Oral Surgery? OUCH!

Ahh... Phase III must be good and a little more relaxed as we received 3 letters from Michael yesterday. Boy that makes for a great day here :) Here is the latest.

"It's Friday morning and I'm in a waiting room waiting to go into surgery. Yes, I said it.... surgery. I'm having oral surgery to remove two wisdom teeth. I'm fifth in line so I have a little bit of time to write. I'll be sure to fill you in on how it goes. I do know that once I get out of here I go to medical for pain killers and then I'm on bed rest for the remainder of the day. So, it will be nice to sleep all day, but I'll be in a lot of pain and eating a lot of crappy food. Soft diet food here on base is terrible. Well at least that's what I hear.

Holy Crap!! I feel awful. I can't feel anything right now. I feel really tired, drowsy, weak, etc. I've got blood all over my teeth and lips but I don't feel any pain yet. My whole face and neck is numb. It's a really weird feeling. It feels great to lay in my rack in sweats. For pain killers I've been given 800 mg. ibuprofen and vicodin. I'm guessing I'll be in a lot of pain.

Well so far this week we have studied for prac. exam about 6-8 hours. We were issued our dress uniforms on Monday. Tuesday I swam. Wednesday... I don't remember what we did on Wednesday. Swim qual. was pretty easy. I passed 4, 3, and 2 and we don't get to try swim qual 1 here at boot camp. Basically we dressed in camies, boots, put on flak jackets, kevlars, and packs, and a rubber rifle. We had to step off of a 10-ft. platform swim 25 meters and then get out. Then we had to swim 25 meters again. After that we took our packs off and swam 50 meters with our weapons slung around our necks. That wasn't too bad, just tiring. The final test was victim drag. A victim in the water holds onto two packs and you grab him by his flak jacket and drag him 25 meters.

Thursday began the celebration of the Marine Corps birthday. We sat in the bleachers on the parade deck and watched troop formations which included a Marine marching band, the cake cutting, recognition of the oldest and youngest marine present and the reading of General Lejunes birthday message. The cake was enormous! It took five marines to carry it. I

don't remember if I told you but Senior Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Smack and I have the same MOS (job) 0811 Fire Direction Control. My MOS schooling is 6 weeks long and will be at Fort Sill Oklahoma. Senior Drill Instructor put out a huge photo album of photos of himself and other Marines from when he was over seas. He has pictures of himself with several different cannons, small arms (M-16s, SAW machine guns), pictures on ships, helicopters, and plenty more. It's exciting to think of all the cool places I might get to go. I remember when we took a vacation to Florida and toured a battle ship.... to think I might live on one for a couple of weeks is neat. Plus think of the places I can go. I'm starting to get excited and motivated. Well that's all I have right now. Happy Birthday to all Marines and Marine parents reading this.

I miss you guys! Love, Mike