![\"120420-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/120420-1.jpg\")
\n(Keepers of the Old Navy traditions. USMC Drill Instructors. Photo USMC.)<\/p>\n
Editor’s Note: Medical appointments this morning. This note is from ten years ago and kind of fun. Not exactly like this year. Reading it makes me remember another America.<\/p>\n
– Vic<\/p>\n
05 December 2010<\/p>\n
\n(Keepers of the Old Navy traditions. USMC Drill Instructors. Photo USMC.)<\/p>\n
My Candidate Officer called from Newport late yesterday, right before the evening chow hall formation. He has ceased to be an Officer Candidate, which is the lowest form of life imaginable, lower than whale-shit, and the new Class will be Poopies.<\/p>\n
The minor juxtaposition of words means that the world has changed utterly for him.<\/p>\n
Now it is two weeks to go, and then the big break for the holidays. It must seem unreal to him, the fact that something so big in life is nearly complete.<\/p>\n
A new class is reporting this morning, ten o\u2019clock, and the inmates of Class 04-11 will be running the Asylum until the Marine DI takes over the new class for instruction on Wednesday. .<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to be the officer with the clipboard in the parking lot?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cI will be in Poopyville in the uniform issue room where they get the Chrome Domes and the fatigues they wear for the first two weeks. It is going to be interesting. They have changed everything. We are not allowed to get in their faces or yell at them. We cannot get within twelve inches, can\u2019t point at them, can\u2019t ask them rhetorical questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember some of those. That\u2019s interesting. You went through what I did, and now, going forward, it will be completely different. I recall that our class, 11-77 got yelled at for yelling too loud at the new kids. You know the Old Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d said my son. \u201cI am glad I got a chance to see it. I wasn\u2019t looking forward to doing the screaming. It is a kinder and gentler Navy now.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wondered about that, about the winds of change sweeping through the military. The \u201cDon\u2019t ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d policy about homosexuality appears to be on the way out, and I am glad that it is. But I am filled with trepidation on what the impact of the transition will be.<\/p>\n
I vividly recall the collapse of the West was imminent when women were integrated in the force. It was a huge social-religious issue for a couple years, and then everyone got on with the mission. I have not heard it as an issue lately, though when I walked through a Pentagon corridor a few weeks ago and passed a female amputee in mufti, I was struck by how profound the change has been.<\/p>\n
This will all change, ins\u2019hallah, and we will get on with life. \u201cThat was the Old Navy, I said. I imagine the new kids will hate the kinder and gentler system just as much as you did.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sounded dubious about that, and went on to describe the major change in his life, now that Class 04-11 has become the Alpha Dog at OCS. Everyone made it. Chow is taken in a section of the Mess Hall with the Drill Instructors and the Senior Chiefs. They apparently have a full complement of silverware now. Academics are done, and so is the final Physical Readiness exam.<\/p>\n
He had his outcall with the most squared-away Marine in the world who has ruled his life for the last sixty-three days. He will know his name, indelible, for the rest of his days.<\/p>\n
They laughed together, the first time my son was able to acknowledge the elegant humor of the DI\u2019s trade. \u201cI told him I was glad I had a chance to experience the training in the old way, before it changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do the Marine\u2019s think about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know them. They don\u2019t like change. I told him you still know your DI\u2019s name from AOCS in 1977.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, never forget it. Staff Sergeant Ronald M. Mace, USMC.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the last class for mine. He is a Marine Scout Sniper as his primary MOS. He used to teach at the sniper schoolhouse. He is headed back to the Show. He said he was excited to be going. He said he was a war junky.\u201c<\/p>\n
![\"120420-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/120420-2.jpg\")
\n(Marine Scout Sniper. Photo US Marine Corps.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might see him in the Fleet,\u201d I said. \u201cIt is a small world, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, he supports Special Operations. They had a SEAL come talk to us, and it sounds really cool. I would like to support the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few slots for kids coming out of basic intelligence training,\u201d I said thoughtfully. \u201cI heard that at the bar the other night after my pal Maverick retired.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine those slots are for the top performers,\u201d said the Candidate Officer thoughtfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine so,\u201d I responded. \u201cBut the schoolhouse sorts people out by their personalities as well as by performance. That is how I wound up in a fighter squadron. They must have thought I was cocky enough to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was 1645 and he had to go to chow early because the fireworks that are going to start tomorrow, and I told him I loved him and how proud I was that he was now someone who remembers the Old Navy.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor’s Note: Medical appointments this morning. This note is from ten years ago and kind of fun. Not exactly like this year. Reading it makes me remember another America. – Vic 05 December 2010 (Keepers of the Old Navy traditions. USMC Drill Instructors. Photo USMC.) My Candidate Officer called from Newport late yesterday, right before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20537,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532\/revisions\/20537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}