Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I AM JOINING THE MARINES: PART TWO


Today was a day full of driving…and driving…and driving.
We left this morning a little after “0 700” because true to form, teachers have a really hard time going by a schedule…much to the dismay of Captain Prather. We drove to Charleston, SC to eat lunch, stopping only once at a rest stop. It really wasn’t that bad. I have never been this far south in South Carolina and it is beautiful here…except for the rain. Once we arrived at our hotel in Beaufort, we had a little down time until 500pm. (1700) We then loaded the bus and made our way to Parris Island to eat dinner. I had the privilege to sit with Captain Prather and learned a lot about him. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Captain Prather was a pilot in Iraq before he was given the job he has now in the recruiting office in Raleigh. He is now medically unable to fly because of hearing loss. He is a very interesting Marine.

Once at Traditions, one of the dining halls on Parris Island, we were briefed by the base PR man and he also told us that the Marine Drill Instructors had a “special” surprise for us tomorrow morning. He also told us that the bus is leaving at o 550 tomorrow morning. After a wonderful dinner I walked through the hallways of the dining hall looking at pictures from Parris Island’s past. It was neat to look at the history of the base. Before I left, my dad told me that my grandfather was at Parris Island in the mid 40s. I found a picture from that time period and thought about how it may have looked when he was there. It was kind of neat. I then went through the hall taking pictures of the memorabilia hung around. As we left, we were given some great gifts…a leather attaché bag, a USB drive, Marine Corps DVD and a draw bag to carry our things around tomorrow. We all came back to the hotel to get ready for our early morning.

Going to hit the sack now….O 430 will come early!

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