Josh officially completed Marine Corps boot camp on 12 January 2007 with the rank of Private First Class (PFC)! I have uploaded quite a few pictures on our gallery that show his final training (a 4 mile motivational run) and ceremonies. Josh is currently on leave for 10 days, but gets an extra 7 days at home while he works at the Marine Corps recruiting office where he was recruited as his temporary duty station.

Once Josh finishes his time home, he will head back to San Diego for 3 more weeks of intense training. Then we believe he will be shipped directly to Pensacola, FL for 18 weeks of MOS training for Aviation Mechanics.

We are all very proud of Josh and are enjoying visiting with him while he is at home!

One of the things Josh’s drill instructors recommended is to shoot an AK-47 while they are on leave. They said this because they need to know their enemy’s weapons in order to know what they are capable of and in case they need to pick up their enemy’s weapon and use it in battle. I just happened to have a good friend that owns an AK-47 and an AR-15. So we went to the nearby shooting range this past Saturday and let Josh get used to an AK-47 for the first time! We had a lot of fun shooting targets 50 yards away!

We wish Josh all the best during his next training stages in the US Marine Corps.