Honor, Courage, Commitment

I had the privilege of driving down to San Diego last week with my two babes to witness the formal ceremony of a Marine graduation. My little brother is now a Marine after a hard, stressful, and intense 3 month training. My father was in the Navy as well as the Army National Guard and Naval Reserve. My oldest brother joined the Army a few years after high school. My grandfather was in the Coast Guard. My father-in-law is a Colonel in the Air Force. My grandfather-in-law was a Marine and now my youngest brother is a Marine. And I am proud to be an American.

I won't go into every little detail as I sometimes do when discussing events so instead will focus on a few little things. The Marine Corps Recruit Depot where Mitch spent the last 3 months is very interesting. I haven't spent a LOT of time on bases before, and this was my first time staying in billeting. It's interesting how the military has its own vocabulary. Cover instead of hat. Deck instead of floor. Overhead instead of ceiling. Things like that. And the protocol of respect they teach them. Ma'am. Sir. Having to address every officer they pass even if he's not looking at you. When in their dress uniforms, they can't have anything in their pockets(which makes me wonder why they even take the time to make them have pockets).

They teach these young men a lot of information. "Since that first night on the yellow footprints, every hour of training has been to prepare the new Marines for their final tests of recruit training." -written by Cpl. Shawn Dickens in Vol. 69, No. 28 of Chevron, the newspaper for the MCRD-San Diego. Think about that...every HOUR since June 15th, they have been receiving training on how to pass the final tests to become a Marine. And there are so many traidtions with the military and so many amazing values they try to instill in these young men. The shortened version also comes from Cpl. Shawn Dickens: "Their drill instructors have spent the last thirteen weeks molding them into basically trained marines-teaching them close-order drill, hand-to-hand combat, rifle marksmanship, and the history of the Corps. The drill instructors have also passed on the meaning of the Corps' values of honor, courage, and commitment."

Honor, Courage and Commitment. Those are very deep values to try to pass on to someone, even if you are focusing on it every day for 3 months straight. And since the average age the Marines that graduated on Friday is 18, that really made me think. How many of the young men that I come across in my work with college students, already have those values instilled in them? During my brief time observing the large amount of Marines interacting with each other and with the family members that overtook the depot Thursday & Friday, I didn't necessarily see those three deep core values. They aren't always something you see as they walk by. The Marines will correct each other openly and with no intention of embarrassment or harrassment, just to make sure that they are aware of what they aren't doing correctly. (I witnessed a "Your cover is crooked", "Really, Marine?" as one was going to climb over a short wall instead of going around it, and a third to direct another to maintain awareness as he was supposed to be stopping family members from crossing the very large parade deck). Then I began to think about how the corrected Marine handled it("Thank you" or "yes, sir" or "no , Sir") and compared that to how the average 18 year olds I have seen corrected or had to correct handled the correction. Usually not so well. In other words, that takes a lot of courage to simply accept correction.

And commitment! They had done it! 3 months of nonstop training. I don't even know everything they had to go through, but a lot of it is at a shout and a lot of it is to make sure they are ready because it could be life saving information they get. It's vital that they learn how to obey their commander's instructions with no question as to why. And the information that they have been taught should be honored. I still have a lot of questions of how he handled everything and the reasons why he did it and if those reasons have changed. He still has more training to go through before he is done, but this is the hardest part. Mitchell told me about a young man who left two weeks beforehand because he had not being doing the things on purpose so that he could go home. He had been there for 3 months, but didn't have the strength or commitment level to complete what he had started.

I could go on and on and on about the thoughts I had during that brief 24 hour period. I was able to witness this graduation on September 11th. The flag was flying at half-staff. These Marines have been reminded of honor, courage and commitment every day just as everyone else is reminded when they think about what happened that day 8 years ago and the stories of heroism that grew that day.
I am impressed by the eighteen year olds I meet. The ones who have figured out who they are and what they are doing and the ones who are still struggling with that. I know that Mitchell is still learning exactly who he is and what he's doing with his life, but I think they all have a lot of courage to take a step in any direction to become an adult while still physically and mentally developing past the point of adolescence. Sometimes I still struggle with knowing who I am and what I'm doing, but love to learn from those younger than me as they start their amaizng journeys. Mitchell, I'm proud of you. I think that even if it was rough and a struggle, you should say its worth it, just for those 3 core values of honor, courage, and commitment. (And you look sharp in your uniform).