So, storm's over, so we troop off to work all Saturday. By "All Saturday" I do mean "All Saturday"- I put in 13 hours. I came home to find my roommate (who works at the base medical clinic) had taped a sign to the door that said "Roommate missing, presumed dead. Now accepting applications for new roommate."

At about hour ten of the long, long day, the CO had an all-hands formation where he proudly announced that he had personally prevailed upon the MEU CO to extend the squadon's attachment to the MEU. Normally we'd be on the MEU for 12 months. We were scheduled for 18, but now it's going to be a full two years, ending next summer. The CO seemed genuinly surprised at the reaction- he was looking for sounds of happiness and all he got was crickets chirping. He said "Can I get an 'Oorah!'?" and all he got was a couple of sarcastic ones from the junior officers. He then tried to justify it- "We all joined the Marine Corps to see the world" kind of stuff. Except we've been seeing the world for over a year, with six more months in front of us, and a lot of the guys would like to see their wives and children too. And "The boat's not so bad!" may be true for him- he rates a two-room suite. Me, I live with 350 other people in a volume comparable to the house I grew up in.

So morale had been low, and has now be kneecapped. The barracks mood tonight is like a funeral. And not a swinging Lousiana funeral. We're all tired from all the long days and no weekends and shipboard life, and now we're getting six more months? And we were volunteered to do it? Not good.

The off-tone formation makes me wonder about the Sergeant Major. He's a good one, so I thought. But the SgtMaj's biggest responsibility is to keep the CO in touch with what the enlisted are thinking. So did the SgtMaj not know how we all felt about staying with the MEU longer, or did he not tell the CO? Or did he tell the CO and get ignored?

Posted by: Boviate at 07:18 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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