Bad news from Parris Island
Donald Sensing blog
Our phone rang at 4:45 this morning. It was our Marine recruit son, Stephen, calling on his company commander's cell phone to let us know that he had taken so ill that he was being transferred to the Medical Rehabilitation Platoon for recovery.
Diagnosis was pneumonia with fever and shakes. We knew that he had been sick beginning about two weeks ago but his recent letters said he was better (though not well). Apparently not.
Don't know how long he'll be in MRP; that's a doc's call. Afterward he'll be assigned to the Physical Conditioning Platoon to get him back in shape for resuming training. My guess is not less than two weeks altogether, perhaps as many as four, and most likely three.
He sounded just awful, not only from the illness, but from screaming sounding off all the time, and also because he was obviously very demoralized by this development.
Our concern, of course, is for his health first of all. I think the commander made the right decision. I pray Stephen will recover fully before resuming training.
Next week would have begun five days of swim training for his platoon, and you can't throw a guy suffering from pneumonia into the water for five days. I'm sure that was a big factor in transferring him to the MRP.
I told him to ask the CO whether I could see him if I came down there, but the answer was no.
I called his recruiting sergeant today to let him know the news. He was very surprised that the CO gave Stephen his cell phone to call us. He said the usual routine is for the Senior Drill Instructor to call the recruit's recruiting sergeant back home so the recruiter can tell the family. Whatever, the CO's reason for breaking routine, my wife and I are very grateful.
Sometimes all you can do is tell yourself, "It's all good for 20," and drive on.
by Donald Sensing, |
