July 19, 1997 - Getting My Orders

970819 - This morning we received our orders and I found out I have to report to my duty station on August 30 which means I can't spend the weekend in NC as I'd planned. I was a little disappointed but at least it means I get to go to TPC on Sunday. It also gives me more time to hang with my friends which is cool. This afternoon was the Company Commander's Inspection. I guess we did ok since we didn't really get yelled at too much. After evening chow there was a huge thunderstorm and while we were packing our Alice packs for the Crucible the power went out for about 20 minutes. It was a little annoying but not too bad. The rest of the night was pretty normal. 10 days left...
I didn't know it at the time, but this was to be the first of many, many times while in the Marines that my orders were incorrect. I found out later that I would not be required to report to my unit until the September Drill weekend (meaning the weekend that my unit always spent on duty; the first weekend of the month). Actually, that's not even correct. When I got to my unit for the September Drill weekend, I found out that I could have skipped it since it was within 9 days of my graduation from boot camp. I could have waited until my October weekend. Oh well.

This was to become a theme all the way up until my final year. In early 2003, the war in Iraq had just begun and I had been brought to Active Duty so that I could go to Marine Combat Training (something I should have done long before, but my unit had forgotten to send me). After MCT, I was to ship directly to Camp Pendleton in California and then on to Kuwait to join up with the rest of my unit. Or so I thought. While at MCT, I found out that my orders had changed and I would head back to my unit in DC and await further orders there.

While these were the first and last time this happened, they were far from the only times.

Also, if you're curious, "TPC" stands for Timonium Presbyterian Church which was my church at the time.

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