Never So Proud!
I talked to J on the way to Christine’s (my BFF and QB for TWBFL) in San Diego and he had mentioned that he was doing a ‘Rock Portage’ around 7pm in Coronado and that we could come and watch. I have never seen him do anything with the Navy, I have seen his old job in Whidbey Island, but I have never seen him PT or actually work and since this was his passion and I had a chance to watch, I didn’t want to miss it. I arrived at Christine’s around 6pm, I met her dad and we sat around and talked for a bit. All of a sudden it was already 7. Christine and I headed out towards Coronado and we decided to grab some Starbucks before heading over to watch on the beach. We had just stepped on the beach when we heard yelling – OMG, that’s his BUD/S class! My heart was pounding, and I was so giddy, it was crazy. I made Christine (who hates running, btw) run all the way down the beach until we reached the viewing section. It was getting dark and all you could really see where blobs of boats with guys that had bright green glow sticks and you could hear them screaming and yelling and saying “Hooyah”. Each boat had to go out into the ocean, pass over several waves to get out there (I would guess the yardage, but I honestly have no clue, maybe a football field length, maybe two?). Then every so often a few boats would get waved by the BUD/S instructors to come in. They would paddle their way back to shore, hitting and splashing into these huge, pointy, sharp and very dangerous rocks. They had to pull their boat up on these rocks, unload their men, put the paddles in a safe area, and move the boat up over the rocks onto land. Then they were drilled questions by their instructors and if they got them wrong, their whole boat crew would have to do push-ups off of their boat. If they got them right, they would lift the boat on top of their heads and head over in line to see a few other instructors to where they were drilled again. In the meantime these heavy, 1000lb boats were resting on 4-8 guys’ heads (depending on the boat crew). There were 15 boat crews out there and 120 students. J had told me he was in either boat crew 11 or 12. I first saw 12 go by and I was hollering as they past, nada. Thirty minutes later I see boat crew 11, I holler at them and I hear “My bebe” – IT’S J!!! I holler “My bebe” back and my heart just beats faster and I can’t shake this enormous grin off my face – he loves me! A girl was standing next to me whose boyfriend was also in J’s class. She was too afraid to holler anything, not wanting to get him in trouble with his instructors. As the guys finished up, J’s boat crew was the last back on land, which was odd because the girl next to me, her boyfriend’s boat crew left after J’s and came back in way before J’s. Her boyfriend’s boat crew had to take down all the posts that kept the crowd at a distance. As he came by she saw him, they looked each other in the eye and froze for a moment, not saying a word, but both wanting to. He then took off and finished his job. The guys were told to put the boats on top of their head again and head back to base. As they did they had to form a line and start running back, boats smashing the top of their heads into their necks. All of a sudden, all the boats stopped and crashed into each other (I couldn’t help but laugh). Apparently one of the instructors trucks were stuck in the sand and the front guys had to stop and push the truck out, making all of the other boat crews smash into each other. Once they re-aligned and the truck was out of the sand, they started off once more towards the base. I waved and blew a kiss goodbye. I have never felt so proud of my bebe in our whole relationship.
BUD/SI left to San Diego Thursday afternoon after my second casting session - this time it was much better with lots of variety and bigger choices from the actors.
