—Chapter 6—

the first letter home

Dear Mom and Dad,

It's been over half a year since I left home. I know I said I would write home but I've been super busy this first year of school and have had so many new circumstances thrown at me from the beginning. You probably wouldn't even recognize me any more. The first thing that happened when I arrived at the Academy was they cut off all my hair and before you start to worry Mom, no it wasn't hazing. Everyone got the same treatment, anyways I decided to keep it relatively short compared to the longer style you all remember. After all that I got my first military uniform as well as other odds and ends.

Not long after that I got to find out what Platoon I was in and I got lucky, managed to end up in the same squad as Ade. You remember him right? I also met the rest of my squad and became pretty quick friends with them. First there's Rebecca. She can be a bit tight but she gets along with me and Ade pretty well. Then we have Evaldo and Lily, they're a brother and sister pair who's studying construction engineering and medicine respectively. When we got introduced to our platoon I was voluntold that I'm going to be the squad leader of the five of us, which is so much unnecessary work on top of my normal studies.

Speaking of studies, our classes aren't that far off from what I would assume normal college classes are like besides the military uniforms. This year for aeronautic class was pretty much ground school with a lot of simulator time and very little real flight time. They had us trying different aircraft types like helicopters, big multi engine planes and of course smaller aircraft for a single pilot which I felt right at home flying in the simulator. Rebecca, the girl I mentioned earlier, she was amazing to watch in the helicopter simulator. Every time I tried to take off in that one I would just immediately spin and crash. This summer we should be doing the rest of our actual flight school and then get our actual aircraft assignments to begin specialized training. There's also a rumor that once we get into specialized training we're going to be joined by some of the guys from the Avionics and Electronic Warfare course. The instructors said we can invite family members to the aircraft assignment ceremony on the last day of summer. If you both can make time to try and make it that would be cool.

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I'm really glad I was able to make it into the academy with so little preplanning. I really have met some amazing people. My seniors are super knowledgeable and once a week we have a small cookout or party that our culinary specialists course and senior platoon members put together. For a military school it seems really relaxed but when it comes to being serious they sure do flip on the switch.

Especially my platoon leader Chavez and Lev who is the third squad leader. They were out on the town doing a grocery run for that night's dinner arguing on the best way to prepare that steaks when they overheard another platoon's first year getting bullied by some kids from another college on their spring break. Needless to say they came back battered and bruised. When I asked about what happened they just said Cadets always look out for one another before going and getting scolded by Lieutenant Serena, our platoon advisor, for getting in a fight. Word spread pretty quickly of what they did and later that night we had cooked out with the platoon of the cadets, they helped. Speaking of cooking, I gotta go help with tonight's dinner, its first squads turn to cook. I'll be sure to write to you all again soon.

Much love,

Your son Marcus