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Hiya Ma!

Just so you know (and this is only between us two) when Marines practice these evac drills (and yes They actually run practices complete with helicopters and ships offshore all the time) there are Marines tasked with being "reluctant refugees" who are told to go out of their way to anger the evac teams including verbal threats, excess luggage, and attempted ordering about i.e: "do you know who I am? I'm Senator Soinso, and you will do as I say. "

Honestly I know from my experiances that somehwere out off the coast of Lebanon there is a boatload of Marines that want to get this Evac over and done with more then any civilian on shore, and it is chafing their butts to hurry up and wait.

I got to be among the "US embassy staff" on such a training exercise on the "suddenly hostile soil of Nation X." We were shuttled to [description of staging redacted] a relatively small Navy ship offshore. Baggage in hand with instructions to give the troops the arrogant civvie treatment, some of the WMs did ham it up pretty good. Nobody got lucky enough to be helevac'd - choppy seas that day.

rebel_yell2, I wish you well and hope you soon return safely to home soil. Give those young Marines and Squids my thanks for their courageous service.

Tip: Don't dawdle between a running APC and the inboard sides of an amphib if that ends up being your transportation. It'd be a shame for a wild wave to shift things and squish your butt after surviving all that onshore bombing. Kinda ... ironic.

Tip 2: Hurry up and wait is the order of the day. Bring a book. And if you're serious about writing up your experience, a camera.

Again - all the best to you and your fellow travellers!

The part of lifeguard training when trainee is advised of importance of keeping the drownee from drowning the both of them come to mind?

Godspeed to these Marines, eh?