August Road Trip Day 7 Plateville 1st Battalion 9th Marines Mini- Reunion
Well I guess I'm still one day behind ain't I on writing these blogs. I had an excuse yesterday, honest.. I was buys hanging out with a bunch of Marines/Corpsmen and they made me do things.. Things that I can't really speak about. Well at least that I'm not willing to admit too.
Yesterday morning I was up at about 530 am (forgot to turn off alarm clock on phone) and proceeded to get dressed and just head out for a walk around to stretch my legs and watch the sunrise in the east, and what a beautiful sunrise it was. I was joined by my Marine Brother Dave and we talked about life and caught up with what was going on.
Our host Ric prepared breakfast for an entire Company of Marines, as he made fresh (yes, fresh he has chickens on his property) eggs, pancakes and sausage for breakfast. It was an awesome way to start the morning.
After this, I proceeded back to my truck and began pulling everything out that I had brought with me and began to set-up camp. The first things to come out were the three coolers with of home made goods provided by my wife, and I began to slow distribute these. She had a pecking order of whom got what and stuff ( I fear for my life, if I screw this up..LOL).
Doc Domingo and Alex helped me get my tent together which fits right into the bed of my truck, once we finally figured out everything and strapped the tent down, I put the air mattress in and blew that up and then the sleeping bag, pillows and eventually my poncho liner.
With all of this being done, it was time sit down and begin hanging out with everyone and to get to breakout the cigars I brought with me and share among friends/ Brothers.
WE sat around in various places and in various groups, talked about many different things and heard many different stories from everyone, it was something that most people would have to experience in person to enjoy.
Ric and the young ladies that helped him, cooked another great meal for everyone, then we had a miniature auction of items that my Marine Brother James made. James made some of the most beautiful wood flags (handmade BTW) and it was decided that the proceeds from this miniature action would go to "JordansHonor' (http://www.injordanshonor.com/) in honor or Marine Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter who gave the ultimate sacrifice in protecting his fellow Marines while serving in Iraq and in defending the freedom of our country.
We also auction off a bottle of Whiskey and I won that one.. Yeah I know, but when I did some shots later with a few of the guys it went down really nice and smooth...
After all of this was done, we all hung out for a bit, I eventually made the bon fire for the night, ended up spilling "MoGas" on myself (unleaded fuel for you civilians out there) and let the fire off, putting a number of logs on the fire as they guys were going to retire some flags during a ceremony later that night.
Later in the evening, a showing of a film called the 11th Order was done (this was a film made about Marines LCPL Jordan Haeter and Cpl Jonathan Yale) and then a another film was shown of a documentary that was made about the Marines and Corpsman of the the 1st Battalion 9th Marines.
Before most of these events last night, I decided to crawl into my ten and call it a night, as I the precious days traveling was finally catching up to me and it was time to rack out.
If you are interested in the flags that I spoke about and like the one in the picture included in this blog, please contact James, he is a great guy and Marine Brother. He does great work and stands by his product.
Check out his stuff at V's Woodworking: https://www.facebook.com/SemperFiRusticDesigns/
You won't be sorry...
If you would like to make donations to Jordans Honor or find out about information concerning the annual "InJordanHonor" Memorial Run please go to: http://www.injordanshonor.com/
Thanks to everyone.
Semper Fi,
Frank
1/9 Everywhere