(no subject)
As a few of you have pointed out to me, it's been a while since I updated. This is for two reasons: one, nothing really exciting has happened recently. They've just been making up stupid stuff for us to do to keep us busy. Two: I'm lazy. I apologize for the latter.
So our time here at Camp LeJeune is almost up. Last week was a leave period where most of the battalion went home. I ended up staying here earning money by taking other Marines' dutys, but looking back, I wish I'd gone home instead. oh well, not much I can do about it now... ILOC is now over, and the battalion is getting ready to move out to 29 Palms, California to start operation Mohave Viper.
29 Palms (also knows as 29 Stumps, or just Stumps) is a massive base in the middle of the Mojave desert. the base consists of 3 sq miles of Mainside (barracks, chow halls, and such) and 929 sq miles of ranges, for a total of 932 sq miles. for comparison, Rhode Island is 1045 sq miles. So, Stumps is a pretty big place. We'll be working pretty much nonstop while we're there, hopefully we'll have electricity and running water some of the time, but i'm not expecting to find a way to send emails, so don't be expecting to hear from me too much. Right after Viper ends, we'll get 96 hours of leave, then the battalion will start embarking for Iraq. Supposedly it will take a week to get the whole BN out there, so i'm still not sure when we'll be in country. anyways...
Like I said, since we got back we've been mainly doing admin stuff, getting shots, and stupid stuff - the one piece of training we have done was yesterday, when we trucked out to the field to do helo ops. They sent a pair of CH-53 Super Stallions to come fly us around - the 53 is pretty much a tractor-trailer with on top, the plan was to go 24 Marines per bird and do two flights back to back - the first one just take off, circle, and land, and the second one going out and about and wherever to let the pilots have some fun... after the first 48 Marines did their two flights, one of the birds had mechanical problems and had to go home, which meant less flying time for us. oh well... :-/ pictures are on facebook.
So our time here at Camp LeJeune is almost up. Last week was a leave period where most of the battalion went home. I ended up staying here earning money by taking other Marines' dutys, but looking back, I wish I'd gone home instead. oh well, not much I can do about it now... ILOC is now over, and the battalion is getting ready to move out to 29 Palms, California to start operation Mohave Viper.
29 Palms (also knows as 29 Stumps, or just Stumps) is a massive base in the middle of the Mojave desert. the base consists of 3 sq miles of Mainside (barracks, chow halls, and such) and 929 sq miles of ranges, for a total of 932 sq miles. for comparison, Rhode Island is 1045 sq miles. So, Stumps is a pretty big place. We'll be working pretty much nonstop while we're there, hopefully we'll have electricity and running water some of the time, but i'm not expecting to find a way to send emails, so don't be expecting to hear from me too much. Right after Viper ends, we'll get 96 hours of leave, then the battalion will start embarking for Iraq. Supposedly it will take a week to get the whole BN out there, so i'm still not sure when we'll be in country. anyways...
Like I said, since we got back we've been mainly doing admin stuff, getting shots, and stupid stuff - the one piece of training we have done was yesterday, when we trucked out to the field to do helo ops. They sent a pair of CH-53 Super Stallions to come fly us around - the 53 is pretty much a tractor-trailer with on top, the plan was to go 24 Marines per bird and do two flights back to back - the first one just take off, circle, and land, and the second one going out and about and wherever to let the pilots have some fun... after the first 48 Marines did their two flights, one of the birds had mechanical problems and had to go home, which meant less flying time for us. oh well... :-/ pictures are on facebook.