Becoming One Purple Heart (Formerly Purple Hearts)

Adulting

(Luke's Point of View)

It's about 16:00 PM here and it's been another boiling and humid day outside. Today was a short day and we are off patrolling duty early which is nice because it means that we have a little bit of downtime this afternoon which we haven't had in more than 6 weeks. We just finished doing our prep working and I have just gotten back to the bunk room and set down my stuff. I am hoping to get a good workout in and maybe a call to Cass if the phone is free as we haven't talked in about a week and our last call was really short, about 5 minutes in length, as I was about to head out to patrol duty. I know we have a lot to catch up on as it's been more than 6 weeks since we had a lengthy conversation and I just really miss her and I want to hear her voice. Since we all just finished doing our prep work most of us are about to head off to shower, do laundry, and just some basic house keeping things when we are told to gather in the meeting room by the lieutenant of our platoon. I am hoping that he is not going to tell us that we are going patrolling this evening as I know we were all looking forward to a few hours of downtime this afternoon, but honestly things change on a dime here so I won't be surprised if he asks us to gear up to head back out. Quickly we all file into the meeting room.

(Frankie's Point of View)

Our entire second platoon is standing in the meeting room as we have all just been called in. Moments later our lieutenant walks to the front of the room and he says "I have some good news to share with all of you, today we have a few men in our platoon who will be receiving promotions. I know that usually these ceremonies take place back in front of your family, friends, and loved ones as any promotion within the Marine Corps is a big milestone in your military career. However, even though we are all half way across the world from home you are still all amongst your fellow brothers, friends, and military family so I know you are in good company while receiving these promotions. I will also say you should all get use to these promotions while abroad, unfortunately the casualties of war also bring new opportunity for others. I will keep this very short and sweet as I know you are all looking forward to a well deserved afternoon off patrolling duty. To begin we have Staff Sargent Adam Hayes who is now being promoted to Gunnery Sargent (E-7). Congratulations Hayes, very well deserved. We also have Corporal Tristin Smith is being promoted from a Corporal to Sargent (E-5). Congratulations Smith, very much deserved. Additionally, we have Sargent Blake Martinez who is now being promoted to Staff Sargent (E-6), congratulations Martinez, again very well deserved. Lastly, we have Lance Corporal Luke Morrow who is now being promoted to Corporal (E-4), congratulations Morrow, very well earned. All of you who are receiving promotions today should be incredibly proud of this achievement, you were promoted as you demonstrated through your actions that you can handle the duties of a higher rank. Please help me in congratulating your fellow brothers and friends in their achievements. Now the four of you please come up here along with a friend of your choosing as your friend will perform your pinning ceremony." I am so proud of Luke as he totally deserves this promotion he has been a force to be reckoned with here in combat and honestly he has saved a handful of our lives through his leadership, knowledge, skills, and observation. Before I can congratulate him he looks over at me and says "Frankie, will you do my pinning ceremony." I then smile and nod, because Luke is basically my brother and it means a lot to me that he is asking me to preform his pinning ceremony." We then head to the front of the room. Our lieutenant hands all of us who will be preforming the pinning ceremony the new patches for their uniform and then we are all asked to stand in the order that our promotions were announced with those who are being promoted on the right and those doing the pinning on the left. When he hands me the patch for Luke I smile because I know how proud Cassie will be when she finds out about his promotion. I then hear our lieutenant call up Gunnery Sargent Hayes and Matthew Bishop who is doing his pinning removes his Staff Sargent patch and he replaces it with the Gunnery Sargent patch. He then salutes to Hayes and he salutes back at the same time as they are now equal in rank and then they hug and Hayes shakes hands with our lieutenant. About 5 minutes later I hear our lieutenant say "Corporal Morrow," and I know it's my turn to perform the pinning ceremony for Luke. Once we hear his name being called we both walk to the front of the room and do an about face so that we are facing one another and then I remove his Lance Corporal patch and I replace it with his new Corporal patch and then I salute him first, as he is now a higher ranking position than I am which means I salute him first, and then he salutes back to me. We then hug and then he goes to shakes hands with our lieutenant.