Sunday, July 01, 2012

Update from Fort Leonard Wood


It's been almost a month since David graduated from Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton, CA and moved to Fort Leonard Wood, MO. He is training to be a Engineering Equipment Operator (MOS 1345 for those of you who know Marine-speak.) The good news is he has rejoined the world of cell phones and Internet, so we are able to keep in touch without getting writer's cramp or licking stamps. However, Fort Leonard Wood is in the heart of the Ozarks where it is hot, buggy, and it appears that wi-fi is non-existent. Hannah and I took a trip down to see him. Just a bit of advice: Ignore Mapquest if you want to make the trip. It directs you onto roads like this.
We had better luck using a good old paper map on the way home. The other thing that put a damper on the visit was this.

You could have fried an egg on the hood of the car! It was brutal! The base (which was beautiful, by the way) looked almost abandoned as everyone stayed indoors to escape the heat. As David squared away his room on Saturday, Hannah and I kept cool in the museum, which is definitely worth visiting.

From David's perspective, Fort Leonard Wood is a bit of a let down. He has more down time now, and less to do with it than he had on the beaches of the Pacific ocean. FLW is remote. There are a few things to do on base, but the closest town, St. Robert, doesn't offer much other than a few restaurants, a bunch of hotels, and a Walmart. It's a joke among the soldiers that the most exciting things around are the strip clubs, tatoo parlors, and Walmart. Thankfully, David has only been to one of those three! No tatoos yet (that I know of!)

Training is hot, dirty, and boring. Hurry up and wait is another Marine mantra, and there is lots of waiting. Waiting for training to begin, waiting his turn to drive the machine of the week, sitting in classroom sessions. Coming out of boot camp and MCT where it was non-stop action 24/7, it's hard to make the adjustment. David was glad to have his Playstation3 to help with the downtime. It's easy to see how some of these young men could get into trouble without the structure they had in boot camp, and many get a bit depressed.

On the positive side, there are only seven guys in David's MOS class. That means lots of attention by the instructors (which can be a bad thing if one happens to be a former drill instructor!) and more practice time than usual. If it weren't so blasted hot, David says he would love driving the big rigs.

So keep this young Marine in your prayers. He will graduate on September 7. After that he will be assigned to his permanent duty station. He has requested to go back to the west coast, but we'll just have to wait and see.