Surprise! Another letter arrived!

I guess he's getting very anxious to graduate as we received another letter yesterday. So, here's the latest from "recruit Huck", our soon to be Marine :)

"It's Thursday morning about 0930. I can hear the motorun (motivational run) going on... families screaming, clapping, whistling, and platoons chanting and clapping as they run past. It's rough to hear it going on because time is going by so slowly. All anyone wants is to be at family day or graduation.

I just finished taking another practice Prac test. It's gotten to the point where I will read, 'What is the policy...' and I already know the answer is "C", tobacco is not permitted in DOD buildings or vehicles.' It's the same for about 60% or more of the test. It's drilled into our heads so much and we take so many tests.

Last night we had a pretty good PT. We marched over to the chow hall and did crunches in the front lawn and the other half of the platoon did pull ups. After about ten minutes we switched. I got a pretty good workout and felt some awesome pain. We all know the Marine Corps saying, 'pain in weakness leaving the body.' My body is really starting to take shape so I'm excited. After PT we received our MCMAP belts (Marine Corp Martial Arts something.) It feels so good to wear them. To you, you'll probably see a belt, but to us recruits it's something we worked hours and hours for; striking pads, getting struck by fellow recruits, getting thrown to the ground, and much more. One thing that I love about the Marine Corps is you have to earn just about everything. Once you receive what you've earned, (a belt) you feel so proud to wear it knowing you worked hard for it and really did earn it. Anyways, I'll continue this letter later.

We had drill this afternoon and sucked. We're a hell of a lot better than first phase but still not where we should be.

Well, it's Friday now. Oh my goodness do I have news. Today I had a working party at the Generals building. It''s a building full of offices with high ranking officers including the Brigadier General of MCRD. It was pretty sweet, but only ten of us were able to work there.We were hand selected because there are so many officers and high ranking enlisted Marines that our drill instructors wanted ten of the most trust worthy and alert recruits. It was sweet. [That's our Michael :)]

After our working party we ate afternoon chow and got hair cuts. My hair is so long... probably like 1/3 inch - at least. Then when we got back from hair cuts we went to PT and we did a mock PFT (personal fitness test.) I did better than great. I did awesome! Improved by two pull-ups to put my total at 14, 20 more crunches for a total of 131 in two minutes, AND I cut 2:20 off of my run time for a total 3-mile time of 24:40. Man o' man was I excited! I still am. Now we're doing more practice Prac tests. I'm waiting for my test to be graded. Wow, I missed 5 out of 139. I am on a roll today. Did someone pray for me or something?

Well, I need to get back to studying. Only 13 days until graduation, 12 until I see Mom and Dad, Kyle and Theresa. You'll be hearing from me again soon - as usual. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I miss you.

Love, Mike"

It appears that this letter was sent the day prior to the last one. It doesn't matter since I'm thrilled to hear that things are going so well for Michael.

I need to keep moving here. Doing laundry and getting things ready to pack - AGAIN! I'm so excited I couldn't sleep last night. Went to bed at 1 am and woke up at 6 am. We will leave for Omaha tomorrow morning at 6 am. I can't believe we're actually flying out to San Diego tomorrow morning!! This has been a somewhat long 13 weeks. All I can say is Thanks be to God and to you for all your support and prayers. Couldn't have gotten thru this without all of you!

Love - Julie