US Marines

Early Tuesday morning, P drove me to Minneapolis. I caught an early morning flight to Portland. I had an hour and a half layover in Phoenix.

The first leg of the trip went very smooth. No turbulence (I hate to fly). We landed in Phoenix and I made myself comfortable in one of those lovely, comfortable (ha!) seat they have in all airports.

I was thoroughly enjoying my book. (Finn MacCool by Morgan Llewellyn). I knew people were coming and going all around me, but I was mostly oblivious as I delved into my book.

When I next looked up, I was surrounded by Marines! I mean, darling, drop-dead gorgeous United States Marines!! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. My first thought was maybe they had just arrived home from overseas or something.

Then I started really looking at these Marines. Man were they clean. And very young. Then I realized they were getting ready to board a plane to San Diego. Then I noticed their bags were all shiny and new. When I saw one of them pull out a ruler to measure where his ribbons should go, I knew they were not experienced soldiers.

So after a few select questions, it was determined that they were fresh out of boot camp and headed for Camp Pendleton for Combat Training.

I asked the one young Marine how boot camp was. He replied, "Rough." Then they all laughed.

My oldest son has decided to join the Marines in January. Seeing these boys/men made me realize how rough that is going to be on all of us. But how very proud I am going to be of him.

Bless them all and keep tham all safe.