A close friend of mine who selected Marine Air out of the Academy will shortly head to Afghanistan. Strangely enough, he’ll beat out another good, mutual friend who drew infantry out of TBS–and he only had 2 weeks before commissioning and reporting to TBS! Needless to say, he’s not happy with this (being beaten to Afghanistan; he volunteered to get the jump on TBS).

While we were commissioned 11 months ago, John is actually the first friend and classmate I know to head to Afghanistan. Sure, it’s “only” a 5-6 month assignment to fill an IA billet, but it’s a curious feeling to actually know your classmates are starting to finally get out “there.” Invigorating in a way…? I’m sure many of you know the feeling and could describe it better.

In a way, the SWOs beat all of us to the punch. I saw, courtesy of Facebook, one of my companymates earned her SWO pin 2 months back. I regularly keep up with a rooommate who is on a destroyer out of San Diego; his ship just had a “Family Day,” and he had a lot of fun taking his mom out for a cruise.  He’s looking forward for his ship’s overhaul to be completed.

Some of those who went to Pensacola are approaching the end of training, I think. My other roommate (a NFO) is moving to Corpus Christi soon, and I really should call him to see how things are going. Playing Call of Duty 4 online with each other really isn’t a good medium for catching up.

My class of submariners is preparing to start shift work at prototype. I’ll start with the midnight shift this Sunday (1930-0730) and rotate to new hours after about a week of this. This point represents about 1/3 the way to completing prototype, the final phase of nuclear training before reporting to a submarine.

Getting there, and less than 11 months till “there.”

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Posted by jwithington in Marine Corps, Navy
Tags: Jeff Withington
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• B. Walthrop

  It appears to me that the USN has a way of giving one the impression of always being just around the corner for “getting there.” That’s a feature and not a bug as it keeps things constantly interesting.

  You all should enjoy these early stages of your career, and it is heartening to see engaged “yougin’s” writing and sharing their experiences along the way. Keep up the great work.

  V/R,

• http://www.eurofaselighting.org Matt

  I just hope all will be well for you and your friend.

• Wells

  What does your Marine student aviator buddy think about getting deployed before flight school? Is he enthusiastic about it or disappointed?