Openbah / Journal of a Marine Officer Candidate

Author: Openbah

  • Letter from Lieutenant General Mattis


    Dear Mike,

    It has been brought to my attention that you were recently injured at Officer Candidates School. While injuries in the program are common, candidates continuing to train on stress fractures until the bone breaks are rare indeed. Your perseverance and dedication demonstrated a lot of fortitude in the face of pain. For health reasons I’d rather that you’d brought this injury earlier to our attention, but your toughness of spirit is most impressive. You also remind us why Marines are feared by our enemies – young men of your ilk are the enemy’s worst nightmare.

    Your selfless example and gritty determination mark you as a man who has much to contribute to our enlisted Marines that look to officers for your style of leadership. Come back when you heal – we have a place for you as an officer of Marines, young man.

    I applaud your commitment and extend to you my personal Well Done.

    Semper Fidelis,

    JAMES N. MATTIS
    Lieutenant General, U.S. Marines

  • SULE II

    Just got off the phone with a friend from Missouri who is still at OCS. His name is next to mine in the alphabet so we were rackmates and always had firewatch together.

    He was on liberty on his way back to the base and thought he’d give me a call. SULE II (Small Unit Leadership Evaluation) is this week. He said they’ve been practicing like crazy. SULE II is a guaranteed bitch, but I can’t help but wish I was there doing it with them.

    He said a bunch of the guys still talk about me. It made me feel good to know they haven’t forgotten about me yet.

    Oh yeah, and the platoon corpsman told the platoon my injury was probably the worst he has ever seen at OCS. Go me.

  • Ten day update

    It has been ten days since my surgery at Bethesda. It is amazing how much things have changed since then. As expected, my movement in the hospital bed was mainly limited to my upper body. I could move my feet a little and could wiggle my toes, something the docs made me do regularly. Two days after my surgery the physical therapist forced me to get up and learn how to use crutches.

    When I first got back at my apartment, I couldn’t do much of anything myself, I needed assistance with everything. Slowly, I’ve learned how to lift my body in and out of the bed and chairs, and I’ve really gotten the hang of crutches.

    I went outside yesterday for the first time since being discharged. I used my crutches and made it all the way to the office of my management company a few blocks away. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it all the way on crutches so my father pushed my wheelchair behind me. It felt awesome to be outside and get some air and sun.

  • Femoral neck fracture

    A femoral neck fracture occurs just below the ball of the ball-and-socket hip joint; this region is called the femoral neck. When a femoral neck fracture occurs, the ball is disconnected from the rest of the femur.

    The most important issue with my femoral neck fracture is that the blood supply to the fractured portion of bone is often disrupted at the time of injury. Because blood flow is diminished, the fracture is at an elevated risk of not healing (hip osteonecrosis), especially in my case, where the fracture was badly displaced. If the fracture does not heal, a partial hip replacement will most likely be necessary. Unfortunately, hip replacements tend to wear out in younger, more active patients.

    During surgery, a small incision was made on the outside of my right thigh. Using x-ray, the surgeon placed three screws across the fracture in order to stabilize the broken femur.

    The sad news is, statistically only about 25% of patients who sustain a broken hip return to their pre-injury level of activity.

  • Back in Boston

    At BethesdaI was discharged from Bethesda at 1030 yesterday but didn’t get out of the pharmacy until 1230. Even though they prescribed 2 weeks worth of percocet, they could only give me 45 pills. I wasn’t about to leave with only a few days worth of meds, so we waited until things were sorted out upstairs and I got my pills.

    The 9 hour car ride back to Boston might have been the most painful 9 hours in my life. We pulled up at 2130 and were met by Jess and Bill, who came over to help get my things inside and get me situated for the night.

    This morning Adrienne made pancakes and I opened 2 months of mail on couch. Jess and Bill will probably be back today, and I think Laura is going to stop by to visit.