What about your miata?

Kotomile...
Every Marine is a rifleman...We use the Navy to cook our food and ferry around (no pun intended)
But yeah, 03xx is infantry...Every Marine at heart. One of my real good buddies was in the AintReadytobeaMarineYet as a linguist and got to do a lot of cool stuff in Iraq. A lot of stuff to do with IED's and tracking signals...

Every Marine is a rifleman, but not every MyAssRidesInNavyEquipment is a 0311 ;)

But yeah, everyone knows that, that's what the crossed rifles are for. It might surprise you to learn this Army Intel Weenie has been to the Land that God Forgot, worn As and Ds, and knows the Marine Corps hymn. :D

I knew the Army would find a way to screw this up..

They've reserved me a spot in the ARABIC school instead of Farsi like I asked for. w/e

The articles I've read say that the Arabic linguists are "the best and the brightest", so now I kinda want to do it just to say I made it through.:dunno:

Told the career counselor to not fight it, I'll learn Arabic. Cat IV ftw...

Looks like he plan now is to take it with, alter maps for 91 octane, and get something else to drive onto post.

I have my "so you're leaving Fort Gordon" brief tomorrow, start clearing after that, w00t!

Looking at cheap bay-area EF and EG Civics as a daily while I'm out there.

Updating this thread vs. starting a new one.

So, since the last post in this thread, I've been at DLI a little over a year now and have taken the end-of-course proficiency test (the DLPT Defense Language Proficiency Tests - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) at the end of the 2nd of 3 semesters, at the beginning of last week. I got a 2 in reading and a 2+ in listening, out of a possible 3. This is fantastic, as the school only requires a 2 in both for graduation at the end of the 3rd semester! I also got the results of the 202 , which was a B in listening, an A in reading, and a B+ in speaking. w00t! I've been managing to stay off of having "7th hour" (a remedial hour for underperforming students) almost the entire time excepting a brief stint in 1st semester when I couldn't seem to absorb this stuff.

In other news, I'm over 100 hours of volunteer service with the local VFW post, which just *happens* to have me volunteering at Laguna Seca. I've been more than 7 times now, each time for free and taken many a picture. The Historics are my favorite race to watch and walk through the paddock, but the best weekend was the Miata's 20th anniversary there, which I've chronicled here previously.

Congrats on your success! Ex-wife took Russian there, we were in Monterrey for a year. Went to Laguna Seca twice, once to see the first Indy race there, pity I wasn't at the S-turn for that famous leap by that italian!

lol i just aced this mini test while looking for a pactice dlab lol
Cryptology: On Duty: Navy Life: About the Navy: Navy seems cool

I managed to never make it out to Laguna Seca while at DLI.

Congrats on the DLPT scores.

Another drag-it-from-the-dead update.

This is the final week of the course coming up, I had my Oral Proficiency Interview yesterday and I'm confident I got a passing score of 1+, at least. Whatever, speaking doesn't matter much for my particular job. Today we took the listening portion of the final DLPT and I got a 3! Reading will be on Tuesday. If you recall (from a few posts ago...) I got 2 listening, 2+ reading after 2nd semester, so things are looking good for the reading portion. Wish me luck!

GL with the DLPT. Once I get back from my deployment I will be retaking the DLPT. Any idea where you are going after DLI?

Good to hear koto!

Just read the whole thread and am in awe at how you've followed this career choice. I knew you were in language school, but it's a different aspect seeing how you decided to go, got accepted and excelled.

Take care man.

Thanks gospeed, it's been a helluva ride!

FRT_Fun - Farsi right? GL to you too, you're usually a 3 right? I'm going to Goodfellow to get MOSQ'd and then to Bragg, then probably straight to Afghanistan, lol.

Yes I am Farsi.

Goodfellow is not bad, but it's an AFB so how bad could it possibly be? The course there can get pretty intense, but overall not bad. It's a pretty long course if I remember correctly, so maybe things will cool off in Afghanistan by the time they decide to send ya out there.

The course ought to be a walk in the park, after all I was 3rd in GPA in my original MOS course, 96B/35F. This course has a lot of review from that from what I'm told.

I should be to Bragg about mid-March.

So, took the reading today and got a 2+. So, for those of you keeping score, that's a 3/2+/ and lets say 1+ on speaking (don't know yet). Course standards met, off to Texas. After TX I start earning extra pay for my newfound linguistic prowess. Then off to Bragg.

Edit - For the record, I never needed to go look at Civics, since the bus shuttle started up I'd been taking the bus to class with the bike, and then biking home (8.3 miles, not far). The Miata I had shipped out here and I drive it on post when I need to, I just don't have a student parking permit so I can only park it in a few places. To get a permit means you have to pass smog, so yeah, I don't have a permit...

I also qualified while I was here for the Volunteer Service Medal and commander's coin for having over 150 hours of volunteer service, w00t! Over half of that volunteer time was at MRLS, easy. I get a medal for going to Laguna Seca. Sweet. Even riding shotgun with Savington and with Keith in the Targa counts toward that junk. Disbelief. I ramble when I've been drinking... what a day.

Thanks for the support, those of you who've followed this from idea to fruition. I graduated today, here are some pics.


I gave the class speech, along with another servicemember
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2121659_n.jpg

getting my junk
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2333476_n.jpg

getting the Commandant's coin for going to Laguna Seca a lot
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs022...._7948744_n.jpg

The new coin is on the left (3 coins from DLI, not bad)
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._8053271_n.jpg

time to relax
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3363558_n.jpg

Congrats man, I know the feeling, it's pretty damn good.