T-55

I got a call from the husband today, which was awesome. It is always such a wonderful blessing to hear his voice.

The good news:

• His bronchitis is cleared up (they caught it early, thank God)
• His platoon won Final Drill
• He got his orders

The bad news:

• His orders are complete bull.

Let me elaborate:
We have been being told, for three months, that Danny would find out on t-55 what job school he would be going to and for how long. He enlisted with a contract for Communications, but not for a specific job within that MOS. So we were expecting to get his specific information yesterday.

No Dice!

He called me and told me that the only information he had recieved was what he already knew. Just where and when he was supposed to report after his 10 days of leave.
So I was pretty upset and started bawling. I am not usually a crier, but the pregnancy horomones make me a little irrational. I was just so broken because I hate being in the dark. No one tells me anything and I just want to know where we are going after this.

I really need to work on not being a control freak. Granted, a baby wasn't in the picture when he enlisted, but we did sign for this, literally. When the husband approached me about joining the Marines, he told me that "hurry up and wait" would be the lifestyle. I guess I just didn't fully grasp what that meant.

I am not in control....
I am not in control....
I am not in control....
I am not in control....

Anyways, I called and talked to the recruiter and he explained that in the Communications MOS, everyone goes to the same school for 6 weeks, but could be placed in advanced classed for different jobs, depending on test scores. The way that I understood it was that the husband will be given apptitude tests in the first couple of weeks, and depending on how well he does, will be placed in his specialized Communications Job. However, the school for communications school will be 8 weeks at the max because a lot of the field is on-the-job learning. So the school is short, and they learn their jobs mostly at their PDS. Confusing, I know!

So- Communications Job School= 6-8 weeks.

I guess that isn't so bad. Not as bad as it could be. And I do believe that students get phone privleges, so it wont be as bad as Bootcamp, in terms of separation.

As an aside, if you have  no idea what T-55 is, refer to this website for a detailed training matrix for San Diego. It will let you know what your recruit SHOULD be doing everyday. Training can get delayed a couple of days for various reasons, but they usually get back on track.

http://www.usmcgradsandiego.org/links/trainingMatrix.php

Don't forget OPSEC. DO NOT post specific dates on your facebook, twitter, etc. If you know for a fact that your recruit is moving to CP on a certain date, resist the temptation, and dont share online.

The End of Phase One

The husband is now officially no longer in the first phase of bootcamp. He has started phase II and is at Camp Pendleton for rifle training. Sounds like fun!

If he hadn't been dropped for pneumonia, he would actually be a month from coming home at this point. He was originally supposed to graduate on July 6th, but has been bumped back to July 27th.

So, I want to remind anyone who has a recruit that you should look at my link to what OPSEC is and remember to not post specific dates of troop movement. Yes, that includes the dates on which your recruit went to or returned from Camp Pendleton. Learn the OPSEC guidlines now, so you don't get chewed out later on when your recruit is a marine and he is leaving for or returning from a deployment. Facebook and Twitter is the enemy of OPSEC.