Reed's Training

This is Reed's fifth week away from home and his fourth week of marine bootcamp training. This week he is learning unarmed manipulations, which means he learns to take control of an opponent using pressure points and joint manipulations. Yikes! His platoon also began swim week today. Since the marine corps is an "amphibious assault force," every marine must know how to survive in water. After he finishes water survival training on Friday he will take a test to earn his tan belt, which is the first of five tests on his way to a black belt in martial arts. In his letters Reed has said he is really excited about learning martial arts, and he also said that his muscles haven't gotten any bigger yet but you can see the veins in his arms! Ha!