This great country takes for granted and mostly do not realize what the small percentage of citizens that make up the military and their families go through to keep the sea lanes open, assure the continuance of world commerce, and guarantee freedom in a crazy world. In my 26 years I always had my sea bag packed and raised my hand for the next plane or ship leaving town. Unfortunately now as a Marine Dad, my son got that gene as well. We always read how when an officer is a senior captain or O-3/O-4, etc., that they do all admin work or whatever. My son is on his first B billet, shore duty, in eight years and he spends more time in the field than when he was in the Fleet. He and his Marines teach demolitions and make stuff go boom every week. Coincidentally the unit that had the Marines go down on that AAV had just left 29 Palms as part of their pre-deployment workups.As a non-military person, it's hard for me to realize just how dangerous training, in peacetime, can be.
Prayers for all the families.
Corpsmen at an early age and stage in our time “green side” as we call it, refer to Marines as “my Marines.”