Thread: The making of a new Marine

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My daughter, granddaughter and I flew to San Diego to attend my grandson's Marine Corps Boot graduation October 23rd. The pictures are from Thursday, family day and Friday, graduation day. Richard Moore, techinspector1, drove down from Hemet for Friday, graduation day and the first time we'd seen each other in a number of years.
After Ian's 10 day leave he headed back to California for a month of andvanced infantry training at Camp Pendleton. Upon completion he will be assigned to Pensacola, Florida for aircraft maintenance training which will take the biggest part of next year. His schooling requires him to serve 5 years of active duty instead of the normal 4.
I don't have the words to express how proud I am for his commitment to stand in harms way in the defense of this great nation in these turbulent times.

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Well done, your son! You are obviously very proud of him, and rightly so. BTW, you posted all of these photos on the 240th birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

Ian's graduation, he's in the 2nd platoon the very last man in the middle.https://www.facebook.com/ken.thomas....3378295687558/

Congratulations and please tell him thanks for his service! He picked a good field to go into too! I know my brother regretted picking the one he had because he had nothing to offer the general public when he got out.

Congrats to you too! Nice that you and Richard were able to see eachother too.

I remember those days many years ago when we watched our son do the same thing at the same place.
Tell him thanks for his service and congratulations on picking a tough bunch of guys to call "Brothers"....joe

Tell Ian thanks from the guy with the black coupe that he met at the NSRA show in Springfield. Glad that you were able to go out to the graduation, and that Richard dropped down for the happenings, too. Sounds like a great weekend!

I thought I should post an update.
After boot camp he went to Pensacola, Fla. for an introduction course in aircraft maintenance which lasted a couple of months. He wasn't too fond of that part of Florida. He's now stationed at Cherry Point, North Carolina going through a maintenance course on Harrier's. Right now they are concentrating on the engine which is made by Rolls Royce. He says that they are a bear to work on, but is enjoying it immensely.
There was an air show yesterday on base and on hand were a couple of Harriers and he met and talked to one of the pilots. After informing the pilot of what he was doing the pilot gave him a tour of the plane and offered words of encouragement which thrilled him to no end.
He will be at Cherry Point til the middle of summer and when he graduates he believes his permanent duty station will be Yuma, Arizona. He says that the Marine Corps is phasing out the Harrier in a couple of years in favor of the F-35B which I believe is still in test phase.
He is also not to fond of North Carolina as the weather really screws with his allergies. He inherited my sinus problems, not good. Yuma's dry climate ought to suit him well.
I still have his Mustang which he wants to drive to Yuma when his leave is over. That should be an adventure.

Thanks for the update, Ken, and as always thank your grandson for his service. My oldest son did AD "A" school on jets (F-14 squadron in Japan), then later a "B" school on turbo-props and helo's (MH53 Sea Dragon Minesweepers - 3 turbo-shaft engines, Frisco to Corpus). He opted out after ~nine years, got his A&P card and is now the director of aircraft maintenance for Garmin. Military tech training is good training!

Originally Posted by rspears

Thanks for the update, Ken, and as always thank your grandson for his service. My oldest son did AD "A" school on jets (F-14 squadron in Japan), then later a "B" school on turbo-props and helo's (MH53 Sea Dragon Minesweepers - 3 turbo-shaft engines, Frisco to Corpus). He opted out after ~nine years, got his A&P card and is now the director of aircraft maintenance for Garmin. Military tech training is good training!

Thanks, Roger. I'm hoping my grandson follows a path similar to your son's.

I can hardly believe no one beat me to it-
SEMPER FI !!

I'm glad to hear he is doing well. In my opinion, you can't beat the training you can get from the military services in aircraft maintenance.

In my tour in the Navy, I worked for a time at NAS North Island in a unit called O&R (overhaul and repair) where Navy and Marine planes and helicopters were rebuilt, most times, from the bare airframe, back to fully operational, fleet service ready planes. I worked on the "Out Ferry" line where we did final testing, and turned the planes over to their next squadron or assignment. We had some Marine UH-34/HUS-1 helicopters on the line, ready for transfer to their unit, and the Marines flew crews in to take them home. Even after all of our testing, one of them started, but on pre-flight run up, the engine quit. Since we had already made the paper transfers, the Marine Corporal who was the assigned Plane Captain (crew mechanic) on that bird, got to work on it without any hesitation. I offered help, parts fetching and other support, but he told me no, thanks, they could get it taken care of - and they did. He had a small box of various parts and stuff with him, narrowed the problem down to a blown seal in the "carb", and had the plane going in a relatively short time. He told me that they have to be able to make repairs in the field under often harsh conditions, and they trained for that eventuality. That changed my opinion of Marine "Airdales" tremendously; talented and dependable young men.

My best to your Grandson, Ken. I know you're proud of him.

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I talked to Ian Tuesday evening and he informed me that he received a Meritorious Mast for his grade point average and coming out first in his class. That should be a great help towards his promotion to L/Cpl when he has enough time in grade to be eligible.
It looks as though he might be at Cherry Point for some time due to the phasing out of the Harrier. In my opinion it's better than Yuma. I think he's anxious to get home so he can get the Mustang ready for the trip to No. Carolina. Need to do some work on the brakes and get the the two new front fenders, used but better than what's on it, mounted. I won't let him take it if I don't feel that it's safe. Times are so much different than when I was his age.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I talked to Ian Tuesday evening and he informed me that he received a Meritorious Mast for his grade point average and coming out first in his class. That should be a great help towards his promotion to L/Cpl when he has enough time in grade to be eligible.

Crikey!

Congratulations are the order of the day today it would seem!

Good on him!