September 30th letter received 10/2/10

So, it's been a couple weeks since my last update. When they put on my second cast, they covered my entire right thumb, making it impossible to hold an ink stick. I've been a little unmotivated to write since then. BUT the good news is that I got my cast off yesterday, and the doctor says everything looks to be good. If all goes well, I should be out of here in early November. It's a little frustrating to think that I will have to spend my birthday here, but I suppose I'm too old to go trick or treating these days.

Things around the squadbay have been pretty boring as usual. We've got a total of 20 recruits now in P.E.B., and I've been easily annoyed by our newer recruits...just another sign of my age. Most recruits are surprised to know that I'm 28, but to my surprise they didn't give me a hard time because of it until I got to P.E.B. Most of the day here is spent talking about women, food, and making fun of each other. It's a healthy environment.

Yesterday during evening hygiene, one of the sinks in the head (bathroom) busted off the wall and a high pressure stream of hot water spewed out of the pipe nearly injuring a couple of our recruits. The water was shooting out of the pipes so hard that it damaged a bulkhead (wall) nearly 8 feet away. They ended up having to turn the water off in the entire building to fix the pipe. It was a great morale booster for our platoon.

The temperature around the Island has almost been tolerable the past two weeks. I can tell that Fall is close at hand. It will be a nice change from the sweltering heat and black flags. Coming to bootcamp in the Summer was a bad idea.

I hope that all is well with all the friends and family that have been keeping up with my progress. Thanks for the support.

Rct. Hughes, Chris

Chris's 6th letter received September 3rd

On September 1st, Chris wrote:

Monday nights at P.E.B. are pretty entertaining. Since my platoon is located on the second story of the Receiving building, we get to see and hear the new recruits come in on the buses and stand on the famous yellow footprints while a Drill instructor paces up and down the street giving the new recruits an earful of what to expect for the next 3 months at Parris Island. This continues all throughout the night, and getting to sleep between all the yelling and running is nearly impossible. This past Monday we had a couple of lost receiving recruits open the door to our squadbay in the middle of the night, setting off a couple of alarms and angry Drill instructors. I thought maybe we were under attack; it was madness. My heart was beating a million times a minute for 10 minutes after that.

My hand/thumb seems to be improving a bit. I'm finally able to grip a pen and write with my right hand. My cast should be off by the end of the month. Cross your fingers.

Rct. Hughes

Chris's 5th letter received August 30, 2010

On August 26, 2010, Chris wrote:

Parris Island really is a beautiful place. Most recruits never get the opportunity to notice.

I saw my original platoon this morning. They were marching to class, and I was coming back from making a garbage run. I was able to give a couple smiles to some old friends before my original chief drill instructor noticed me and said, "Hughes, get your broken ass away from my hogs." (Hogs are nasty phase 1 recruits) My response was a typical "Aye, sir!" It felt good to sound off again. My old platoon didn't look nearly as dysfunctional as I remembered.

10 things you hear constantly as a recruit:

1. Aye sir/ Yes sir/ No sir
2. Open your fat mouth!
3. Scream!
4. I don't care/ Nobody cares
5. Left, right, left
6. Die already
7. Get some!
8. Done sir
9. Attack chow
10. Aye recruit, kill

These are some of the language-appropriate ones.

Until next time...

Recruit Hughes

Chris's 4th letter received August 26, 2010

On August 23, 2010 Chris wrote:

So I'm finally out of the hospital and after being shuffled around to a few different medical platoons, I've made it to my new home for the next few months... P.E.B. (Physical Evaluation platoon). This platoon consists of around ten recruits that have various injuries that the Marine Corps considers too busted up to keep training. So all we can do now is wait until our injuries heal and the medical boards clear us to go home. The doctors say I should be here until late October or early November, which is when I was supposed to graduate anyway. The good news is that I'm still earning a decent paycheck while I'm here. I will likely receive disability compensation, and the VA will pay for 48 months of college at almost any university. Plus, I get to come back home to my amazing wife, which is the icing on the cake. The bad news is that I will likely have lasting pain and nerve damage to my right hand for the rest of my life.

The drill instructors treat us pretty well here at P.E.B., at least in comparison to regular recruits that are still training. We share our squadbay with other recruits from R.S.P. (Recruit Separation Platoon). They are the rejects of recruit training- suicide attempts, non-conformists, failed drug tests, and fraudulent enlistments. These idiots are also waiting on clearance to go home but with a less than honorable discharge. Our D.I.s treat them like crap and rightfully so. There is a lot of animosity between us, but it's fun.

