That's Gunnery Sergeant, soldier!

[thedrifter]

That's Gunnery Sergeant, soldier!


This is #41 in a series of “letters home” from a local Marine deployed for a second tour in Iraq

By GYSGT Isaac Weix, Special to The News

I was promoted on the first of July. It’s no longer Staff Sergeant, it’s now Gunnery Sergeant. No change in responsibilities at this point, but it is a nice pay raise.

It’s another sign I am getting old. One of my Marines said that the rank fits my nickname better. I have been called “Pa” since the last deployment because at 29, I was the old man. The name stuck and now a Gunny at 33, I am really the old man.

It has been unusually clear recently, and at night you can see the stars. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, I am used to seeing the night sky, but it is really something to see when you are in the desert and there is no ambient light.

There must have been a “cold” front that moved in because the temperatures are more bearable. For a time, the temperature at night was not getting lower than 90 degrees.

On the agriculture front, the date palms are starting to put on fruit. It will be another few months before they are ripe.

I’m kind of disappointed. Fresh dates are amazing, and I am going to miss them this deployment. I’ll survive.

They are on second crop alfalfa, the sunflowers are in bloom, the wheat has been off the fields for a few weeks and all that is left is the straw and chaff.

The corn here is tasseled, and they are starting to harvest the sorghum. Apples are ripe, and you are starting to see them for sale alongside the road.

We distributed food aid to the needy. I make it a practice not to give it directly to the people, but to the imam of the mosque in the area or a local tribal elder. They can distribute it in a better fashion than I can.

It’s quiet here with not much to do. We are all ready to come home.

Weix, an Elmwood native, serves with the 24th Marine Regiment out of Madison as a gunnery sergeant for Weapons Platoon, “G” Company, 2nd Battalion.

On July 1, Weix received recognition for his promotion from staff sergeant to gunnery sergeant.
Submitted photo/For Dunn County News