Final post?

I suppose it's about time to wrap this puppy up. I have been getting a lot of emails recently from people asking me what's going on in my life and why I'm no longer writing. The truth is, I really don't feel like I have much to write about anymore. This blog was something I started in order to keep in touch with family and friends, it shifted to an outlet for my thoughts and feelings in Iraq, and then morphed into an insight into the wars for people around the country. This site has been around for four years, had hundreds of posts, thousands of comments and over a million hits, but I think it has run its course.

I'm a civilian now, a very happy one. I spent the last four years proudly serving in the Marine Corps and now it is time for me to find a new direction in my life. That new direction begins tomorrow when I get on a plane and fly to South America for a month. I'm excited to travel, to see a different part of the world, to see and meet new people, new cultures and new ideas. And all without my finger on a trigger or the hair raised on the back of my neck. Hopefully I will spend many more months in the coming years travelling, wandering.

What's next? I can't say I really know. I have applied to two graduate business programs- Stanford and USC. Both have top 5 entrepreneur programs, which is something, somewhere, and at sometime that I'd like to get into. Both are in California, where my heart currently resides. I won't find out for a few more months the decisions on those applications, but I'm feeling fairly confident. Of course, I'm not sure I've ever applied for anything and not felt like I was the perfect candidate, something that's sure to disappoint me at some point soon.

I do know that I want to continue to work for something worthwhile. Clay has recently piqued my interest in his involvement with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). He's one of 10 national spokesman for the organization, and I can see him roping me into contributing hours and manpower to that in the coming months while I flounder around. But before I do that, I think I'd like to go down to my local VFW and buy a few war heroes some beers. There are a lot of salty old vets out there looking for a young buck like me to bounce some war stories off of, and I realize that I have not paid them the respect they deserve.

So how do I end this? How do I wrap it up? Part of me hopes I find something else in my life interesting enough to write about, but I know I'm only fooling myself. I can only post so many "this weekend was so crazy" stories before people get bored.

I suppose I can only stare at the screen for so long before I realize that this wont type itself.

The last four years for me have been unbelievable. Before I joined the Marines I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on life. I pretty much knew it all. There was life, and there was death. Good and bad. You had honor, and courage and commitment. Virtues of innocence, honesty and charity always trumped the pitfalls of man. The American Dream. Terrorists were real, and so were heroes. The Wisconsin Badgers won Rose Bowls. Prayers were always answered. All you needed were faith, hope and love.

Right? Sometimes. Maybe. Not really. The Marine Corps only taught me 1% of what I learned in the past four years. The other 99% I learned from my family and friends, who were with me every step of the way, who showed me what love really is, what prayer feels like from 5,000 miles away, and what a hug means when you return from war.

I want to thank all of you who have been a part of this. The vast majority of you I will never have the pleasure of meeting, but through this site and through packages and letters and cards, we have gotten to know each other quite well. There are a hundred names I can still bring to mind, names of people who with simple gestures, like a card on Easter made all the hard times good again. I can never repay you all for your kindness or your generosity, but please know that you all hold a special place in my heart. It's a cliche gesture, but if there is ever anything I can do for you, you know how to get a hold of me.

Thank you. Take care, and God Bless.

Ride To Recovery

Alright, first things first. Some of you may remember helping my friend Dave Folwell out a few years ago in his effort to raise money to donate to "Hope for the Warriors" as he ran the Marine Corps Marathon.

Well, get the wallets out, it's time again. My good friend, Clay Hunt, is participating in a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, along with hundreds of other veterans, celebrities, and professional bicyclists, in an effort to raise mon

ey that will be used to purchase rehabilitative bikes for wounded warriors. Believe me, the cause is a good one.

Clay has been one of my best friends during my time in the Marine Corps. We deployed to Iraq together, where he unfortunately was wounded, shot by an enemy sniper. After having been heavy into biking his whole life, the injury prevented him from riding for 18 months. He rehabbed his wrist, toughed it through Sniper School alongside me, and deployed again with me last year to Afghanistan.

Clay is now out of the Marine Corps but is still very active in Veteran's efforts. He is a member of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and through the IAVA has found this opportunity to combine both his passions into a good, noble cause. He will be making the ride specifically in honor of our good friends who were horribly wounded in Afghanistan this past year- Kevin Colbert, Joe Piram, and Anthony Villareal. Colbert broke both his legs and was badly burned when his humvee struck an IED that killed four other brothers from out previous platoon. Joe and Anthony were horribly burned in a similar incident a few weeks later. All three are still recovering in San Antonio over one year after the events.

Please take the time to explore the program and consider donating to this cause.

You can find the website HERE

And an article on the ride HERE

And remember, all donations are tax deductible, so it's just another way to keep Obama's grubby hands off of it. THANKS!

Alright, alright, I admit, I've been slacking big time on the posts and updates. No excuse really, I haven't exactly left the couch in five weeks.

Here's a quick run down, I'll expand on a lot of them later.

