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.