Private First Class!

He made it! After 13 weeks and Lord only knows how many miles marched and "Aye, Sirs!" shouted, he graduated on Friday, March 14th at 10:00 a.m. on Parris Island. We arrived back in SRQ on Friday night, and he has been enjoying lots of food, time off, and time with friends and family. He is here in Sarasota for at least 10 days. He has requested the opportunity to work as the local recruiter's assistant, which is something the Marines will allow for a period of 21 days. If he is successful in recruiting just one person, he will advance to Lance Corporal (and his pay increases), so he's motivated to do that. We'll know more this week if that will happen or not.

Graduation was awesome, of course. View a short slide show here. Enjoy!

If you want to reach Michael, his email address is mlevij@gmail.com. Michael will attend follow-up training in North Carolina for 3 weeks (when he leaves Sarasota). After that, he goes to Twenty-Nine Palms California where his orders are to serve as a Tactical Network Specialist. In other words, his job will involve installing and maintaining computer networks. Where? Who knows? They are networks to maintain everywhere, including Iraq, so my guess is that he could end up anywhere. Now you know about as much as we do...!

I'm not sure if Michael will continue this blog or use his Facebook page. I'll keep you posted on that. A huge thank you to everyone who sent cards and letters. Michael said that letters from home are hugely appreciated, so you all played a part in keeping his spirits up and motivating him to keep going! Thank you all.

Want to see something awesome?

Countdown to Graduation

We got another letter from Michael, but before I recap details, let me just ask all those of you out there who believe in prayer to remember Michael and his platoon in these last two weeks. They are undoubtedly well trained but may also be fatigued. Some may even be injured, but they aren't about to tell anyone if they can help it. At this point, they want to graduate with their platoon! An injury could mean they are "recycled" (pulled out to heal and then put back into another platoon--full of guys they don't know). As you can imagine, this is their worst fear.

There are also several critical tests that they MUST pass in the next 10 days or so, or they do not graduate: The final Physical Fitness Test, the final Drill, the final written test, and several others before the culminating test of Marine boot camp--the Crucible. The Crucible is a 54-hour grueling round of war games, night marches, very little sleep, very little to eat, barriers to cross, all the while under simulated fire. So, like I said, if you're a praying person--please send up a prayer for all of them. Those who are still left in the platoon have worked incredibly hard to make it this far. I can hardly wait to scream my head off for all of them on graduation day.

Now, a few highlights from what had to be one of the craziest letters from Michael so far. I swear I hardly recognize him! In this 5-page letter (yes, five pages! Don't worry--this is the Reader's Digest version), he goes into great detail to describe "Basic Warrior Training," which is a week of field training:

"The least I can say about it is that it was dirty! We slept in sea huts in sleeping bags, elbow to elbow with other recruits (80, to be exact). After a day of land navigation [they had to find their way around with a compass], we had nighttime navigation. Both were really fun--the nitty gritty of boot camp I've been waiting for. But the real fun was yet to be had. The next morning we jumped into low and high crawls and more sand in more places I didn't know existed. Did I mention it rained all night the night before? Yeah, to start the course we had to take an ice bath...with sand...everywhere! It was great!

"Then the next day, we had what was called the combat endurance course--3.5 miles or more high and low crawling under barbed wire, through more icy sandy pools. Not to mention if you submerge your weapon, you're going back to the beginning. So after what seemed like 3 or so hours, we emerged from the beaten paths, basically trained warriors, ready for more.

"Soaking wet, boots to head, covered with mud, we went back home and had the first meal in the chow hall we'd had in what seemed like a week--after we showered, of course. And that was yesterday. Yesterday was Saturday. Saturday is BURGERS! (and fries, with chili and cheese, and chocolate milk! ) I LOVE it.

"But not as much as I love the fact that all we have left is this week (which is finalizing financial stuff and getting our ORDERS--WORD!) and our practical applications test, written test, personal fitness test (all three are next week) and Final Drill--the day we leave for the Crucible. Can you tell I'm stoked? Stoked to get out of here!

Oh I forgot! I did pretty well on the A-line (rifle range). [Here he goes into some detail about how he did on this part. I think this was where they had to shoot at moving targets from varying distances. If he performed well enough on this, it could move him from "sharpshooter" to "expert."]

"In any case, I'm really excited to be DONE with this...this...there really is no other word for it other than Hell. Basic Warrior Training was the last big obstacle before the Crucible, and as far as I'm concerned I'm basically done (save for the Crucible, of course.)"

For the entire next page, he rages about the "mothers of America" who have made things too soft for the recruits by babying their children (I'm not sure which mothers he is referring to here, but I'm going to let it slide for now!!) He goes on about how "dumbed down" recruit training is as a result. (Who IS this kid??) I'm not kidding--this part goes on for 2 pages!

He ends up with a few details about coming home and signs off --

"Love from Hell, Recruit (soon to be Marine!) Johnson"

Sharpshooter! OOH RAH!

