MCT...awful.

Well, MCT was not that fun. Granted, shooting machine guns and grenade launchers and throwing hand grenades is pretty cool, but after being spoiled by southern California's beautiful weather, the cold, wind, and rain of the North Carolina winter is bad enough to make the experience drag. Add in being treated like we're straight out of boot (like many of us were, but not me), and it got pretty tedious.

On the other hand, I learned to love MREs (meals ready to eat), and I truly appreciate every moment of sleep. Also, the training was definitely high speed, particularly things like the urban combat training and combat marksmanship drills, which are basically new, and, I'm told, particular to the Marine Corps, meaning your standard Army grunt's not going to get nearly the training I got. I'm told that in terms of combat training, regular Army infantry is about on par with Marines non-infantry, and in some ways not even close. Then again, I'm hearing that from some pretty biased people. Still, I prefer to believe it. Is it true that there's actually a ribbon in the Army for throwing a hand grenade? Because every Marine has thrown one. Let me know. (Oorah)

I made some pretty good buddies at MCT, including one who is a conservative libertarian poli sci major and into the same cigars I'm into. Good stuff. I was a fire team leader, and my fire team of five was (according to my lofty assumptions) far superior to all the other fire teams in our platoon of 97 in wit, intelligence, capability, and professionality. I can't remember exactly, but our average ASVAB percentile score was around 87, which is extremely high. I guess my being a genius didn't hurt that, but my capacity for modesty certainly didn't help, either.

I'm headed back for 29 Palms, or something. That's a huge runaround right now. As of tonight, we're either headed for 29 Palms, CA or Alameda, CA (near Oakland), though I also heard something about some awful Camp Wilson or some such. Lord knows. Not that it matters much to me; I just want out of North Carolina as soon as I can hop on any plane. I used to hate California because it is full of hippies, but when I realized how easy it is to ignore ignorance (especially in favor of eternally gorgeous weather), I learned to love it. Or at least Southern California, far removed from the evils of Berkeley and San Fran.

Point is, I'm heading back to my unit briefly to continue training with them until I get orders for communications school to learn to be a field radio operator, which will greatly assist me in my job as a prison guard in Iraq. I hope to spend just a little time there to catch up with my brother desolation angels before I pick up at comm school. Then by the time I finish with comm school, my unit should be in or near Iraq and there shouldn't be a problem catching back up with them, supposedly, so everything should be in order. Man, there's a lot of jumping through hoops just to head over to the Sandbox and do some hookin and jabbin, in the form of treating detainees with dignity and respect (blech). Some days I wish I'd gone straight infantry.

By the way, a lot of folks hear Marines and think of boot camp at Parris Island. Well, I'm here to tell you that PI must train a bunch of nasty pigs, because the San Diego-trained Marines seemed to be about the only locked-on devil dogs around. The heinous boots straight out of PI couldn't make a formation if their lives depended on it and certainly couldn't all shut up for more than five seconds. I'm a lot prouder to be a Hollywood Marine.

One thing I should mention, after bashing MCT so much, is that my instructors, while stern and impersonal, were outstanding and I really enjoyed them. Something about Marines being unapproachable and unyielding makes me appreciate it that much more when I see beneath the exterior to their real intentions, which are noble and selfless, and when we Iraq-bound Reservists were leaving today, they all treated us with great respect and well-wishing. I love Marines.

I really need sleep. I haven't gotten much in the last three weeks, and certainly not in anything resembling a bed. I should be updating with slightly more frequency in the days to come.

Romeo Kilo Whisky out.