Bad news....Good news

Hi everyone, Sorry for the long posting. We got the following letter from Michael last weekend (Saturday, Jan. 19th). He asked us to post it on this blog, but we waited because we were trying to clarify a very important part of his letter. It is still a unclear to us, but the gist of the news is this: Michael told us that he has been disqualified for the top secret security clearance that would allow him to go to the cryptological linguistic training he wanted to do. Needless to say, we have been concerned and puzzled. After talking with his recruiting officer, we have confirmed that he has indeed been disqualified, but the reasons are unclear still.

Michael attributed it to his not being 100% upfront when he first arrived about some of his past "sins." (The Marines give you a chance to "fess up.") But his recruiting officer said that if that were the case he would have been disqualified on "moral grounds." Even if it is on moral grounds, unless there's some indiscretion we are not aware of, we don't know of anything that should have kept him from this clearance.

The recruiting officer said that Michael's file, however, says that the disqualification was on "personal" grounds. Bottom line: We just aren't sure! What we do know is that his 5-year commitment may be reduced to 4, depending on whatever new job he ends up doing, and he loses his sign-on bonus. He does have the opportunity to make a lateral move into the linguistic program after two years of service. And, according to Michael, there are still security jobs that he can apply for--just not top security. So, it doesn't make much sense to us, but that's what we know for now.

We did not hear from Michael this week, so this is all we know. Following is the rest of Michael's letter that he asked us to post here! In spite if this bad news, he sounds surprisingly upbeat. He is in week 6 of 13. 7 weeks to go. Pray that he is not injured. Pray that he qualifies in his fitness test this week and rife marksmanship, which is next week. Say a prayer that this job situation clears up. Thanks!

2008, Jan. 13
Mom and Dad, What I'm about to write I'd appreciate you to please transcribe onto this blog you were talking about...

I've been swamped and my free time is taken up by necessary duties that don't get done in time. Even today, Sunday, when we have 3 hours in the morning and one at night, I'm spending the three in the morning trying to save some(well, actually all of us) the shame, embarrassment, and absolute horror because of what Senior might do of forgetting knowledge, not being up to par on physical standards or not knowing drill, sticks, or MCMAP [martial arts]. I spent the better part of free time this morning making a chart of which recruits were good at which fields and which recruits were lacking and needed help. Posted it on the cork board over the Scribe's desk. I hope people us it.

Well, I rambled a bit.... Anyway, you can add that part to the (following) blurb:

Dear Everyone,
First let me start by saying thank you for the supporting letters and cards. It's nice to know pressure [is] riding on me to graduate now. Just kidding!

Well, I'm sure what most people want to know is "What is it like?" There's only one word to describe it: Unreal. By now, most of you have heard about what I've done so far, and what's to come in training. But things don't always go as planned. For one, our schedule was thrown off because nearly everyone in the company was sick so we didn't get to do some things like "Pugil Sticks One." or set up our checking accounts until this last week. And since then much more has changed.

[THIS IS WHERE HE EXPLAINED ABOUT BEING DISQUALIFIED FROM HIS JOB, AND HE ENDS BY SAYING HE IS NOT SURE WHAT HIS NEW ASSIGNMENT WILL BE.]

For now I'm focusing on what I'm doing every day. We have two tests at the end of this week. One is a 100 question multiple choice, written exam. The other is a MCMAP test.

And speaking of this week, it's called "swim week," and so far it's awesome. Today we did PT in the morning (1.5 mile run and other stuff too) and reviewed for the MCMAP test for Friday. Then we swam in full gear. First, we walked back and forth, then jumped off a platform, and also swam around. Yesterday was simply swimming with cammies.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...Apparently, I've been getting a lot of questions my parents can't answer, so I'll try to tackle 'em.

1) HOW ARE YOUR SPIRITS? My spirits are being kept up alright. I pretty much already went over this one though. So...moving on.

2) HOW ARE THE DIs FOR YOUR NEW PLATOON? Physically, the DIs are angels, unless you can consider the things they order you to do to your own body. The other morning I accidentally started humming the guitar riffs and drums for War Pigs, so my Senior DI made me stay in the up position of a push-up for about...well it seemed like 40 minutes or so. Not only that, he pulled my squad leader (my friend Jason) and the guide down with me. I like the other squad leaders though because they got down with me just because. That's teamwork!

