pride

On this Veterans Day, I wish to salute my sons who have chosen to serve their country in the United States Marine Corps.

I know the Marines seem to be the proudest, and the Mom’s are just as bad. But there is a reason why they are called The Few, the Proud, The Marines.

Mother of two Marines, boot camp photos from MCRD San Diego

They are the only branch of the service that once you go through Marine boot camp you can transfer to any other branch without going through boot, or basic again.

But every other service man wanting to transfer into the Marines must go through Marine boot camp. They train the hardest and the longest of any other branch. Thirteen weeks, followed by four weeks of Marine Combat Training (MCT)

From boot camp, to their uniforms, Marines are disciplined to pay attention to detail. Everything has a purpose, not that you are supposed to understand that purpose, but there is a trust in every command, every directive, that there is a greater purpose in mind. Here are a few pictures from my youngest son’s leave from boot camp in October.

He received the Expert Rifleman award, the highest marksmanship award given in boot camp. It is pined exactly an 1/8 of an inch above the left pocket. If you don’t have a ruler in your kit the width of two nickels will do.