Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Deven's graduation from MCRD: Day 1

Thursday, we started the day late.  Well, later than we should have.  I just couldn't get up out of bed when I was supposed to.  We were almost an hour late.  When we arrived at the front gate off Washington St to the recruit depot, we were being followed in by the rest of Derek's family in his dad's truck.  After having the car searched, IDs checked, and getting to the parking lot, we saw the young men in camos practicing their drilling for graduation.  We came to stop and I told Derek to get out and take my camera.  His son was over there.  And we later found out that his son saw him standing there as he marched by.

David (Derek's middle son) with Deven's platoon flag.
After locating the rest of Derek's family, we headed to the gift shop picking up some tshirts and stickers, and gathered in the courtyard and listened to one of senior drill instructors give the rules of MCRD. EYEBALLS!!  CLICK SIR!!  Stay off the grass, stay off the parade route.  After about an 30 minutes, we made our way to parking lot where the young soldiers came by in their motivational run. 

This was the first time we got to really see Deven that day.  The motivational run.


We later made our way to the theater to watch a short film based on the Marines.  Afterwards, Pvt D. Mitchell came out and we were able to see him.  Hugs were had after 3 months of seperation and tears were shed.  And we got to spend almost 4 hours with Deven on base until he had to go back to prepare for graduation this next day.
Graduation practice.
For Kylee, David, & Ryan.

Three generations; David, Derek, & Derek's dad.



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