Christmas Day. Training Day 54.

Merry Christmas Mom and Dad! Boot camp ends in just two and a half weeks, and it's kinda weird. They say that we'll all suffer from boot camp withdrawal, and I believe it. I'm already feeling fat and lazy with this holiday and that was only two days of the DIs giving us a half-break. Imagine NO DIs! We got five hours - four in the morning and one in the evening - on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to watch movies, pack for the Crucible, shower, square ourselves away, AND got good chow AND an extra 1 1/2 hours of sleep AND the DIs are relaxed AND we haven't PTed or exercised or gotten quarterdecked or drilled, and I'm bored out of my mind. I'm totally ready to do SOMETHING but after the Crucible boot camp is pretty much winding down.

You know what I'll really miss is hearing the DIs sing to their platoons. It's the best in the mornings. We get out of the house and form it up on the catwalk; it's early morning and all dark and quiet, and a little chilly, and all across the island you can hear the drill instructors singing the cadence ("left…left…left, right" only it sounds like "loeft…loeft… a-loeft right..a loeft right…"), a lot of voices far away singing and calling their platoons. It's kind of … I'm not sure how to explain it. When you're in formation you listen to that one voice, even if another DI calls a command nearby you have to know whether to respond or not, and it's this stability thing. They say, "Drill is about discipline. If you have discipline you can drill" but it's also about trust. That voice has the singular control over 59 bodies, 59 bodies who respond immediately and without question to the voice's calls. The DI calls from behind the platoon, so if we're getting closer and closer to something, we have to trust that the DI knows when to turn us. Drill teaches instance obedience without question - you hear the order and execute it, because just like REAL orders, if you don't you'll mess up the formation, and then go and get your buddies killed in Iraq.

I can see why most Marines don't like most female Marines. A lot of my platoon doesn't really take things seriously -- gaffing off drill, falling asleep in class, not being really into land nav - I guess what the DIs say is really true: A lot of us are going to get into the fleet and make it only because a male carried our packs.

Not me.