the rest of my life. Now, lest you think I'm bragging here, I am also prone to stupid decisions, [especially prone to picking bad men LOL!], I am forgetful, I have a temper that is far too quick, and I have a bad habit of jumping in over my head continually... among many other flaws. Oh yeah, and I lack humility. [Though God is really working on this in me of late :) ].

But really the point is, I know who I am. I know who I am at my deepest level - I am a person who always tries to do the right thing, who always tries to take care of others, and who is always willing to make whatever sacrifice is required. I am that person regardless of the people around me, and regardless of the situations I am in. I am that person and it doesn't really matter if my husband has abandoned our family. *I* am still me, and *I* will take care of my children, and we will enjoy life, and we will Serve and Honor God all the days we live.

Nothing will stop me from following the Will of God, choosing to do what is Right, and living for His Glory. That is who I am, and my husband cannot take that from me and he cannot break that in me. ["Honey, just you watch me Improvise, Adapt, and OVERCOME!"]

All of this introspection came about tonight because my son announced out of the blue that he plans to be a Marine when he grows up. My first thought as a mother was, of course, "but he could get killed!". And then, of course, my very next thought was that some things are worth dying for. I just have to raise him as a man of integrity who will spend his eternity with Jesus Christ - then I have no worries regardless of what happens.

I would be proud of any of my children who chose to become a Marine. I can only say good things about my experience in the Corps, and thank God we have them defending this [messed up but still GREAT] country we live in. OOH-RAH!

Incidentally, my Drill Instructors never knew that I wasn't guilty. So, SSgt Moriarity, Sgt Riddel, Sgt Brindle, and Sgt Cox - if you ever come across this blog, now you know. :)