But P.E.B. really isn't a bad way to spend the next few months...We get 3 hot meals a day, 8 hours of sleep per night, a lot of free time during the day to write letters, read books, and even watch a little television. Some Saturdays we get to go to the M.C.X. to buy snacks and sodas. I had my first coke in over a month last Saturday, and it was phenomenal. I can't wait to buy a Dr. Pepper this weekend. There's been talk of going bowling and eating at Subway, but it sounds like wishful thinking to me.

I appreciate all the prayers and concern from friends and family. If you have a couple minutes, write me a letter! It's all we have to look forward to. Until next time...

Rct. Hughes

RETURNED LETTERS

Some of you have or will soon be receiving returned letters that you had written to Chris over the last two week period. Apparently, someone on base was too lazy to look up the correct address and forward on the mail. It could not have been that difficult. Anyway, if you receive returned letters, please send them to the new address posted on the blog. Chris is there to stay...at least for the next 8 weeks or so. He was a little bummed there for a while, because he wasn't receiving any mail. There should be no problem now with the mail getting straight to him! Chris is allowed to receive small packages with a few snacks, small book, magazine, articles, printouts, etc. He and the other guys in his platoon share snacks and magazines. If CK, Randall, or Drew are reading this...no, you cannot send Playboy. If you have any questions about what to send or Chris's likes/interests, just call me at 850-572-7767 or shoot an email to rcreelhughes@gmail.com.

*New mailing address*

I briefly spoke with Chris on the phone today, and he gave me his new mailing address. I replaced the old address with the new one on the righthand side of the blog page. For the next 9 weeks or so, Chris will have lots of time on his hands. He would very much appreciate any letters, newspaper articles, football updates, etc. If you think he would like it, it provides some sort of entertainment, and it doesn't take up too much space, then go ahead and send it along!

Chris's 3rd letter received August 19, 2010

In hardly legible, all-caps handwriting, Chris wrote:

I'm not sure which is tougher- writing legibly with my left hand or surviving recruit training. Many of you may know by now, I broke/fractured my right thumb pretty badly which required surgery and a couple pins to repair. The doctors say that due to the nature of the injury and the time required to heal, I will not be able to continue training or earn the title of United States Marine.

This past week has likely been the most disappointing of my entire life, but I'm trying to stay positive. I'm looking forward to coming home to Rachel and figuring out what to set my sights upon next. Unfortunately, it will be a couple of months before they let me go home. I will be moved into a medical evaluation platoon on Monday with other recruits that are waiting to be released to go home as well. Hopefully they won't scream at us as much.

Some may be curious to know how I fractured my thumb...Well, on training day 6, we had pugil sticks at 0800. Pugil sticks is when two opponents face off in a circle pit with padded pugil sticks, football helmets, and other safety gear. They had a similar event on the show American Gladiators. The goal is to hit your opponent more than he hits you; aggression and speed are the key to winning each round. After watching a couple fights, I figured that quickly landing the first blow would give me the advantage. When I was up to fight, I put myself into position to get the first strike, and when the whistle blew, I swung my pugil stick at my opponent's head. My pugil stick smacked the side of his helmet, but my right hand also directly hit his face mask pretty hard, and I knew instantly my hand was damaged. I had a hard time keeping the pugil stick in my hands after that point, and I wasn't sure whether my thumb was broken or just jammed. Either way, quitting or stopping the fight wasn't an option. My opponent won the first round as I spent most of my time trying to defend myself and holding onto my pugil stick with one hand. The next round, my opponent got a cheap shot to the back of my helmet, which really set me off. I landed three consecutive blows to his grape(?), knocking him down. I won the second round, but I got screamed at for not finishing him off when he was down. Once I got back into formation, I realized that my thumb was pretty badly broken. One kid from my platoon took a look at it and almost fainted. That didn't help my morale much. Once I got xrays of my hand, I knew the results were bad because the Navy corpsmen were passing around my xrays and making smart-a$$ comments about how brutal the fracture was. Thank God for those Navy corpsmen.

So it looks like my military career will end before it ever begins. Please keep Rachel and me in your thoughts and prayers as we will be making some big changes and decisions when I return home. I appreciate all the concern, and I look forward to seeing friends and family when I get home.

Recruit Hughes