Opinion: Missing time in the U.S. Marines

Thanksgiving will fall on Nov. 23 this year. That’s a Thursday.

Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday every year. As a matter of fact, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

The day after Thanksgiving is the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Everybody knows this, and many employers take this into consideration and arrange their schedules to give everyone a four-day weekend. The U.S. Marines are aware of this custom also, and when I worked for them, we usually got the four-day weekend.

Getting there was not always a straight-line endeavor.

On the Monday prior to Thanksgiving, conversations at the company office went something like this:

“Thanksgiving is this week, no training, troops are going to be off.”

“What about Friday?”

“What Friday?”

“The Friday after Thanksgiving.”

“What about it?”

“Well, you know, the troops?”

“What about them?”

“Are they going to get the day off?”

“Friday’s a work day. Why would they get the day off?

“Well, you know, Friday’s the day after Thanksgiving.”

“What’s Battalion say about it?”

Now you have to understand that the conversation at Battalion is almost, verbatim, the same conversation that the company-level folks are having, with the exception that they will want to know what Regiment or maybe Division says about it.

The headquarters building at Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms, Calif., was on a rise and the headquarters was always referred to as “The Hill.” So the decision maker was “The Hill.” (As an aside, we liked to say that the devil owned both hell and Twentynine Palms, and he chose to live in hell and rent Twentynine Palms to the U.S. Marines.)

Now The Hill never came down with a decision immediately. On Tuesday morning, the word was “Friday will be a work day.” Then on Tuesday afternoon, “The troops will work a half day and be off at noon on Friday.” Wednesday morning came the word that “We’ll muster the troops at 0730 on Friday morning, and then turn them loose.” Finally, sometime Wednesday afternoon, would come the word that all federal employees will be off Friday, so everyone would get a four-day weekend.

When Christmas fell on a Thursday, almost the same sequence would occur. And, rest assured, no one would mention that when Christmas fell on a Thursday, New Years would also fall on a Thursday.

Deja vu all over again.

God, I miss the U.S. Marines.

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

[email protected]