Marine Corps and Navy Birthdays

I hit my second goal weight last week. I haven’t been at this weight since high school which is both phenomenal and sad at the same time. I feel great and I have tried to get to this weight for a very long time. On the flipside, I was a big guy in high school too. Thankfully I am now working on my new weight goal that I want to hit before we go on our cruise in March to the Eastern Caribbean. The work never ends.

Things here are as busy as ever. We basically shut down for two weeks in November because of the Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day in the same week and then for the week of Thanksgiving. It was just about impossible to get anything to happen during either of those weeks. I am pretty sure that we are making up for that right now. Being able to experience weeks like that first hand has drastically changed my opinion of the work I do back home. The services out here really do sit and wait for answers that basically won’t come for a week. Heaven forbid that there is a legitimate emergency out here. We wouldn’t want to infringe on anyone else’s holiday now would we…

I have gotten to experience both the Navy and Marine Corps birthdays out here and they have been very interesting and drastically different experiences. The Navy Birthday was a pretty classy affair and was pretty tame. The Marine Corps Birthday was over the top and you would have thought that we just won the Revolutionary War. Now granted, I am on a Marine Corps base but in terms of numbers the Navy has the second most people here. Not only that but as the Marines don’t like to be reminded, they are part of the Department of the Navy. Despite the fact that I have not really gotten along with any of the Navy guys out here (except a Master Chief over in Medlog that shares in my misery) they Navy guys are pretty classy and handle themselves professionally. I am not too sure the word professional is in the curriculum to become a Marine.

To illustrate the point, I heard a joke while I was waiting in line for chow. During dinner on the Navy birthday I was standing in line and there were two Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officers (CWO) that were standing behind me in line chatting. One of the CWO’s posed the question, “do you know the best thing about the Navy birthday?” At this point I wasn’t just ease dropping anymore and I turned to them as if I was going to actively participate in the conversation. The other CWO was dumfounded and didn’t have a response. The first CWO said “28 days later the Navy figured out they couldn’t defend themselves and they established the Marine Corps.” Funny…yes. Probably not the most appropriate venue. That would be like going to a kid’s high school graduation and telling them that the best part about them graduating is that they are moving out. Is it probably true? Yes. Is it appropriate? No.

I can’t completely throw the Marines here under the bus because even though some of their officers are completely clueless, the Marines have gone above and beyond to take care of me. The Marines are a unique bunch but I have grown fond of them and would work with them again in the future.