A Big Salute To Our Friend Chris

Our friend Chris (my friend from college) is at Officer Training right now for the Navy. He went to medical school in Charleston, just graduated, and now has "D.M.D." after his name...which I am still trying to get over. He just wrote out a mass e-mail to friends and family that just makes me crack up...so I thought I would share some highlights:

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got here quite honestly, but I surely got something I didn't expect. The first morning here we were woken up at 3am by 3 loud drill sergeants from the marines. They proceeded to yell and scream most of the day. We have been marching up and down the base (literally marching, left, right, left). We spend a lot of time in the push up position and "paying attention to details" as they call it. They take this uniform thing to the extreme. Everyone marches in uniform, dresses in uniform, makes their bed in uniform and keeps their room EXACTLY uniform. Those first couple days seemed to last a week. We were only allowed to eat with a spoon for most of the first week and we only get 15 min to "chow." No TV, no radio, no caffeine, no sugar, and no "extra" food in our rooms (we learned that lesson the hard way) but besides that the food is pretty decent. I haven't slept for more than 6 hours at a time since I have been here and most of the time it is more like 4-5. You never get tired though, because someone is constantly in your face calling you out making you do push ups. PT is pretty nice, some running, more push ups, sit ups, leg lifts and such. It could be compared to swimming but its not nearly as hard. Unless someone gets out of step with everyone else then it gets harder. Getting the "Yes Sirs, Yes Senior Chief, Yes Master Sergeants" and the drill is much more stressful for me. If you try to even talk to the staff members and get it wrong you are done. I do more before 8am here than I have ever in my life. When I first got here I just thought to my self, "I want to be as invisible as possible." I think I am used to it now though.

This week started our second week and we have been in class most of the day. Its good because we are not with our drill instructors, but bad because its real hard to stay awake. And if we close our eyes, suddenly our drill instructor is back on our tails. The material is ok, rank structure, naval history, ships, carriers, and aircraft, pay and benefits, housing, and Leave and Liberty. We had our first test today and most of us got 100s (its not too hard). I have defiantly learned a lot since I have been here (seems like months).

We have room inspection every day practically and if anyone's room has even the littlest piece of lint on the floor or is the slightest bit different than everyone's....well lets just say some people have had their stuff thrown out 4 story windows and they completely emptied my room (including the bed, desk, and locker) one day. I had to hunt all my stuff down and fix my room.

The exciting part about hearing from him is that the sooner he is done with the training, the sooner he will be out here in CA! We can't wait to see him and I am sure hear many more stories!