Pizza Party

Today we had command photos taken. We all basically wore our Blue Dress jacket over our cammies. Felt like the Army.

First time I've worn the uniform with my unqing, I mean, shooting badges. :D

I was pretty excited even though I knew a bunch of other Marines were judging me for only being a rifle and pistol marksman. Those badges don't look nearly as cool as the sharpshooter and expert badges do, but they don't look bad. I mean, I was excited to see them on my uniform. The marksman badges are called "pizza boxes" because they are squares with concentric circles.

Shannon (my awesome roommate) seemed embarrassed about wearing her marksman badges. She said she overheard her squad mates saying, "I'd be so embarrassed if I was only a double marksman, I wouldn't even wear the badges."

"Who said that?"

So and So and So and So.

"They're douchebags. Don't listen to them. What kind of Marine talks about the uniform like that?"

Those kind of people really piss me off. Shannon and I had a discussion as we rigged our uniforms. I said, so they have sharpshooter and expert badges to show off what they're good at, but are they good at selflessly leading and taking care of their people? If they're saying stuff like that, probably not. They'll probably judge their own Marines as inferior. I hate ego's like that. Shannon, you don't wear a badge that shows off how awesome a leader you are - you just act that way.

Leadership isn't about showing off yourself. There is so much ego here.

And besides, being a marksman ain't that bad. I mean, we both put literal blood, sweat, and tears into earning these badges. Dang, I even unq'd on rifle after shooting a 49/50 on rapid fire. You have to be pretty good just to make marksman. So I'm proud of them. I didn't walk around ashamed at all with them there. Do I wish I scored higher? Of course. Can I? Of course, with more training I can definitely do it. Does it matter? Not that much.

Shannon, the people who say stuff like that don't matter.

Leslie, the people who say stuff like that don't matter.

My Marines are the only ones who matter.