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Eyes Left

The Marine behind the desk was not amused when my husband went to check into his new duty station for his training after boot camp and was followed by me.

“Who is that?”

“My wife, sir!”

“If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife we would have issued you one.” What?

My mouth dropped open. I couldn’t say a word.

Now we had driven down from New Jersey to North Carolina and it wasn’t like I could just go home. We had all of our worldly goods with us.

“What did you plan to do with her?”

“Sir, we have money saved and we were going to get someplace in town.”

We were already married when he joined the Marines. This situation was a little different than the Marines who graduated from boot camp and got married on leave and came back with wives.

Eventually things calmed down and after some discussion it was decided that he could live off base, but had to be on base early in the morning and then stay til they were done. We found a nice trailer park and every morning I drove him in and picked him up.

I also made him lunch and took it on base for him every day. I found the parking lot where he could find me and sat in my car with the door open and sat sideways in the seat with my legs out and on the ground while I waited that first day. I was nervous and then I could hear a group coming as they were marching with a Marine Corps Cadence. It was fascinating to watch them marching in unison and repeating the cadence their leader was shouting.

What I wasn’t ready for was as they came abreast of my car the leader shouted, “eyes left!” They all turned to look straight at me.

Now I was 20 years old and weighed less than 100 lbs. I was a tiny little thing with a big chest and all I was wearing was short shorts and a halter top. Very disconcerting having all those eyes fastened on me.

I eventually got used to it happening and provided visual entertainment for the troops every day.

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Tessa