A couple of hours ago my plain landed in San Diego. Up until that point nothing about my day seemed abnormal. Got up, went to work, responded to alot of email, etc.

About 7pm I got to the Indy airport to head out to the sunshine state. As soon as I walked inside there was a group of about 5-6 family members surrounding and taking pictures of a Marine. After a few minutes of conversing with the Devil Dog, I found out he was headed to Camp Pendleton on his way to Iraq. That is where things began to wierd.

I boarded the plane, and thanks to Frontier Airlines was able to watch a little DirecTV. One of the movies playing was Jarhead. Okay - let me now say that it had been 6.5 years since I’ve been to San Diego. The last time I was there… it was for Marine Corps Boot Camp.

September 1, 2000 - I boarded the same flight bound for San Deigo, California. We arrived close to midnight. I was with several other Marine Recruits. As soon as we landed we knew something was odd. We were told that once we went through the baggage claim to head to the USO where we would wait for a Drill Instructor to pick us up. Like I said, prior to today it had been 6.5 years since I’d been to San Diego, but as soon as I stepped off the plane I started remembering my surroundings. As I made my way to the baggage claim everything started getting clearer and clearer. As I looked around I could tell who the Marine recruits were and who current Marines were.

Now, I could have simply grabbed my bag and left… but what fun would that be? I decided to head down to the USO just to see what was going on. Sure enough - the room was filled with Marine Recruits and that same eery silence that I remembered. These kids had no idea how much thier lives were about to change. For me - I’ll be going to a friends house and catching some shuteye in a nice warm bed. For them… they won’t be as lucky. They won’t be getting any sleep at all for the next 24 hours. They will be in-processing into the World’s Finest Fight Force - The United States Marines!

I’m going to try and head over to the Recruit Depot during some of my downtime out here.

OohRah!

Sergeant Brown - USMC