• I finished up my initial 4 weeks of convalescent leave and went back to Pendleton for a check up. Status: still not fused. Result: I asked and received 4 more weeks of convalescent leave. For the first time in my four years I feel like I'm getting the better end of a Marine Corps deal. (of course I'm still on crutches though...)
• I FINALLY have been promoted to Sergeant. Yes, the Marine Corps finally decided that I should wear the rank of the job I have been serving under for the last 3 years. Too little too late? Yeah, I have to admit I'm still a little jaded by the BS that went into it. The whopping $200 raise really pads the pocket book though.
• The Six Man Volleyball Tourney in Manhattan Beach was incredible and everything I was hoping for, except that I had to do it on crutches. I seriously thought I may have had to amputate my foot with how swollen it got.
• I have been working furiously on my graduate school applications. Stanford and USC are done, Northwestern and UCLA are in the works. Keeping my fingers crossed for Stanford.
• Last night I booked my first big trip, which I'll be taking in November to South America. I'll write up a good post on this one, because it's a pretty intense 3 week jaunt.

That's about it. Well, I guess I should probably add that I've become fat and lazy too, just sitting around on a couch all day.

One Week Later

getting picked up an hour after surgery
taking the cast off on Tuesday
looks halfway normal

So here I am, Tuesday, July 16th, one week post surgery. I've been outside once, taken a couple of baths, watched more tv and surfed more internet and read more books than I ever care to in a 7 day stretch. Luckily my foot feels good. Real good actually. I haven't needed to take any pain meds the last two days, and when the doctor removed my cast on Tuesday, the swelling looked to be in control and the discoloration wasn't near what I thought it would be.

They're saying I'll be on crutches for ten weeks, which sucks. No way I'm going to let that fly. It would effectively mean I'm done doing anything for the Marines before I get out October 24th. Hard to take students on ruck runs when you're crutching around, and standing in front of a class teaching would be too difficult, not to mention pointless if I can't take them out to run drills on what I was teaching.

I guess we will just wait and see as things move along. I'm popping all the calcium, glucosamine, fish oil, and vitamin pills I can stomach, drinking the milk and protein, and thinking happy thoughts in an effort to change the outlook and timeline. Obviously I need to be healthy enough to hike the Inca Trail in November.

Syannara Hump Foot

Well, nine years later my foot has come full circle. My senior year in high school this nasty appendage suffered through six surgeries, and then that patchwork "fix-it" lasted four years of college football, bootcamp, the School of Infantry, Iraq, Sniper School, and Afghanistan. Now, on the verge of getting out and, having 'dropped my pack', it's time to get it fixed for a normal life style.

I gotta give credit to my first Doc, Tuvi Mendel, now a good friend (I did pay for his boat and car), for going out on a limb to try and piece it back together so that I could play on it. But, I think I've abused his hard work.

The Navy doctors told me they're going to go in and "cut that hump thing off, and then fuse that joint thing together once and for all." Please just don't amputate it is how I responded.

I'll go ahead and pre-empt the most common questions.

• Yes it hurts.
• No, I don't have much feeling on the top of my foot.
• No, shoes do not fit me properly
• No, the Marine Corps would not let me wear different (non issued) boots while I was deployed.
• No, chicks do not in fact dig scars
• No, there is not an alien life form living and growing in there. Although I wondered.
  
  
  

Randomness

• My little sister just bought a house, which puts the Wood sisters at 3 for 3 in home ownership, and the Wood boy (singular) 0 for 1. Oh well, congrats sis.
• I am having surgery in one week, next Friday, on my foot. It will be the seventh surgery I've had on the thing, but the first since 2001. Hopefully this one does the trick. The doctors are going to go in and remove the hideous bump that has formed (RIP hump foot) and permanently fuse the arch joint together with a screw and a staple. Fingers are crossed.
• Speaking of surgery, the Navy dr's did get one thing right when they granted me 30 days of convalescent leave. Now that's what I'm talking about. I'm going to spend my time growing a mullet and working on my libo beard. I guess maybe I'll get a few items knocked off my to-do list while I'm at it.
• If I see one more news special or article on Michael Jackson I'll flip out. As much as I love this country the vast majority of people in it make me sick on a regular basis... Dear America- please find something worthwhile to invest yourself into emotionally. Please read a book. Please do a better job raising and providing for your family. Please spend less time losing sleep over Jon and Kate + 8 and Michael's pedophelia.
• The Marines finally decided to do something drastic in Afghanistan. Instead of the hold on and act like a punching bag approach that my battalion used, the MEF over there now is war mongering on a whole new scale.
• This weekend marks my first 4th of July back in the States since 2006, which was the first summer I had in the South Bay. I usually look back on that 4th as one of the best weekends of my life, certainly one of the haziest and craziest anyway. Hopefully this one lives up to the billing.
• I'm currently trying to figure out what my travel plans are going to be when I get out in October. Right now I only have some tentative plans, Wisconsin and Iowa for a week in either September or October, a road trip across the country back to Iowa October 25th when I get out, all of November in South America, which will include a few weeks split between Rio, Sao Paolo and Argentina, and then a few weeks roughing it into the Amazon. Maybe Hawaii in December for the Badgers' game, and then something fun for Christmas and New Years. Then next year is ALL up for grabs, but it absolutely will include a lot of South East Asia, hopefully a little India/Africa action, and then a month or two roughing it out of a pack across Europe. Obviously the grandeur of these travels relies heavily on my ability to pick a couple of stock market winners in the next six months. Any suggestions?
• I've picked two transitional careers for providing cash when I get out in between going back to school. Substitute teaching and personal training. I took the CBEST certification test for teaching and passed last month, so now I'm just waiting on the official scores so I can send in my packet to the board (who knows if it will even exist in a few months with this awesome CA deficit). And during my convalescent leave I'm going to complete a six course certification program through the ISSA to get certified to be a trainer. I figure I get to pick my own hours and days for both jobs, so I can bounce whenever I want. Maybe I'll bartend a little, I happen to spend a few nights a week in those establishments as it is.

