Just thinking...

I am guessing that since I have been a bit active on some of the other blogs out there that folks might actually be looking at this blog now. A little about me. I had a checkered past and my beloved Marine Corps set me on the straight and narrow. It gave me a reason to hold my head high and look people in the eye. And I appreciated the chance it took on me. I turned 27the day I jumped on the yellow footprints at MCRD San Diego. At that moment I left my past behind. I became an 0351 Dragon Gunner and tried out for Force Reconnaissance and to my amazement...I made it. My true maturity in the Corps began the day I checked in to that elite unit. I met the CO and 30 seconds after that, while still in Alphas, I was thrashed for 30 minutes by a Sergeant all us new guys affectionately nicknamed "Sgt Satan". I was tested and tested like I had never been before, being pushed to the extreme limits of what I could endure and then further than I gave myself credit for. It was the last thing in the Marine Corps I had joined for but soon became the real reason I had joined. I belonged to something greater than myself. Where only the mission mattered....everything else was secondary. And those lessons carried me throughout my career. I made a huge mistake during the RIF following the first Gulf War and got out despite knowing I was making a mistake. It took me 16 months to get myself back in.