And so it Begins

May 7, 2009

Today its for real.

My name is Lance Corporal Matt Walje, USMCR. I am a Marine Reservist and a pseudo sophomore in International Relations at William Jewell College. I say pseudo sophomore because I have never finished a full school year at Jewell. The Marine Corps called me up and so I go. I am an analyst from the 24th Marine Regiment HQ company that has been augmented to 3rd Battalion 24th Marines for a deployment to Iraq. We spent April 4-24 out at Camp Pendleton, CA doing our Annual Training trying to get as many of our qualifications (swim qual, rifle qual, etc) out of the way as possible so tht we could focus on training when we came back to prepair for our deployment.

Between the 24th of April and May 1st I was up at Jewell trying to get some stuff done for school. May 1st was my activation date. That Friday I went down to Belton where the 24th Marines are headquartered and signed my activation orders. From May 1st until June 4th 2010 I belong to the Marine Corps. Monday the 4th through Wednesday I went down to Belton everyday, and today I left with the rest of the augments from Regiment to go to Camp Pendleton to join up with the rest of 3/24 for ILOC (Individual Location Training) in preparation to deploy. I will spend through August out here in Pendleton, and then spend three weeks in 29 Palms, CA for Mojave Viper doing hyper-realistic training. From there I will get a brief stint home and then we will fly to Quwait and then Iraq.

Last night I moved out of my room in the Sigma Nu house and said my goodbyes to all my friends at Jewell. My parents helped me to move out and take all my stuff to their house to store it for me. I spent my last night in KC at home with my family, unfortunately it was pretty late when I got home so I didn't get to see them much. This morning I went out to get a coffee with my dad and he shared some encouragement and words of wisdom with me from Psalm 1. It was really good to get to spend time with my dad. I then ran all over town trying to find an open barber shop to get my haircut. You would be really surprised how hard it apparently is to give a Marine a haircut. Seriously. My head is all cut up and sore from the lady who did it, and it is a very good thing that hair grows fast. I can't wait to get a real Marine Corps haircut. I was running out of time really quick. My morning basically was not going the way I wanted it too. I was hoping I would get a quick haircut and then just hangout with my family. Instead I was frantically driving back to my house, tossing a few last things into my sea bag and running out to the car to leave for the airport. My Grampa stopped by to say goodbye before I got into the family van. We drove to MCI where I hurriedly checked my bags and went to stand in front of the gate to get ready to go through security. My whole family was there, my parents and my four younger sisters and my little brother. My Gramma showed up right before I had to walk through the gate to security. My Uncle didn't make it in time to give me a hug goodbye. We managed to get off a quick family picture too.

MCI is a horrible place to say goodbye. The gate has glass walls and as you wait to board your loved ones are standing on the other side watching you. All that separates you is a few millimeters of transparent glass but it might as well be miles thick. All it does is prolong goodbye, and lets you watch the tears. Over the past year and a half I have been in the Marine Corps I have said a few goodbyes. None of them have been easy. They don't really get better either. The last few months after I got word I was deploying have been filled with uncertainty, confusion and prolonged goodbyes.

My life, the life of Matt Walje, sophmore International Relations major, football player, and Sigma Nu is on hold now. I am Lcpl Walje now. I have said goodbye to my friends, and my family. I don't know much of what the next 13 months I am active hold. None of us do. A month ago, all of us were college students, construction workers, bank tellers, your friends, your brothers. Now we are Marines prepairing for war. Our sacrifice is this. Our lives are not our own. We volounteered our lives for service to this land, and we have been called out on it. For many of us, this wasn't in our plans. We were looking forward to summer vacations, graduations, even simple things like 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. God had different plans for us. I wasn't anticipating this. God has given me a new plan for the next 13 months, and I am very much not in control. It is an excersize in Faith and Prayer.

We are the Reservists and this is the begining of our Journey.