Snippets from our latest letter (today) from Michael:

"Great news! I shot sharpshooter (211 points--out of 250 possible) on the range. Only 9 points from expert. Oh well...."

"This coming week is Team Week, and I'm celebrating by going to medical for my knee and back to dental for my fillings....Yeah, I forgot to tell you I got fillings a couple weeks back. Lovely. It was actually pretty funny. The young dentist I had was crackin' jokes and telling funny stories the whole time. Next week is A-Line/Basic Warrior Training. A-Line is where we shoot at moving targets, and the score we get could affect our range score. But I'm confident."

(He goes on here to describe what they are doing for the next couple of weeks.)

"I'm almost out. And that's the most exciting news. I know why they call it three months of hell now. It's not the physical. It's the mental. As in, all these kids can't get over their own pride or egos to just get 'the job' done, 'the job' being ANYTHING the DIs tell you to do, nothing more, nothing less!!! Can you tell I'm agitated?"

"Anyway, I'm out. Love you, Michael"

"P.S. Can't wait to see everyone."
"P.P.S. We took range for the series, not the company, but we were so close. The one thing this platoon as done right!"

Sounds like he's hanging in there. I'll let you know if we hear more this week. A couple of people have wondered if there might be kids in his platoon who get no letters. I've written and asked Michael to let me know and send me names!

Only 4 weeks to go!

Clips from Michael's latest letter:

"Parris Island is absolutely beautiful. During that three-mile run yesterday, we were crossing marshes with a view of the distant beach. I was hoping we would have a chance to roll down that way, but we turned around...It is strange how it's juxtaposed to such a harsh "society." It's hard to explain, but just think about the platoon marching and then doing something wrong and getting yelled at and/or pitted for it. All the while, there's this amazing scenery surrounding us: pines, oaks (really old ones), marsh, savannas, etc. And the weather here reminds me a lot of Florida's. Could be cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon. And it's really humid here."

He goes on to ask us to look up the average temperatures for this time. He wants to know what to expect for the "Basic Warrior Training" week when they have to camp. He included some "bullet points" on another paper:

• "Took initial Physical Fitness Test. Run time was 21:42 (I think that's for 3 miles), 97 crunches, 9 pull-ups."
• "Finished Class 3 in swimming."
• Their old Sr. Drill Instructor is back. Looks like they replaced a couple others.
• "I love Saturday noon chow: Burgers, chili cheese fries, and other greasy stuff that's no good for you."
• "I'm so ready for rifle week."
  

Rifle Week is next week. Pray that he passes this because you can't graduate if you don't qualify for marksmanship!) He says his platoon is "seriously the most undisciplined platoon." (Hmmm. Is it true or just some kind of motivational head game the DIs are playing with them?)

Finally--IMPORTANT FOR THOSE WHO ARE SENDING PACKAGES: The DIs won't let them have the powdered Emergen-C mixtures. It comes in other forms, including tablets and gels. And, he says, "Don't bother with power bars. We have a half a footlocker full, and we only get these on occasion." They may earn more of that privilege later. I'll keep you posted.

Finally, say a prayer about his job assignment. He says he's interested in avionics. We are praying that God will open just the right door for him, wherever that may be.

Short update via Costa Rica

Zoe McLuhan (family friend who is in language school in Costa Rica) got a letter from Michael. Michael reports that the gas chamber was "fun." (I'm assuming he was being a little sarcastic.) The good news is that he survived it. He said it felt like bits of fiberglass all over his skin. He also said that he loved the part where he got to rappel. I'm assuming he is serious about this part since he's done a good bit of rappeling and has always enjoyed it. That's it for now...

More news from Michael

Finally! After 2 weeks another letter from Michael arrived today. In this letter, he answers a lot of questions that we sent to him, so I'll try to summarize. He says that he was definitely "DQed" (disqualified) for not being 100% upfront from the get go, though he did tell all later. I guess it was too late for the Marine's way of thinking. His new assignment is "the highly esteemed position of 'open contract.'" (Basically, he still doesn't know.) He thinks he'll find out during Marine Week (the last week of boot camp) and he adds "Don't worry--it won't necessarily be infantry."

When he gets home, he wants to "sleep, eat, watch TV, run and work out," and he has an "hour-long, candle-lit bath planned!"

He goes on to report that all of the Drill Instructors for his platoon have been temporarily relieved because of "a lack of...I guess experience, in disciplining young recruits." I'll quote him...

So until tomorrow we still don't know who will be replacing them permanently...My only disappointment is that we might get the old DIs back...Hectic times, it's bringing the platoon down. And that makes things worse because we already suck and are the worst platoon in the company. We had the lowest initial test average (88%). Everyone else was in the 90s."

Other than that, he writes,"I'm still cool." He says his marksmanship instructor is "awesome, very funny." He says his knee hurts. He is "stoked." And he "can't wait to graduate!" By his count, he is 5 and 1/2 weeks away.

Requests: 1) Something for serious coughs. 2) More Emergen-C! 3) Protein bars are cool but not a must.

Thank you all again for cheering Michael on. I know it is a big boost to him!