Marines in the Muck

Living here at El Cid one sees odd things now and then.  Among my favorites are the Marine exercises in the marsh behind the house. For some reason I really enjoy looking out the window and seeing very muddy cadets struggling through the muck. It’d be one thing if they were miserable, but if they aren’t happy they sure do a great job of masking it.

Last week’s exercises were on a lovely day, so I walked out with the camera and took some shots of the action. Here’s the “course” that the young lads and lasses follow through the marsh.  This is tidal marsh, and at the moment the tide is out. Perhaps it doesn’t look so bad to you:

I didn’t need to wait long for a group of Redbadgers to come along.  Here’s a group of three fellows coming through the same stretch pictured above. I think the guy in the middle was looking for his M16:

The gentleman on the right side of the picture, about two seconds later, took a swandive into the goo for the benefit of my picture-taking.  Alas, I didn’t have the camera ready, a fact I didn’t have the heart to share when he finally crawled up out of the mud.  Good man, though.  Good man indeed.

Here’s a shot of the road they ran down right after crawling free of the marsh. I think that cadet in the distance is passing my trash bin.  That’s not really water on the road, by the way.  It’s the sloughed-off marsh mud that they call “pluff” ’round these parts.  Stinks to high heaven.