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Good evening, Excellence, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

Your Marine doing well?

Thank you for asking. Douglas recently received a service medal and commendation. Then he transferred to the 15th Marine Expeditionary unit. They're doing sea trials right now and will leave July 7th. I will miss him very much. On the other hand, I get to drive his truck while he's gone. 😀 How are things with you? I think we got some of your weather down here, thank you so much.

Thanks for asking. It’s been a bit of an adventure lately. Douglas received a Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medal. It was dated January 29, 2017, but he actually received it during an all-Company ceremony on March 17, the Friday before he transferred to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. It turned out to be something of a going-away present.

Douglas became the Motor Transport Platoon’s 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 wasn’t. And he wasn’t taking care of just his own trucks, he took in cases from other Platoons. And he supervised the “Inspection of Communications Company’s 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 didn’t have enough qualified people to work with him, which was true. What I didn’t 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 didn’t think anyone was noticing, but they did.

Now he’s 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. He’s 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. I’m already depressed. While he’s 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!