Safety Stand down....not again.

Fuck My Life....those words have been uttered, spoken and mumbled plenty of times throughout my Marine Corps career, but never have I felt so passionate about them then when I hear the words Safety standdown.

For those of you not in the know, a Safety Standdown is the Marine Corps way of preventing you from "hurting yourself" or making "bad decisions" such as drinking too much, driving drunk, speeding, boat safety, wearing sun block outside, and whatever the fuck else someone could regurgitate onto a power point slide show, while we as Marines have to sit through this crap the main point they try to hammer home is "safety" the sad thing is no matter how well presented the material is, it never fails, coming off this 96 or 72 (hours that you will get off from work) someone will without a doubt have gotten a DUI, DWI, within the squadron.

Now dont get the wrong message here, they have there merit. I'm sure someone in the audience gets something out of these briefs, but for Marines like myself who are working through this holiday weekend, all three days straight of it, its a slap in the face to have to sit through a safety standdown and here the words"now this weekend, when you're out at the beach drinking beers with your buddies..."

really?

is that where I'm gonna be ? no....I'm gonna be at work, while YOU are drinking beers at the beach with YOUR buddies.

Don't get me wrong, its not all bad-I work with some of the best guys the Marine Corps ever put in the same room and as much as we bitch and complain about being here, we love the fuck out of each other... I once heard a quote that sums up my guys in the best way possible, "Crash Crew Marines are the gayest bunch of homophobics I've ever met." nothing is off limits, no line can't be crossed, you better have thick skin and quick with the one liners or get eaten alive. there is no hiding, no going home at 5, we eat, sleep, shower, and generally live together more time out of the month then we see our own families. So while you and YOUR buddies are out the beach this memorial day weekend, cooken your burgers on the grill and drinken beers, remember its MEMORIAL day, and there are Marines working through it.. dont feel too bad though we did just play Home Run derby and that my friends is YOUR tax dollars hard at work.

*Edit* Not 5 hours after finishing this post, we got a call here at the barn for an all hands accountability due to an "alcoholic incident that happened at the bricks last night" well played gentleman...well played.