I've made it through 4 weeks!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!

Yes, this is Mark.

Wow.

I think that word sums it all up. The past 4 weeks has been one hell of an experience and I can already tell how it is changing my life and lifestyle. I have definitely noticed that being a United States Marine Corps Officer is only fitting for certain people. I believe I am one of them. So where do I start?

Lets just say the first few weeks are a complete blur. Up until this last week, I really couldn't tell you what I did each day. Honestly, if you asked me what I did yesterday, a couple weeks ago, I would have no idea. The first few weeks were pretty much the same thing. A lot of getting yelled at, learning many different drill movements, going to class, learning routines within the squadbay, and going to chow. It wasn't until the past week and a little the week before where we have started to get into the meat and potatoes. So you are probably wondering what the meat and potatoes are?

So far, we have gone on a 4 and 6-mile hump, which is hiking with about 70 pounds on your back, with one 10 minute break in between, not to mention we step off at 0430 in the morning. Yeah, your shoulders don't feel too well. We did Leadership Reaction Course I, where you lead a fireteam of 4 through this what seems a very complex and hard problem/obstacle to solve, and sometimes they are near impossible to figure out, but they just want to see how well you come up with a plan and lead your team. That same day, we did what they call Fireteam and the O, which stands for offensive. Again, I led my fireteam through the woods, giving out hand signals and then buddy rushing when we came in "contact" with the enemy, firing blank rounds. The evaluator said I did very well. This past week was a busy one. We did the Individual Movement Course on Tuesday which was awesome. Once again, we were in a fireteam, and had to step through barbed wire, highcrawl on our elbows, knees, and toes about 30 yards, crawl on our back through this long ditch full of muddy water which was covered by barbed wire. Only my face was out of the water. We high crawled again, and then crawled through another long ditch, only this time on our stomachs, and sometimes had to go all the way under to avoid the wire. They had mortar rounds going off right next to us too. Thats what made it fun. Finally this week, we did SULE I, which stands for Small Unit Leadership Evaluation. It was similar to the LRC, but this time the problem you had to get through was a lot less complex. I did very well on mine and actually solved it before time ran out. Again, the evaluator said I did very well. So thats it for the major events so far. I've passed all my academic tests and everything else except for the practive night land navigation, which was somewhat difficult, but I know what I need to do for the real one now.

Well, us candidates are ALWAYS hungry, and I am, so I'm going to go enjoy some Holiday Inn Express continental breakfast. Will post again in a little while telling you about some of my unique experiences here so far. What I enjoy and what are some of things I would be happy never doing again in life.