Wednesday, March 26, 2008

HUNTER'S PERMANENT DUTY STATION


Hunter is now at Camp Legeune, his first permanent duty station. He has officially been assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 10th Marine Regiment. They are known as 210. He is not assigned to a battalion or a battery as 20 of his classmates were, but rather to the headquarters. The headquarters overseas the direction of the battlefield when the division is engaged in conflicts or maneuvers.

He will be updating me in the next few days with his address and official duties. I will post that information to the blog as soon as I get it.

Below please find the history of the 10th Marine Regiment, and if you would like to look at their website you can find it here.


In the history below, notice the direct fire competition and direct fire exercises at Ft. Bragg at the end of the history. Hunter will be leaving Camp Legeune on Friday to participate in these exercises. It looks like it will be his first time to be involved in live fire over the next two weeks. Please pray that he learns a lot, and gets some great experience.

10th Marine Regiment History

The 10th Marines is one of the oldest and proudest of the regiments of Marines.

It's unbroken service spans 93 years. The line from the Marines Hymn, "We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun," could well serve as its motto: Mexico, Haiti, Santo Domingo, the Pacific islands and atolls- the regiment has been there. In times of peace and near war, it has served in Iceland, China, Japan, Lebanon, Norway and Germany, and with the Landing Force Sixth Fleet. The 10th Marines were formed on April 25th 1914 as an Artillery Battalion under the 1st Marine Brigade.

They took part in conflicts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic from August 1915 to May 1917. The Battalion was expanded throughout mid 1917 and finally, on 15 January 1917 the expanded Battalion was redesignated as the 10th Marine Regiment of Field Artillery.

Between the First and Second World War the 10th Regiment worked on many different things, including annual reenactments of Civil War battles, building their Barracks and various other construction around the base, and guarding the mail. Also during this time the Regiment was deployed to China, and also to Iceland just prior to American involvement in World War II. During the war the Regiment was involved in the assault on Guadalcanal and later took part in the bloody taking of Tarawa and later Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa.

After the end of World War II the 10th Marines found themselves at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which would be their home until present day. They once again found themselves mobilized during the Korean war and again later during the Cuban Missile Crisis when they participated in the blockade of Cuba. As the Korean war started the 10th Marines were working with a skeleton crew, but five month's later they were back up to full wartime strength and ready to fight.

Since that time the Regiment has participated in exercises testing the methods of firing 155mm Howitzers from Landing Craft, as well as the twice annual Fire Exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Regiment has also continuously sent Firing Batteries and Battalions to train in Okinawa and to participate in CAX, a desert training operation held at Twenty Nine Palms California at the edge of the Mohave Desert.

The Regiment has time and again shown that it can set up, fire and move to a new position with astounding speed, and twice a year they display their skill in the direct fire competition at Fort Bragg.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

ANSWERED PRAYER UPDATE

Thank you to all that were praying for Hunter yesterday. He received a perfect 100% on the test.

Today he received his official orders to report to the Marine 2nd Division Headquarters at Camp Lejeune. He doesn't know what that means at this point. 20 others in the class were given orders to report to a specific battalion for placement in a battery. However; Hunter and one other buddy of his from Alpharetta were given orders to report to Division.

Hunter travels Thursday morning form Lawton, OK to Atlanta to Charlotte to Jacksonville, NC. He will only be in the Atlanta airport for one hour, so it will not be possible for him to see anyone as he travels through Atlanta.

More updates coming as we find our what his assignment will be.

Monday, March 17, 2008

HUNTER'S TRAINING UPDATE

Hunter will be completing his final test today at artillery school in Ft. Sill, OK. His class average is an "A" to this point. Pray that he will perform well on the test today.

Tomorrow and Wednesday he will be finishing up his out processing at Ft. Sill, then leave for Camp Lejeune. Camp Lejeune is in Jacksonville, NC and will be his first permanent duty station. Jacksonville is a 7-7.5 hour drive from Atlanta, 45 minutes north of Wilmington, NC.

Hunter is hoping to get checked in at Camp Lejeune and catch a ride home for the Easter weekend. However; he will not know until the last minute if he will be given leave this weekend or not.

Please continue to pray for Hunter's safety as he travels, and for God's protective hand to be on him throughout his entire military career.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!