Not Enough Words

This is a short and sweet post this evening as I'm in the middle of a training evolution called Coiled Viper. I'm at a camp in the middle of a Marine base surrounded by nurses, doctors, dentists, and corpsman. All reservists.  All people who, like me, signed on the dotted line and committed their life to this beautiful country.  But they...like me...also have full civilian careers and lives..and yet are all willing...and volunteering to drop it all in a moment to serve.  Let's just say these are really good people...

I lay here now in a cot in a room full of 13 other junior officer women...room is a nice word...it's a wooden hut really...but it became home. I've realized with the military it all becomes home quickly.  You make friends quickly and you trust each other quickly.  Each other is all you have really.

The other realization I had today was as I was sitting at the chow hall (aka the military's cafeteria) looking around at all the baby Marines (we are in a section of the base where they are all male and I swear all 18 but look 12)...I realized that these young men who have committed to lay down their life for this country..for you...for me...these are the very Marines I am being trained to treat. These are the ones...should I be mobilized to Afghanistan as many of my classmates are...that will be in my care...in my ICU ward.  It was a humbling moment...they are training to protect me...I'm training to save them...quite the paradox really.

So that's it really...training gives you time to think...and currently I'm thinking I couldn't be prouder to have made the decision to be a Navy Reserve Nurse Corps officer...and I'm also thinking I need to head to bed...early mornings around here!

XOXO

Jackie