As a lot of you may know, my 18 year old brother is away at USMC boot camp. Quite a few of you sent me messages to mail to him and he was very appreciative of those. I know that now he has just under 4 weeks left of camp, it may seem like he’s got through the worst of it, but you ain’t seen nothing yet!
On August 17th, 2009, he will embark on easily the most difficult 54 hour training mission of his life: The Crucible. It is a rigorous training exercise lasting more than 50 hours and includes nearly 50 miles of hiking and food and sleep deprivation. The exercise itself is meant to replicate a war/combat scenario. Recruits are given just three MREs (meals ready to eat) for the entire 3 day exercise. That’s roughly one meal per day. They are also only given a maximum of eight hours and a minimum of four hours of sleep for the entire 54 hour exercise. Only after they complete this and the final march are they able to gain the coveted title of a United States Marine.
Here are a couple of informative links I found about the Crucible:
MCRD (Recruit) Website – If you look on this site, there is a side bar on the right hand side of the screen where you can see exactly what takes place during the entire Crucible.
I’m not writing this to educate you on the strenuous hardships of the Crucible, however. I am writing this post to request that you pray for my brother. He is a strong, willful, and determined person but the Crucible will challenge him mentally and physically.
Here are my requests. Pray for:
Also, if you’re interested, here is a link containing a rough schedule of what the previous 10 weeks of training held.
For those of you who’ve followed me throughout these past few weeks and have been there for me and my brother and family, I thank you greatly. You’ve all been so wonderful with your encouragement.
He begins the Crucible on August 17th. We’ll see him a short 10 days later on August 27th for his USMC graduation ceremony. Although I believe the graduation itself is August 29th.
I will do my best to mobile blog to this blog and also update on Twitter during the three days we are in San Diego for the ceremonies.
Thank you all so much for everything!
By the way, if you are interested in sending him a letter, here is how to do so:
SHORT, ETHAN R
1ST Bn Charlie Co. PLATOON 1048
40002 Midway Ave.
San Diego, Ca. 92140-1048
2 comments:
Wow will be sending your brother prayers and positive thoughts!
z. smith
Tell your brother he is in my prayers. He is doing an incredible thing, and I admire him for it.
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