Wednesday, 15Nov06

Highlights: Indonesian Korps Marinir birthday (61 years), camera battery, spare key to Marines, night out

I must have looked strange, hailing a cab on the side of the road at 6:30am in my dress blue uniform (= but I had to get to my boss’s house for a ride to the Indonesian Marine Corps birthday ceremony.

Quite the unusual event, this one featured various demonstrations of Marines rappelling down 20-story buildings across the street, sky-divers landing in full face-painted glory from a 10,000 foot free fall, snipers shooting live rounds at mock “bad guys”, complete with exploding bottles of red juice, and a follow-up squad of Marine infantry to take out the ‘bad guys’ on the parade deck in front of us. (=

My boss & I sat 3 rows behind the Indonesian Marine Commandant (2-star general), the Navy Chief of Staff, and rows of generals, colonels, and distinguished guests.

It was a perfect moment to discover my camera battery just died! Ahhh! =/
Well- you’ll have to take my word for it,,, it was a good show. I was surprised they used live rounds for the sniper shooting demo (the crowd loved the exploding bottles of juice); and the landing zone was a bit narrow, with plenty of power & telephone wires strung along the side (potential for problems),,, but the event went off seemingly without a hitch. The organizers should be proud.

After changing out of my duds into regular clothes, I dropped by the embassy & left a spare set of keys to my house with GySgt Tull, the Marine Security Guard detachment commander, with an invite to make use of my house whenever the Marines need a place to clear their head & relax