Openbah / Journal of a Marine Officer Candidate

Month: January 2007

  • Every U.S. military branch exceeds its 2006 reenlistment goals

    Buried at number 8 on Time Magazine’s Top 10 list of underreported stories of 2006:

    MORE U.S. TROOPS WILLING TO REENLIST
    While there was much talk about the Army raising the maximum age for new recruits from 35 to 42, the lesser-known development is that the Pentagon managed not only to meet, but to exceed its 2006 reenlistment goals for every branch of the military. Most significantly, the Army met its retention goal of 64,200 in August, with two months to spare before the end of the fiscal year. Another surprising sign of the times: by mid-October, the Marine Corps had received 3,870 re-enlistment applications and thus was on its way to meeting 63% of its annual retention goal less than two weeks into the new fiscal year.

    Read more of Time’s Top Ten lists.

  • From Father to Son, Last Words to Live By (NY Times)

    This article was written by the fiancé of First Sgt. Charles Monroe King. First Sgt. King was killed by an IED in October.

    He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital.

    Then he began to write what would become a 200-page journal for our son, in case he did not make it back from the desert in Iraq.

    For months before my fiancé, First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, kissed my swollen stomach and said goodbye, he had been preparing for the beginning of the life we had created and for the end of his own.

    He boarded a plane in December 2005 with two missions, really — to lead his young soldiers in combat and to prepare our boy for a life without him.

    Continue reading article on nytimes.com.

  • 10 month update

    Happy New Year! Things are going great. I haven’t forgotten about the site, there just hasn’t been much going on that has been worthy of posting.

    Every couple weeks I go through a rough couple days of pain and discomfort, but the leg has generally been feeling better. Other than during the holidays I’ve stuck to my gym routine: weight training 6 days per week, 20 minutes intense cardio 3 days per week. I’m still doing the elliptical, but I’m hoping to motivate myself to start swimming a couple days a week. I started paying much more attention to my diet as well, more fruits and vegetables, as well as more calcium-rich foods.

    I have an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon around the first of March at which we’ll discuss taking these screws out of my leg. They prevent me from sleeping comfortably on my right side and cause the majority of the pain in my hip.