29.2.16

Transformation


Seeing our Marine grandson was a dream a few weeks ago but it became a reality this weekend. It has been truly amazing to see Ben transform from a high school teen to a muscular Marine.

No wonder this "tough guy" is the Marine mascot.

Last evening Ben shared a video that documents his intensive survival training by French troops in New Caledonia. While there, among other things, he jumped from unbelievable heights, learned to hunt and dress a deer, ate live grubs that had been dislodged from a tree, and mastered multiple water survival techniques. An unplanned event for Ben was being bitten on the arm by an “unknown” insect. This resulted in a swollen arm, losing a large patch of skin, and a big open wound. He has a scar. Lesson learned: Keep arms inside the sleeping bag. (His mother thinks maybe a Purple Heart. After all, he was deployed and he was wounded. Never mind that it was by a vicious little critter.)

Additional achievements for Ben while deployed included earning his black belt in Marine Martial arts and mastering scuba diving.

Welcome home for a while, tough guy!



3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you, Secondary Roads. While Ben was in his thirteen weeks of recruit training, his only contact with the outside world was through letters. I collected lots of cartoons and quotations about Marines to include in my daily letters. This cartoon was one of them.

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    2. I am so glad you got to see him but not so happy about his "battle" scar.

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