I joined the United States Marine Corps back in February of 1988, and went to boot camp at MCRD which is known as the famous Marine Corps Recruit Depot which is in San Diego, CA. I must say that boot camp for the 3 full months I was in was the hardest time of my life. I heard nowdays there are more rigid rules the DI's known as Drill Instructors had to follow or they could get written up. But when I was in, we still got struck when we were out of line. I remember one time I was a bit slow on the right shoulder arms command and one of my DI's slammed the butt of the rifle against my face.

I never realized I had it so easy until I joined the Marines. Long story short, I graduated from Boot Camp and was assigned the 0861 MOS which stands for Military Occupational Specialty training at Fort Sill Oklahoma. An 0861 is an Artillery Forward Observer and Fort Sill is an Army Base and this was an Army School. Artillery Training lasted exactly four weeks. After this, I was ordered to go to Naval Gunfire Training School at the Navy Base at Coronado Ca. which lasted 2 more weeks.

After this I was assigned to the unit 1st Anglico which stands for Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. The mission of this company was to work with the Army 82nd Airborne and Special Forces in the direction of Artillery and Naval Gunfire. So the Marine Corps next mission was to send me to Jump School in Ft. Benning GA., another Army School. This school lasted just one week. During this week we would do 5 jumps. Once we did this we got our lead wings. I remember the first time I wanted to peuk but couldn't quite get myself to do it. But I jumped anyway because I didn't wanna get kicked out of this unit. It was an honor to come back to 1st Anglico with lead wings, knowing that with just 5 more jumps we'd receive our gold wings.

The 1st Anglico company always had jump training going on. So after 5 more jumps I received my Gold Wings. They are also called Blood Wings, since the day you get them, at least when I was in it was the case, anyone in the unit with Gold Wings, which was practically the entire unit since we were all jump qualified back then, were allowed to hit you one time right where you pin your wings on your chest, hence the term blood wings.

Sometimes you have to walk through a line and each Marine gets to hit you once. It's nothing personal, it's all in being a Marine, but some nail you hard. Other times 1st Anglico members will catch you around the barracks or outside the chow hall and nail you. The next day the left side of my chest where they pinned the wings on was almost black. It took almost 3 weeks for the bruising to clear up.

But I loved what I was part of and what I had become in spite of everything. I was just a young 19, in an elite Marine Corps Airborne Unit, was going to college part time and away from all the bad influences and drugs so many people I knew had become apart of. I was learning pride in myself and made a lot of real good Marine friends along the way. Being a Marine Corps Paratrooper at 19 years old, all I can say is it was the experience of a lifetime, and nothing I would trade for a million dollars.