Job Well Done

The Marines we replaced are now on their journeys home. They did a great job out here and I only hope we can do their work justice.

The Marine on the left is GySgt McPhail. He and I are competing for one of the 3 Master Sergeant slots this year. There are 9 other qualified Marines also competing, so we will see. He is in the position ahead of me based on date of rank and honestly, he probably rates it more than I do. He has one more year in than I do. He is a black-belt in the Marine Corps martial arts program and was a NMITC instructor just like I was. He runs high first class PFT’s and is just a solid Marine Gunny.

All that said, he also established this post as the best one in Iraq and none of the Iraqis here wanted to see him leave.

Cpl Carrillo is the Marine next to him. He speaks 4 different languages fluently, including Arabic, so he was an invaluable asset as a part of his team. His son was born about two months ago, so he is anxious to get home and hold him for the first time.

Great work fellas!

Semper Fi,

m