Liquor, Drugs, and the Marine Corps

About that time one of the few non-Witness friends I had told me about his plans to join the Marine Corps and travel around the world. It sounded great, and I decided to give it a shot. Mom gave her permission for me to enlist (at age 17), and I was sent to the USMC Recruit Training Depot, Paris Island, SC for basic training. From Paris Island, I was sent to Meridian, MS for training in my dual job field: Aviation Operations Clerical/Flight Clearance Dispatch (MOS 7041). Meridian is where I also began drinking heavily.

From Meridian, I was sent to work at a reservist training detachment aboard the world's largest naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. Once there, it didn't take long for me to get involved in illegal drugs -- and lots of trouble, including U.A., AWOL, destruction of government property, and fighting. I (barely) made it through two years in Norfolk and then was sent to the New River Air Station in Jacksonville, NC. By then the Corps was getting pretty tired of my antics, and so after a couple more incidents they gave me an official invitation to leave, which came just a few weeks short of the end of my four year enlistment.

Wasteland, Prison, and Jesus