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#Post#: 1602--------------------------------------------------
The BOY has become a MAN!
By: kgtropicals Date: October 25, 2014, 11:02 am
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I am excited to say that last night Lisa and I got home from
the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island where we had gone
to watch Lisas oldest son Davids graduation from boot camp. Our
boy is now a full blown bad ass Marine!!!
Not coming from a military back ground myself I was not
familiar with the ways of the Marine Corps, only what I've heard
or seen, this trip changed all of that! To be in a place where
thousands of young men and women have signed on the dotted line
and committed themselves to the defense of our country was awe
inspiring!! We were able to see pretty much everything he had
been using for the last 13 weeks, from the "Squad Bay" where he
and his fellow recruits had slept to the firing ranges and even
the route they took when participating in The Crucible, we saw
it all! I was in absolute awe of the place. It was eye opening
to say the least and an experience I will NEVER FORGET!
David was a good kid, he didn't give us (that much) trouble but
he was definitely a stereo typical modern day lazy, unmotivated,
entitled teenager when he left us back in July. When I saw him
for the first time on Thursday at the Marine Corps Recruit
Depot, Parris Island the first words that came out of my mouth
to Lisa were "Oh my god look at that GROWN MAN in front of us"!
Something about the way he wore his uniform, the way he
addressed us as sir or mam, even his posture had dramatically
changed. We dropped him off at the M.E.P.S. station in Richmond
in July a little boy, we picked him up from Parris Island a MAN
who I am proud to call my (soon to be) step son!
I could waste a ton of time on here talking about how cool it
is that they have taken a weak young boy and turned him into a
strong and tough killing machine but does that really matter? I
hope that he has a long and fulfilling career serving this
country and in my perfect world he would never need to use ANY
of those skills he has been taught so no, the fact that he can
kill the enemy with his bare hands means nothing to me. What
matters to me is that he signed on the line, he had his face in
the mud, he was picked and pushed to his limits with little
sleep, even went out on the crucible for 54 hours with no food
or sleep to test his abilities in everything he learned
throughout his time at the depot. Why did he do this? To have
the ability to kill the enemy? No, he did this so that people
like me and you have the freedom to sit on our lazy, fat butts
at our computers all day drinking our $8 cups of coffee,
checking to see how many "likes" our YouTube videos have
received or updating our fantasy team. He did all of that so
that I (and YOU) don't have to. He swore an oath to run TO the
danger while you and I run away from it. THAT'S WHAT MAKES ME
PROUD! Proud to call him my son, proud to call him a Marine!
God bless you Private David Flippo, and from the bottom of my
heart thank you!
Since the media box is full on here I have posted some awesome
photos on our facebook page
HTML https://www.facebook.com/pages/KGTropicalscom/445341505518370
HTML https://www.facebook.com/pages/KGTropicalscom/445341505518370
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