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 San Diego Marine Recruit Depot 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carlos left Waco, Texas, in October of 2004 for 13 weeks of Marine Boot Camp.  He had worked on his upper body strength while at home.  He was worried he was to skinny and not strong enough for the Marine Corps.  But his physical condition was excellent and he got a gold coin at the Marine Recruit Station in Fort Worth as recognition for his excellent physical condition.  In boot camp he was doing great and his two phone calls were full of enthusiasm about the Corps. 

On December 26 we got a call at about 09:30 PM.  Carlos had a broken foot and was being sent to a MRP (Medical Rehab Platoon).  He was devastated.  Carlos had stated that he intended to graduate at the top of his class.  That was all gone now.  He would not graduate with India Company or his buddies.  The heartbreaker for Carlos was that the broken foot was the result of another recruit wimping out and letting go of an ammo box which he dropped on Carlos' foot.  

The heartbreaker for us was when he told us he had broken the foot at the beginning of the Crucible.  Not wanting to get dropped before fininshing the Crucible, he had toughed it out by lacing his boots as tight as he could.  He did everything the other recruits did and finished the Crucible including a 50 mile hike.  By the time he told his D.I. about his foot it was because he could no longer put his boot on.  His foot had swollen too big for the boot. 

Carlos did almost two months in MRP.  It drove him crazy.  He didn't understand how some of the recruits made excuses so they could stay there longer or worst, how some of them actually wanted to drop out of the Corps.  He couldn't wait for his foot to heal so he could finish boot camp and be a real Marine.  In March we got his call telling us he was being put back in training and would be joining Charlie Company.  Maiko and Aaron were very happy because that was the company they had graduated with.  Carlos just wanted to get a chance to graduate.

A week before he was to graduate we got a call from the recruiter that Carlos had been sent back to MRP because of and injury.  Elfida was told that Carlos would call us as soon as he got back from up north.  Elfida by now understood all the Marine talk.  She told the recruiter that Carlos was not up north, that he had finished the Crucible back in December and  was now in T63 (training day 63).  After about 4 hours of the recruiters checking, they found that someone in MCRD had gotten the name of the injured recruit mixed up and it wasn't Carlos.  We felt better, but Carlos got chewed out by his D.I. because he thought Carlos had made the call.  That was the last hurdle we had to go over before his graduation.

The Marine Recruiters here in Waco were excellent.  They did everything they could to keep us informed of Carlos' condition.  We also had a lot of moral support for the other members of the Central Texas Marine Families.

 

 

Maiko was here seven years before.  He spent three months going through boot camp with Aaron Warrick.  Carlos is the 3rd son to go into the Marine Corps.  Is seems that when Maiko and Aaron went through it, they had a kinder gentler way of treating the recruits.  Carlos went through a more aggressive training and came out more ready to use force to get thing to go his way. 

Before the motivational run they had the recruits practicing on the parade deck.  We were about 100 yards away looking at about 300 recruits dressed alike.  I was looking through the telephoto lens trying to see if I could spot Carlos.  No good, we were to far away.  I gave Maiko the camera and it took him about a minute to spot him.  Six row, second man.  Sure enough it was him.  That gave us a good idea of where to stand when they came in from the motivational run. I got this picture from the Chevron website.  The recruit in the center is Carlos.  He sure looked pissed.  As recruits they could not use the words, I, me, or you.  They had no individual identity.  

 

There he is, right where Maiko had said he would be.  As you can tell from the photo, we  ended up almost  in front of him.  This was the closes we had been to him in almost six months.

 

Boy does he look old.  His neck was about three inches thicker that when he left the house.

After the motivational run they cleaned up and came out on the parade deck.  He looked bigger and more mature in his Charlies.

Again, since we knew where he would be in the formation, whe were able to seat almost in front of him. 

It was hard to get over how much different he looked.  

The D.I. congratulates the recruit and hands him his Globe and Anchor.  They are now Marines and will no longer be called recruits.

They saluted after everyone had gotten their Globe and Anchor, and they were dismissed.  Elfida knocked down everyone in front of her to get to Carlos.  I had to help Mom get off the the stands, then I went back and helped another grandma who had been left behind by the family.  It looked like people were running to a K-Mart blue light special!!!

 

 

Ok, so they both cried.  No, not Elfida and Carlos, I am talking about Maiko and Carlos.  By the time I got down Carlos was back to himself again talking in a deep voice like Barry White.

Elfida wasn't going to let go of him.  Isabelle had taken a Texas flag and she waived it at Carlos when he was doing the motivational run.  She was all excited to see her Tio Carlos.   We had gone to buy that stroller for her the day before.  We knew she would get tired and someone would end up having to carry her (me!!).  The stroller worked great and it gave us a place to put our water bottles.  Like all Mexicans, we bought the water outside the base so we wouldn't have to pay $3.00 for a bottle at the base.  We had been here once and kind of knew the ropes.

When Maiko graduated from boot camp, both Mom and Dad made the trip with us to San Diego.  Dad was very proud of Maiko.  Mom was more worried about a war starting while he was still in the Marines.  With Carlos Mom's worry is more real, but she is still proud..

She had a great time running around and enjoying the sun.

Elfie and Maiko wore their Central Texas Marine Families T-shirt and a lot of people from Texas wanted to know where they had gotten them from and what the CTMF was.  They were surprised that there was such an organization in Waco.  Most said they wished their cities had one too.

Isabelle chased her Tio Carlos while Maiko watched.  Isabelle's first word as a baby was "Arlo" which was what she called Carlos.  Her next word was "Lolo" which is what she called my sister Dora. 

After spending all afternoon with Carlos we were sad to have to leave him.  We couldn't wait till the next day when he would graduate and we would be able to take him home with us.  Carlos didn't know it but two of his friends were flying in that night.  They couldn't miss too many days of school, so they had to fly out of Texas on Thursday night.  Maiko was going to pick them up at the airport at 01:00 AM.