Memories of the USMC

         Camp Pendleton, CA., where I was stationed stateside in the Marines, is semi-arid. In the winter months there would be occasional rains. Raining while we were in the field (Army I think calls it bivouac) I have no memory.  Okinawa, where I was stationed in Asia, had significant rain. It's a semi-tropical climate. While in our barracks there a typhoon, Eastern Hemisphere name for hurricane, struck. It rained and blew with fierce winds for 12 hours, paused, then blew the opposite direction for 12 hours. Concrete barracks kept us safe. 

     Where I remember the misery of rain while in the field was in Japan. Sent there for cold weather training the months of November and December it was moderately cold. It was  nothing like mid-west cold. Temperatures were in the 40s and 50s with occasional night-time frost. It was in Japan that I remember the misery of marching in the rain. The end of the multi-hour-march brought us to two-man pup tents. That's not the environment to dry off after hours in the rain.   

    So, in yesterday's rain, 2.5", I was snuggled into The Little House where there's always a book at hand. So happy to be dry!

Takk for alt,

Al

This picture which you've both seen before was at the conclusion of a two-week field exercise. It looks like I could have used a little rain!