Tales from Afghanistan, Chapter 15: Coming soon to an embassy near you?

So for just about the entire time I’ve been a Marine, I’ve wanted to be an Embassy Guard. For the guy who wants travel and adventure, it’s basically a dream job! 3 years, split up into 2 different countries for 1.5 years each. Well I decided out here that I had waited long enough, and started the request process. It goes through 4 levels; Company approval, Battalion approval, approval from Embassy Guard screening interview, and finally approval from HQMC (Washington DC). So I got my Company and Battalion approvals, and just finished my screening interview. They approved me! My request still has to go up to Headquarters Marine Corps, but that’s the final step! If everything works out, in July I will be in Quantico getting pepper-sprayed in the face and other fun training, and out of the country before the end of the year!

More good news, I have less than a month left! Well, less than a month on this FOB. Once I leave here it will take a week or two to get home. Here in the next week or two I have to pack everything up and start sending stuff home. I’m not looking forward to living out of basically a backpack for 3 weeks, but it means I’m coming home soon! And I’ve started my planning for after I get back home too. Some fun runs; 5k, 10k’s. If I get orders to the Embassy School I probably won’t have time to work up to half or full marathons, but it would be nice! Making plans to see family and friends has been fun too, but my command needs to stop changing our leave dates! And there are those tattoos I’ve wanted to get for a while too… Lot’s of fun stuff to look forward to!

It’s been getting more and more crowded here, as people start arriving from the smaller positions to pack their stuff up. Pretty soon our replacements will arrive, which will be nice but will mean this place is SUPER crowded. It’s already hard enough to get gym time in, but it will be almost impossible soon. All small sacrifices to make though, to come home so soon.

Well that’s really all I have to report right now. Packing up and making post-deployment plans has been the big focus for everyone lately. I’m hoping to hear back in the next few weeks about final approval for Embassy Guard Duty, keeping my fingers crossed!