The Big Picture
I had to turn in a lot of uniform items when I left active duty. If I was smart, I would have just bought more before leaving the base, but all my uniform items were stolen by my foster family once I returned to Baltimore.
At first, I was pretty heartbroken, but then I realized that my foster family is not my actual family, so I was more upset with myself than I was with them. I was angry, I felt stupid for trusting them, the same way I was angry and felt stupid for trusting certain people in the Marines. Back-to-back, I had to learn two incredibly painful (and expensive) lessons about two groups of people who I know better than trusting in the future.
In the case of my foster family, all I have to do is spend the money to change my name back to my birth name and then I should be good to go. Once that’s done, I’ll have to submit a correction to my military records, request a discharge upgrade, and replace a few of military uniforms. I should be able to skip the dress and service ones for the time being, but there’s no way around the fact that i’ll need a pack, some boots, few utility uniforms, and some physical training uniforms. When I think about it, if I am going to get a field-ready uniform, I might as well get a full kit, although it might be wise to start with something other than MARPAT.
🩸 
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