Yes, I'm still here

Hey everyone. Sorry for the long hiatus without any news. I believe I didn't tell anyone we were going out to the field for a few days, hence no communication. But, we got back last night kinda late and most of us (who were smart and don't drink) hit the rack as soon as we cleaned ourselves up. It was long and sometimes painful (in a boring way) but, it exposed some weaknesses we need to look for when doing convoys.

At one point we got ambushed and had to fight our way out and I basically took control of my fire team and outflanked embedded machine gun positions. Only problem is once we got into position to really mess them up, we ran out of ammo since there wasn't that much handed out before the convoy left the FOB (Forward Operating Base). So, I ran back and forth between the fire team and and 7ton truck directing .50 cal suppressing fire and dodging rounds (we were using a crappy laser tag system called MILES 2000). They missed me 13 times. It somewhat showed me how I will react in a combat environment and others won't. It gave me a little more confidence in my ability when we go over.

On the spiritual front, due to training, I haven't had the chance to do a service since we haven't had a day off in over two weeks. But, we're getting this weekend off so I'll be able to do one Sunday morning. God showed me how I'm affecting people here tonight as I was talking to one of the guys. He said he always went to strip clubs and drank and things like that (he's saved BTW) and he stopped when I gave a message about trying to do your best spiritually is what God wants us to do, even if we fall he still wants us to try and do our best. Since then he's stopped going out to those places and even stops going out with the guys who he did that with. God is definitely great to have worked on his heart as he did. The Marine is now possibly getting married soon to his fiance who he realized he didn't have as much respect for. Now he can't stop talking about her. It's a real blessing. God even gave me scripture this morning out of James to give to him tonight, specifically. How wonderful is our Lord.

It's getting late (yes, 6:30 is late for us since we get up every morning at 0430 to go the gym when not in the field... and this is a very long statement to put in parenthesis) so I'm going to rap this up. The picture above is from the same training op that the video is from in the previous post, but, I wanted to put up something. Those guys are on my boat crew. Bowman is the right and Griffith is in the middle with me on the left. The picture below is from a corporal from another platoon goofing around standing in the wind as he buzzed down the river during the op.

Love you all and PLEASE KEEP WRITING, EMAILING, and COMMENTING!

P.S. Thanks Dad for everything you do for me, I really do appreciate it if I don't tell you enough. I mean it. And thank you Mrs. Jerris, you are SO faithful to write me!