{"id":1025,"date":"2020-02-27T12:02:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mattspeaking.com\/home\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2020-02-27T12:02:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:02:03","slug":"february-27-2020-at-1141am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mattspeaking.com\/home\/2020\/02\/27\/february-27-2020-at-1141am\/","title":{"rendered":"February 27, 2020 at 11:41AM"},"content":{"rendered":"

This, my main mammals, is the pike for the guidon that your favorite Big Bald VO carried throughout USMC boot camp. Everywhere platoon 2029 went, I carried that guidon, and when we stopped, I planted the flag, unscrewed the pike, and put it in my pocket until we were ready to leave. I made a few mistakes about guidon rules, most from ignorance, sometimes because I was exhausted. But I carried this pike with me day and night for 77 days on Parris Island. I slept with it, ran hundreds of miles with it, did obstacle courses, rifles, grenades, millions of mountain climbers, crawled through mud, got hurt, bled, exhausted\u2014and all the while, it was there, poking holes in my pockets. In a small way, this pike was like leadership and a reminder that, as the leader, I had to carry a little more than the rest. OK, maybe getting a little too philosophical.
\nThe day of graduation, the DIs sent me to get a new one because, as you can see, this one was scratched up. Also, I suspect, it would be the pike for the next platoon. I reported, said I was here for a pike, the Marine handed me one, and I left. He never asked for the old one. And I didn\u2019t volunteer it. I sometimes wonder if it was an unspoken #tradition, and that I was supposed to keep it because I earned it. The USMC is big on traditions. Never found out. But I still have it, as a reminder of all those things I went through and the expectations that I have for myself. #semperfi #leadership #myprecious #usmc #tbt #bigbaldvo