Good evening, Excellence, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.
Your Marine doing well?
Douglas became the Motor Transport Platoons Maintenance Chief from June of 2016 to January 2017, upon the premature departure of the previous chief who was medically retired. Though only a Corporal, he was still the senior NCO in the maintenance section, so the position fell to him. To make matters even more of a challenge, the section was at 50% of its manning levels, though the workload wasnt. And he wasnt taking care of just his own trucks, he took in cases from other Platoons. And he supervised the Inspection of Communications Companys entire vehicle set. And he did it all while maintaining his composure.
Douglas would call and tell me he was all alone at the shop. I thought he meant he didnt have enough qualified people to work with him, which was true. What I didnt understand until I read the Summary of Action was that he was without a Sargent, he was the NCO in charge of the whole operation. He didnt think anyone was noticing, but they did.
Now hes with the 15th MEU, and is just a tiny cog in a big wheel instead of the big wheel himself. But I think he will grow to fit the new wheel. Hes been assigned to a ship and will set sail July 7th for a grand tour of the Pacific. He will be gone for nine months. I will miss him terribly. Im already depressed. While hes gone, I do get his big truck to drive, though.
I think we got a piece of your Alaskan weather here this last weekend. The weather service issued a winter storm warning and the mountains got snow. It was refreshing after days of 80° weather, but my zucchini plants are glad to see it go.
Take care!