The Few, The Proud.... The Marines

What an exciting time we had last week! My brother, Ben has been at Officer Candidate School (OCS) with the Marines since January. He finally graduated last week. We (me, the kids, mom, dad, grandma who flew in from Las Vegas and Megan, Ben's girlfriend) left Wednesday at 11pm and made it to Fredricksburg the next morning.

That morning we went to the base and went to and orientation led by Colonel Mancini, the nead guy over OCS. We watched a video and had a press conference type Q&A with leaders of OCS. Then they sorted us by the platoon in which we had a candidate. They led us out to the parade deck (basically a concrete field) where they were in formation. That's where you see Ben in regular clothes. This was the first time we'd seen him in nearly 3 months. They had to keep formation- eyes forward- until they were dismissed. Then it was a rush to find your family and friends. We all cried a bit and it was great to see Ben. He had short hair, was tan and smiling. He toured us around the base a bit and then we went to lunch abd the hotel to catch up before he had to be back.

The next day was graduation day. There was a parade at 9am and it was COLD. They did some marching, gun twirling, and yelling. They handed out awards and the band played, too. It was very patriotic. Ben's platoon walked by us and he was trying to look at us, but it was still pretty stiff.

Later that day we went to the Marine's Museum for his actual commissioning ceremony. At this point he is not yet an officer. At the museum there were neat things like a pull up bar to try, a pack to carry to see how heavy they are, a booth you yell in to get yelled at like a recruit/ candidate, and history of the USMC. His ceremony was short but emotional (for us, anyways). Afterward we went outside to pin his rank bars on his uniform. Then he wanted to find one of trainers for his first salute. See, when Ben became a commissioned officer he then out-ranked the enlisted guys that had been training him all this time. So he found one that trained him for his first salute. The lower rank salutes first.

Then we went to lunch and to the MCX, the on base store. We all got some USMC apparel. Ben and Megan went out dancing that night.

The next day we went to DC. We first went to the Smithsonian. There are several museums within the Smithsonian and we went to the museum of natural history. There were animals and a giant animated globe. It was very neat. Andrew was running from one exhibit to the next so I didn't have much time to absorb all the knowledge I could have. They had a special Orchid exhibit, too, which was neat.

Then we walked down to the Washington Memorial, WWII Memorial and down the reflection pool. Then we went to see President Lincoln and the Vietnam Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial was really neat. Just walking by you get swept up in the grief of all those soldiers who died. A man there offered Andrew some transfer paper to get a name off the wall. I thought we could find an Andrew but I couldn't. Then I spotted a Shadburne. There was a E on the end, but oh, well. He rubbed it off and we will look it up one day. It was special. Then we went to back and saw the Korean War Memorial and a general war memorial on the way back.

It was a great trip and so good to see Ben. He'll either go to The Basic School (TBS) next week or in a few weeks. So there is a chance he can come home for a bit between now and then.

We came home Sunday- another long drive. I'd defnitely be interested in going back to DC one day.