Update from Camp Pendleton 2014

Hello Friends! It has been over a year since I last wrote to you from the wardroom aboard the mighty USS Germantown. This last year has kept me incredibly busy as I have moved on from being a Platoon Commander, to Company Executive Officer (XO) and ultimately a Company Commander (CO). I will continue to be a Company Commander in Camp Pendleton until I finish my time in 5^th Marine Regiment this Fall.  As many of you already know I will be leaving the Marine Corps 9 December of this year. I will stay in the Reserves and apply to business school for the Fall of 2015. 

I uploaded all of my previous letters if you care to read them. I laughed a good bit looking back on them. Anyway, life is pretty busy these days so I am going to change up the format of these updates. I'll post pictures and write a bit. Hope all is well. 

-Dominic

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May 2013: this is my medium machine-gun section after a great shoot in Okinawa. As you can tell they are some pretty lovable goofballs (check out the old man pipe).

May 2013: This is Weapons Platoon, Apache Company 1/5 prior to going on escape and evade land navigation training. 

May 2013: this crew all got a perfect score on the annual physical fitness test. 

Summer Mountain Exercise, October 2013: my battalion went to the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. The event was called "Summer Mountain Exercise 4-13". It was an odd naming convention given the markedly winter style conditions. 

Summer Mountain Exercise, October 2013: any decent infantry unit will "stand-to" at sunrise and sunset for about an hour. This means that all men will go to their battle positions. The change in light presents certain advantages to the attacker and necessitates a heightened security status. This photo was taken in the early morning on top of hill 9494 (elevation in feet).

Summer Mountain Exercise, October 2013: I snapped a photo of this camp Fumanchu moments before this Marine got snatched up by the Company First Sergeant. The inappropriate use of cammie-paint provided some much needed relief. 

Summer Mountain Exercise, October 2013: This might be my favorite photo of the year. For most of 2013 I served at the Executive Officer (XO) of Apache Company. The four other Marines in this photo were part of what was called "Bravo Command". We were the alternate command node for the company. I spent most of October rolling through mountains with this small team. As the XO one of my most important tasks was to maintain communication with the battalion (two of our radios are visible, we had others and usually carried a field antenna as well). This often caused me to break off from the Company to seek higher ground (radio waves). It was quite an experience traveling through the beautiful countryside all by our lonesome. The views we took in and the places we hiked were simply breathtaking. 

Summer Mountain Exercise, October 2013: awaiting extraction in Grouse Meadows with two fellow Lts, Alex and Dennis. 

Marine Corps Marathon 29 Oct 2013: completed this race in 3:57, the week after returning from Bridgeport.

10 Dec 2013: on my 3rd Marine Corps birthday I ran a live-fire attack with Apache Co 1/5. This a picture with all the Company Officers. You can see a frozen ball of ice on my compass. Don't let the desert utilities fool you. It was cold!