Hello, everyone,
Thank you for all of your e-mails, well-wishes and letters. Marc and I really appreciate how supportive everyone has been.
I’ve been keeping busy with my new AP Art History course (tons of fun!) and work in general. At back to school night, I received a lot of compliments from our very demanding parents. Marc sends a letter everyday and has been able to call me the last two Sundays for 10 minutes. Although he misses his friends and family, he seems very happy with his decision.
After being inoculated against various diseases at reception battalion, Marc was eventually shipped “down range” for basic training. He is currently in the stage called “total control.” This means that they can’t even walk across the middle of the barracks or sit on their beds during the day.
Every morning at 3:30, they rise to clean the barracks and then go for PT, which Marc describes as a “maelstrom” of 220 recruits jumping around. Immediately after wolfing down every meal, they also go for PT. In addition to scheduled PT, the drill sergeants will frequently give the order “beat your face” (do push-ups) for corrective PT. Throughout training, they take PT tests to make sure they qualify to graduate and, in some cases to go on to Officer Candidate School. Marc was in excellent shape before he left and was racking up ridiculously high numbers. However, being required to shout while doing push-ups greatly reduces your numbers. Despite the hurdles, Marc is still doing very well and getting stronger every day.
They are all very sleep deprived. What little time they are given to rest is often interrupted with “fire guard” duty in the middle of the night/early morning. Between the close quarters and lack of sleep, common viruses are spreading. Marc has suffered through pinkeye and various coughs and colds. One barracks mate fell ill with chest pains and began to go into convulsions, bleeding out of an ear. Marc, ever the eagle scout, treated him for shock. As they carried him off, the battalion thought he was out of training for good but it turns out he only had a bad ear infection.
Perhaps the only real privation for Marc is the lack of reading material. Even though he must do 25 push-ups per letter received, mail is his only permitted reading material besides his training manual and the Bible. After one trainee received 19 letters in one day, the men have worked out some sort of stock exchange of push-ups, so feel free to send mail. Just don’t put anything else in the envelope. One man’s girlfriend sent him a pink thong and the guy had to wear it on his head during mail call!
Marc’s battalion is quite the diverse crew. Eighteen year-olds who participated in high school junior ROTC, or “just want to blow things up,” work side by side with college and post-college graduates, men in their 30s who haven’t had much luck in their lives, and one poor guy whose wife convinced him to join the army and then immediately left him. This apparently makes for interesting conversation on topics like evolution.
Well, this is probably a long enough update for one day. I’ll send more information next week. In the meantime, feel free to check out marclindemann.com for the “highlights” of our Southeast Asia vacation from August. Also, please let me know if you are having any problems viewing the images (especially if you don’t have cable or DSL) and I’ll keep trying to reduce image sizes.
Best regards,
Candace
First Messages – Wednesday, September 15, 2003
Thank you to everyone who was able to send good wishes and see Marc off.
For those who are living further afield or otherwise were unable to see Marc before he left, a quick update… At the very end of August, we returned
from SE Asia. We had an amazing time visiting Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Danang (Vietnam), and Siem Reap (Cambodia). We even ran into a fellow Yale ’98er in Siem Reap due to a timely e-mail. I plan to post some pictures later this week and I’ll include the link when I e-mail Marc’s address.
On Sunday, September 7, I drove Marc to Massachusetts where he was escorted onto the base. The next day, he had to convince the medical board that a letter from his doctor was the equivalent of an Army Doctor’s examination as proof that his knee is copacetic (he had surgery for a torn ACL about half a year ago). If he was not successful, he would have to reapply- a process which would take at least two months and he probably would not have started OCS for another year. Of course, Marc was able to argue his case and they shipped him down to Georgia where they rushed him through reception battalion. He is now officially in basic training which, in true Marc fashion, he described as “a lot of work” but “fun.”
Since this is the Army, there is already a potential wrench in the works. Marc’s Officer Candidate School date may have been moved from November to January, leaving a lull in his training. On the upside, although this stretches out the training, Marc *may* be able to briefly visit New York at some point.
So, I’m sure you are all wondering what we can do for “our soldier” (in the gender-neutral parlance of the army). Well, the answer in the Army Website FAQ is that we should send our soldier mail.
[delete personal information… feel free to e-mail me if you need my phone number or Marc’s postal address]
September 15, 2003 (take two)
Sorry to bombard you twice in one day but when I got home I had an unexpected surprise! In probably the most “Joycean” piece of writing Marc
has ever created, he sent his address. Apparently doing push-ups in combat boots, on a waxed barracks floor, while shouting at the top of your lungs,
after only four hours of sleep, can toy with your ability to communicate clearly. He wants everyone to know that they keep him busy (so he may not be the best correspondent) but he will appreciate any letters you send:
[delete address]
At this time, you may only send letters (you’ll just have to wait until Marc graduates Basic to send him your salami, Steve). An odd note- decorative/decorated envelopes might get him singled out for extra push-ups or humiliation so keep the envelopes plain.
Thank you everyone for all of your support and best wishes!
Best,
Candace
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