I guess its a few more days till I go back to the real field. so we're back at good old Firebase Gloria where I spent all last week getting down and dirty, but only now I'm a student in the TRAP class. so far we've only had regular classes,you know, death by powerpoint..and some cool videos. tomorrow we actually start rehearshing setting up hasty ( Read more... )

so I'm back from the field..for now.. I'll be back monday. hey, at least I get to train this time. doin the TRAP course (which correctly stands for Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel) so yea..like rescuing downed pilots and things. some survival instructors are going to hunt us. I'll be equipped with a whistle, a flashlight, and a compass ( Read more... )

my fellow marines call me "boot" ...it's not an affectionate nickname because of my last name, Botha, which, if you remove the "h" to give you bota, means "boots" in spanish..no, it's not because of that. rather it's a derogatory term used to somehow take away from all the hell I've gone through just to be one of them...just because I haven't seen ( Read more... )

another day is over. What is there to say? my mind is just blank..filled with nothingness and so much at once. I guess I have the same problem as dev..that is why I bought a journal notebook thing to just write in whenever I can and want to, which is quite often...the front cover reads "Title: PFC Botha, Johannes L 2/1 Weapons Co. 81's Plt. ( Read more... )

It's been 7 days since I've arrived at my new unit (or first unit rather). The unit in question is 2nd battalion 1st Marines (or just 2/1 for short). i'm in weapons company, 81's platoon, as in 81mm mortars. There are so many things on the schedule for the next few weeks that its quite overwhelming. I have a mortar shoot on the 25th of this month, ( Read more... )

how do I pick this up again without ripping off some flesh with a jagged rusted razor. I suppose it's easier to just do it as quickly and painlessly as possible ( Read more... )

let's not make a big thing out of this ( Read more... )

once again I find myself staring at this blank notepad, reminding me of the frequent "whiteouts" I used to get. I haven't bothered to install office on this thing yet, so now everytime I close my I eyes I see this huge purply square thing from the white screen where the persistence of my vision has burned it in my retinas..but only for a moment ( Read more... )

As I'm typing this I'm sitting in my dads car outside the church where he is inside, busy with some kind of financial meeting or something(and just to give you an idea of how crazy south africa is, this church is right next to a police station, and it still got burglarized, and I remind you, it's a CHURCH!). I'm using the laptop I brought him last ( Read more... )

it seems like such a long time since I've been back here. The preparations for the SA trip and the many papers and projects I still had to do kept me so busy that I never even got a chance to have a farewell post. In fact I had so many things to do before I had to leave that I didn't even get everything done (of the school stuff that is). It's all ( Read more... )