29 palms

I haven't updated in a while. It's not because I've had any shortage of time or internet access. It's because they have beer here, and I'm allowed to drink it. I wouldn't be updating now if I hadn't discovered I could get beer and wifi in one place at the bowling alley. Here are the rest of those MCT pics:

Here's me, a white man named Black, with a black man named White. No other platoon could claim such a hilarious honor.

The chow hall.

Mama B's BBQ, the weekend chow hall.

A road.

I don't know that guy.

Now I'm at MOS school. There aren't any open seats for my class yet, so I'm in the Marines Awaiting Training platoon. Here're some pics from where I am now:

Somebody with white-out is a comedian.

Whoever made this sign had no idea I would come along and think it's hysterical.


Every Marine base I go to gets drier and desertier. This is the wasteland I have to cross just for my daily beer.

The chow hall.


Another picture of the horrible climate.

pic

I took more, but it's such a pain to get service that I could only email myself one. I'll try for more next week. That's Private Pyles if you can't read the name tag.

nvg's

I forgot to mention this:

I also shot at night with night vision goggles and an infrared laser on my M16. My goggles were broken, so they were blurry as hell and I couldn't even see the target. But I could see the sticks holding it up, so I aimed above those, and used my laser to trace its outline. And I still got a tighter shot group than any of the other guys in my relay. This warrants a whole post because I need all the bragging opportunities I can get. So, to reiterate,

Figure 1: Badass. Please note the badass. (Not actually me.)

dear earth women

I slept on a concrete floor in a sleeping bag and ate MRE's all week. And I didn't poop once till I got back. But I'm all clean and refreshed now. I'm sitting out by a tree with my netbook and coffee like nothing happened.

On the range, I got to fire an M249 SAW,

an M240 machine gun,

an M203 grenade launcher,

and an AT4 anti-tank rocket.

Those last two were lies. I did get to shoot the grenade launcher, but only with practice grenades that explode Cheeto dust. And I only shot fake AT4 tube. It launches a 9mm tracer round with the same ballistic properties as the rocket.

For each burst with the machine guns, we would say, "Die motherfucker die, get some, release," and release the trigger on "release." That would ensure we fired the right number of rounds per burst. We were actually trained to say "Die little people die, get some, release," because Marines aren't allowed to cuss, but most of us decided to say it the traditional way.

I've got a week left here. It's been good times, so I've been taking pictures of the base and my platoon because I want to capture these memories forever. Look for those a little later.

pic

Here's my platoon mates being gay.



I'm packing up for the range now. I'll be without shower facilities for a week, but I'll have 80 baby wipes. Bye.

it's actually a netbook

Because it's cheap and has no disc drives. It does have a built-in camera though. Here's me being gay.

i bought a laptop

Not much time to use it though.