My wife and I attended our first Marine Corps Ball last night.
To say that it was "impressive" would be an understatement. The ceremony was stunning. I have been working side-by-side with these Marines, day in and day out all year… many of them have become like family to me… but when they showed up in their Dress Blues, it was like seeing someone new. Last night I got to see a whole new side to the Marine Corps tradition, and I feel honored to have been there… and the cake was good too.
If I can get these photos loaded, I'll share some later.
I know that most of you have attended many of these events over the years... but this being my first... I'm very excited and want to share it.
"I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." - Oscar Wilde
I just got back from mine. Next year (if I'm not deployed) I'm NOT going to be the DD again! I'd like to get drunk (hammered) at least once at a ball during my enlistment
My first ball I was in Rota Spain. Bob and I a buddy of mine walked in with 5 Beautiful Spanish ladies all decked out,I didn't have Blues, I dressed in a french made tux. everyone wanted our ladies but they were true to Bob and I. Of course the C.O. was allowed to dance with the girls. It was great bob and I dancing with all these girls on the floor, and these girls wouldn't except dances with anyone, but oh how most all the guys tried considering more than half probley couldn't even get dates. it was memorable.
The guest of honor (Some retired sergeant major) basically printed out his entire personal political-commentary blog and read it into the microphone for OVER FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. I **** you not, one of the first things the guy said when he sat down was that he had been trying to narrow down the things he wanted to say and had gotten it "down" to 28 pages. He apparently had been asked to talk about why you should stay in the Marine Corps, a typical if dry ball-guest speech topic, and instead used it to put an entire ballroom of Marines and civilians to sleep with his rambling personal political manifesto. From the sentence structure and his speech patterns you could tell he was basically reading off some of his own blog entries verbatim. I was about to lose my freaking mind.
On the more comedic side, some PFC in the ball ceremony got his date stolen by a sergeant right in front of him. She apparently couldn't find him and wandered off, the other guy scooped her up, and five minutes later she's sitting at his table. How screwed up is that. Grade A ***** right there.
The lead up to MCB has been a mixed bag of emotions this year. Far from the pomp and circumstance, I feel totally in tune with our Devils in A-Stan as it reminds me so much of South East Asia forty years ago.
My highlight so far was talking briefly to two Devils from Pendelton's SOI on Hill Street in Oceanside. One of them said his MOS is zero three eleven. I corrected him to oh three eleven and told them both to stay safe out there. I wonder how their fresh young faces will look in two years.
Originally posted by Deanosaur: The lead up to MCB has been a mixed bag of emotions this year. Far from the pomp and circumstance, I feel totally in tune with our Devils in A-Stan as it reminds me so much of South East Asia forty years ago.
My highlight so far was talking briefly to two Devils from Pendelton's SOI on Hill Street in Oceanside. One of them said his MOS is zero three eleven. I corrected him to oh three eleven and told them both to stay safe out there. I wonder how their fresh young faces will look in two years.
Hate to tell you this old sport but you "corrected" him wrongly. Although we tend to say "Oh three eleven" technically and correctly any "Oh three" MOS is actually a zero three. The USMC uses numerically sequenced MOSs instead of alpha numeric. I had one or two pogues correct me in my time and just passed it off as grunt envy, while still continuing to use the "Oh three" moniker. And now you know the rest of the story.
My first birthday ball was at El Toro in 1988. I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up in a bath tub full of beer bottles still wearing my dress blues.
