Timmy Graduates Boot Camp

video isn't working for me; I'll leave it in case it recovers

So Timmy graduated from Marines Boot Camp at Parris Island in a two-day event. I never saw so many delighted young men in my life once they broke for the five-hour base leave on Thursday. They simply radiated joy.

Interestingly, the young women who were also graduating, who follow the same routine as the guys, were much more calm and poised about the fact that they had gotten through boot camp.

Timothy said earnestly about five times that day, "Mom, I am so glad to see you."

He had asked me to send world news in his first letter (oh, he wrote his letters during the night in the bathroom, the only time and light available), so I sent him several sets of printouts of political and war news over the weeks that he was there. He said everybody looked forward to reading them since they had nothing to read and had no idea what was going on in the world.

You may know that some Marines enjoy battle. Their drill instructor came in one day terribly excited and said the United States was at war with some country or other, with whom there had been some contretemps. The drill instructor was so pumped and kept talking about it. The boot campees thought for several days we really were at war.

Some of the stories certainly made them sound like POWs. They had no idea what time it was. Using a survival manual furnished them by the Marine Corps (Timmy ended up with several because he scavenged things that got left behind by previous graduates -- they had current groups clean out the barracks of graduated groups), they built a rudimentary (Galaxy Quest, anybody?) sundial with pebbles and sticks outside their Bay, hoping that it would go unnoticed. They then signaled the time to one another while standing in formation.

As part of the treatment for the flesh-eating bacteria in his foot, Timmy went with other injured POWs on a bus to the hospital off-base. He sat there in complete happiness before the bus moved, anticipating looking out the window on the ride. But the drill instructor made them ride with their heads between their knees the whole way.

The drill instructor tormented Timothy several times with the fact that he is color-blind by holding up two sheets of colored paper and demanding to know which one was green. Timmy would pick one, the instructor would scream "that's wrong!" and Timmy would be off to do push-ups. Finally, the other recruits mentioned to Timmy that both sheets were green. When he told me this, I also reminded him that he does not have red-green blindness, so you see how rattled they get.

The inmates discovered a few bits of negotiation room with the drill instructors, however. Sometimes the instructor would burst into the barracks asking for computer help, for instance, how to attach a form to an email. Since a recruit would help them with the computer, the instructors would show the recruits how to address and stamp an envelope, because, to a man, none of them had ever sent a letter through the mail :-).

Ten of Timothy's friends showed up Friday for the final ceremony. One friend flew down from New York City.

T. said, oh, I just want to read. I want to fix my own food. I want to look at the internet. I want to talk to my friends. Once he and I were driving back to Atlanta, I said, "open your Christmas gift". He got it out and said, "what is it?" I knew then he was in an altered state, because he has always been able to glance at a wrapped gift and identify it. I even gave him a clue ("It's many books in one") and he still didn't know. It was a Kindle, of course, and he loves it.

While we were driving along, he bought a book he had tried to find in the base store and poof it downloaded instantly. How cool is that?

We stopped at Longhorn east of Macon for a delayed lunch. The manager came out and gave us Timmy's meal for free because he was in uniform. Need I say Mom was thrilled. When that happens, always remember to tip for the free meal as well; can you tell Mom spent years as a waitress.

We have been cooking. I started off with:

turkey

Potato Babka

red cabbage and apples

snickerdoodle cake

We teamed up for the next meal, together cooking:

Bavarian Beef

mashed potato/cauliflower

pumpkin pie

After having a party today and tonight with about 30 of his fellow Atlanta area boot camp graduates in Marietta (just giving you Mariettans a heads-up), we are going to cook dinner on Wednesday:

Ethiopian Chicken

leftovers

Chocolate Cookies

If we get a chance at another dinner, I have the fixings for Swedish Meatballs.