Two More Reasons

REASON NUMBER 5,678 why I am not staying in the Marine Corps:

Well, first I should start this reason by stating what I have already complained about before in earlier posts, and that is that I share a room the size of many peoples' master bathrooms with two other grown men. But that's not reason 5,678. Reason 5,678 is that our unit decided to replace all the furniture in our barracks rooms, but before they do that, they decided to REMOVE all the furniture in our barracks rooms for a period of two weeks, while we wait for the moving company to bring the new stuff. Okay... A) the furniture and cabinets we had were perfectly fine. In a period of trillion dollar budgets, we should probably focus elsewhere. B) Really? It wouldn't make sense to wait until the new furniture arrived? C) the real reason they're replacing furniture? The new stuff they're giving us is engraved with Marine Corps emblems. SWEET. Now I'll be able to sleep well.

Please look at the picture above. At 26 years old, this is my life.

Reason number 5,679 I am getting out. We currently have a course on deck that we are training. During training we force our students to maintain a constant 'operator mindset', which means they always have their rucks on, they always have their faces painted, they have their sleeves down instead of rolled, and they wear boonie hats instead of 8-points. They must run EVERYWHERE, no exception. We constantly take them outside for 'drills' to 'wake' them up. This forces them to constantly think like a sniper and not like cook/electrician/truck driver. Well, last Friday we were hitting them hard. I had them in the classroom for 7 straight hours starting at 5:30 am. At 12:30 I sent them to the chow hall to give them a break from class and a reprieve from MREs. Well, another instructor and I followed shortly after to get our own food. We were instantly confronted by a captain and first sergeant demanding to know why our Marines were so 'nasty' and such a 'disgrace' to the Marine Corps. Why were we "disrespecting the integrity of the chow hall?" Huh? Really? We tried telling them that we were in a training status and that everything we did was authorized by Division Schools. Nobody cared.

Forget training. Forget hard work. Wars aren't won with sweat and face paint anymore, they're won with crisply rolled sleeves and fresh shaves. According to the aforementioned higher ups, our Marines deserved to only eat MREs for 3 straight weeks, even though the chow hall was only 150 yards away. Save the chow hall for clean Marines they said.

I gave them an unmotivated, "Roger," turned around without further comment and walked away in disgust. Where are my reenlistment papers? Can I sign today?

Highlights From the Visit

- Trying to get Meg a celebrity sighting at Casa Vega in the Valley. Mission failed.

-Six Flags Magic Mountain, the ridiculous off-ramp debacle to get there, but more importantly, the XXXXX-TWOOOOO....

- Watching the Lakers completely dismantle the Magic at Shellback, transitioning into an all-night Thursday which felt like a Friday.

- Meghan 'absolutely, positively' having to use the restroom, making me get off the freeway in INGLEWOOD, gettting me lost in Inglewood, and being completely oblivious as to why I was freaking out and blowing through the ocassional stoplight. Good times Mego.

- Seeing Meg's face the first time we ordered a pitcher and had to pay $12 for it... You ain't in Iowa City anymore Meghan. Dollar-you-call-its don't exist on the beach.

-Spending an afternoon on the beach watching a bunch of 6 man volleyball teams dressed in Halloween costumes play a tournament and drink copious amounts of alcohol.

- Going to the Dodgers game (even though it conflicted with the Lakers' game...grrrr), watching Meghan and Indra fall in love with the LA first baseman, only to realize he wasn't nearly as good looking as the one picture they had seen. Eating Dodger dogs, busting out flasks and making ballpark cocktails. Listening to the Laker game on the tvs by the concession stand.

- Going to Poncho's Karaoke Sunday night after the game. Watching Matt Runyon work the stage. Introducing Meg to Indra's curly haired DJ crush (hahahha), watching Meghan drink margaritas like there was a winning lotto ticket at the bottom of each one. Listening to Meghan dial everyone in her cell phone on our drive home.

- Universal Studios on Monday (after Meghan's Mandatory Margarita Recovery Period).

Overall a pretty solid 5 days.

More of Meg's Visit

Shellback Adventure

No visit to my neck of the woods is complete without a trip down to good ol' Shellback Tavern. We met up with the crew Thursday night to watch the Lakers-Magic debacle.