3) ARE YOU LESS FRUSTRATED WITH THE OTHER RECRUITS NOW? I pretty much went over the frustration with the other recruits too. [He mentioned this in other letters.]

4) DO YOU EVER HAVE THE CHANCE TO HELP THE OTHER RECRUITS? I tried to help everyone by going around asking what people needed help on. Went over that already as well.

5) HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO GET TO KNOW ANYONE ELSE? I've been talking to some recruits here and there. The one who racks next to me is from Trinidad, and I met the son of one of the VPs of GE. His name's ?? (can't read what Michael wrote here). Other than that, I get on with the squad leaders and anyone else who can follow simple instructions.

6) WHAT'S THE HARDEST PART OF BOOT CAMP? The hardest part of boot camp is getting everyone to stop thinking about themselves and start functioning as a unit that does everything with "speed, volume and intensity" as the newly graduated from Alpha Company put it to our squad leaders and guides.

7) WHAT'S THE COOLEST PART? So far the coolest thing was the confidence course. It was like a playground. But who knows? Next week is Grass Week. After that is Fire Week (firing the rifle). There is much to look forward to.

NOT TO MENTION! We just got our desert cammies the other day, and our name tape, and U.S. Marines tape that goes on our uniform. There's something about seeing that in your hand...

2nd Phase here I come!

P.S. To all those I haven't yet written, I'm sorry! I'll try and get to you ASAP!

They say that no news is good news. We hope that is true for Michael. No letters this week--at least not to us. Maybe you heard from him?

If you are interested, I'm posting a link here to the Marine training schedule. Michael is in Week 5 (Swim Week), the beginning of Phase Two of a three-phase training schedule. (Sorry--I couldn't get this to post as a hyperlink. Just copy and paste this URL into your browser window.)

www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/training/matrix/index.asp

THANK YOU to all who have written or sent packages to Michael. I know it means a great deal to him.

Finally, if you want to post a message on this blog for him, we'll make sure he gets it. Or, if you've heard from Michael and want to share an update, feel free!

Barry and Kay

Latest from Michael

I actually got to hear Michael's voice yesterday--several times! He called 4 or 5 times looking for names and addresses of people who have known him a long time. The security clearance process has begun! Today, we got a nice long letter. Here are a few highlights:

A bit of bad news. We lost one of our DIs (Drill Instructors). He had the funniest 'DIisms' like, "If, God forbid, you should graduate, don't tell anyone Drill Instructor C____ trained you. Tell them the chow lady trained you. That's all you're good for...chow and head calls." Or "If you ever refer to the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor [the Marine Corp emblem] as the 'EGA,' so help me, Staff Sargeant C_______ is gonna jump out of a bush and bloodchoke you!" Ah, I'll miss him.

I'm fairly excited about this upcoming week. Tomorrow, we start the confidence course...

So let me break down this Drill Instructor thing for you. Basically, you have the Senior whose kinda nice and more down to earth, but he has these two hell hounds that are on a constant leash. And every time we screw up (because when one person screws up, everyone screws up) the leash is let out a bit until finally you do enough things wrong he just lets go completely.

He goes on to say that they messed up on their drill, prompting the Sr. DI to "released the hounds." They knocked over all their racks (beds), made them dump all their gear, and then gave them 7 minutes to clean it up. Michael is taking it all in stride.

So far....so good. Keep Michael and Jason (who, by the way, made squad leader for Michael's squad) in your prayers. Michael says that he is the platoon scribe's assistant. They sound like they are both doing very well. They have a lot of folks sending up good thoughts and prayers for them. Thank you all!

Special Requests: Power Bars, Cough Drops, Emergen-C, pictures of friends and family and LETTERS

1/5/08
Good news from Michael. His morale seems better in the letter we got yesterday, though he did say there were some quarantines going on at the base due to illnesses. Not sure exactly what that means, but we're praying that he doesn't catch whatever is going around.

He seems to be settling into his new platoon, and his buddy Jason has made squad leader. Michael seemed pleased about that because Jason is actually HIS squad leader. That also lets us know that they were both switched to this new platoon, so we're glad they got to stick together.

Hopefully, we'll get another letter today, but it sounds like he has precious little time for writing. He did ask for "cough drops, Tums, and Airborne" in his letter yesterday, so we shipped off a small package yesterday. Thanks a million to those of you who have told us you have written to Michael. I know it means the world to him.

More later.... ;)