Jane Wayne Day 2013

Last year when my parents were in town, my mom and I got to go to Jane Wayne Day on her birthday. It's a day where we get to go and "be Marines" for the day. This year mom wasn't here, but I went with my friend Tracey. We had a lot of fun!

The morning started off with being yelled at by the Drill Instructors. "Go touch that tree!" "That wasn't fast enough!" "What? You don't want to yell?!" "Go touch that pole!" "Get down on the ground!" "When I say ________, you yell _______" "Did I say you can fix your hair?! Go run and touch that tree!" "You want to tie your shoe?! Go touch that pole!" Oh. My. Goodness! It was just as scary as last year!!!

After we were properly yelled at, we walked over to the simulator {sim} building. Once we were there we were given the choice of flying the C-130 or the F-18. Of course, Tracey and I chose to try out the C-130! We got to take off and land the sim. It was really cool how accurate it felt and looked. When we landed, it felt just like it does on a plane when you're a passenger.

This year we got to do something fun and different. They let us try out the night vision goggles {NVGs.} The goggles were really cool to try on and test out. They had puzzles for us to work on, paper and crayons for us to color with, army men set up in the center of the room, and all kinds of other things we could try out while using the goggles. They were interesting! We figures out how to use the phone up to the goggles to get some good pictures of what we saw through the lenses.

They told me I could sit in the XOs chair...so I did!

Getting our lesson on "how to"

Tracey through the goggles

Is that a glow stick? Or are you just happy to see me?

We noticed that this guy had on a glow stick, but without the goggles, you couldn't see it! You could see it swinging when he moved, so we knew it wasn't in his flight suit hiding. We couldn't figure it out! It is an infrared glow stick. One of the most cool things I've ever seen.

After the NVG lesson, we got to go to the test cell again. It's where they test the jet engines before putting them on the jets. The engine is mounted and taken to full power to ensure that it works properly. There are no words to describe this. It is a teeth-chattering, sinus-clearning, brain-out-your-nose experience! You are required to wear squishy ear protection that you put directly into your ears AND "Mickey Mouse" ear protection over the squishy ones {all terms are technical terms, can you tell?!}

When we had a chance to sit down and eat lunch, we were at the rifle range, so they gave us some MREs {meals ready to eat.} These are the meals that the Marines are given to have when they're in the field and don't have other food sources. All in all, they aren't that bad...if you get the right ones. I'll be the first to tell you that the chicken with noodles, "vegetables in sauce" is not one that you want to be given! It smelled like cat food and we didn't eat any of it! {You don't even get M&Ms with that one!}

We {luckily} weren't required to eat the MREs and they gave us real food! After lunch, we got to shoot. They let us shoot the M-16s again this year. They gave us our safety brief and let us loose! Well, sort of. Each rifle had a coach, so we were given our magazines and we headed to our coach to walk us through shooting the weapon. Once we were comfortable, we were given the opportunity to shoot at our targets at 200 yards.

Our last event for the day was going to the gas chamber. They didn't gas us, and we didn't get to see anyone in the gas chamber with gas. We did get to see someone put on the full "hazmat" suit and mask while being timed. They have 9 seconds to put on their masks and 8 minutes to get the full suit on.