Graduation Parade Practice

On Thursday, November 1, 2001, we got to see Ben for the first time in three months.

I had heard that the graduating company practices the graduation parade early on Thursday morning. So we got an early ride to MCRD with Linda and Tom Dickason (thanks so much!!).

We entered MCRD through the Washington Street gate. There is a large parking area where we parked the car. Then, after passing through a security checkpoint, we were bussed to the parade deck. They gave us a program with details about the graduation schedule.

Julie and I tried to walk around to the south side of the Parade deck so we could see the recruits' faces as they drilled. The gentleman at the lower left is the DI who politely chased us away.	[click on thumbnails to see full size images]
So we walked back to the north side of the Parade Deck and watched the practice. This is Mike Company. Somewhere in that group was our son.
We couldn't make much out until they started their march past the reviewing stand.
Ben is in this picture, although I couldn't tell at the time. [Close-up of Ben]
They were far away, and even with my zoom lens, I couldn't make him out at the time. [Close-up of Ben]
[Close-up of Ben]
[Close-up of Ben]
[Close-up of Ben] They practiced their march past twice, and then formed up to run through the whole parade again. At the beginning of the parade they enter the parade deck from the east end and form two columns of three platoons each. Ben's platoon was 3003, so they were at the rear of the first series. This put them about as far away from us as they could be.
But with a 10x zoom lens, I picked Ben out. This is the first time I saw him. I was so excited. I called to Julie and pointed him out. And then I couldn't see any more for a while. Julie borrowed binoculars from Linda and saw him too.
He didn't see us right away.
They were practicing the parade.
Then they went to parade rest. And waited. And had some time to carefully look around. [Close-up of Ben]
And Ben saw us out of the corner of his eye. [Close-up of Ben]
He told us later, he was trying to stay steady. But for a couple of seconds, he couldn't help himself. [Close-up of Ben]
He regained his composure a little. [Close-up of Ben]
He tried to calm down a little. [Close-up of Ben]
Then he looked over again. [Close-up of Ben]
And we were whooping and hollering. "Hey Ben! Oohrah!" [Close-up of Ben]
And he couldn't help it. [Close-up of Ben] This is my favorite picture.
But the Recruit regained his composure and complete the parade practice. [Close-up of Ben]