The first thing is that you have to be okay with being a little creepy and kind of a stalker. My brother mentioned in his last letter to Dana that he found out that their company was going to go to a Padres vs. Yankees game that Sunday and how it would be so funny if she was there and ran into him. When Dana mentioned this to me Saturday night, obviously I jumped at the chance to go to see my brother. I did some snooping and found out that every Sunday home game, the graduating Marine company of that week gets to go to a Padres game. I looked further into it and found pictures from past games and zoomed in to figure out what section number they sit in---yep, I told you, you gotta be a little stalkerish! So Dana, my mom and I decided to get tickets to the game in a section right next to them just for the off chance we would get to see him.
We got there an hour early and saw them all come in so Dana and I kept our eyes peeled to see him. All of them looked alike and blended together and we missed him somehow! So we went to a DI and asked if this was company E. He said yes. Then asked if platoon 2115 was in there and he said yep they should be sitting there. He asked who we knew and we said Jason Nguyen. The guys were going to get food so he told us we could stand there and wait for him to come down or go up and find him.Another DI asked us if we were waiting for the one guy that went to college and when we said yes he told us Jason was the only one in the whole company who got a 100% on some test. I responded saying that didn't surprise me because he's so smart and the DI said, "Yep, way too smart for the Marines." It was fun to hear them talk fondly of my brother.
Dana and I kept waiting to see him. All we wanted was a glimpse! What we got was so much more than that. At first he was really shocked and confused and didn't know if he was allowed to speak with us but we had talked to one of the DIs there and he told us that my brother was more than welcome to talk to us and we can't get him into trouble because he is done and is now a Marine. Jason, being by the book like always, did not know how to react when he saw us. He made us go away, leaving Dana and I wanting to talk to him even more.
We went to get some refreshments and saw that so many of them kept coming out to get food (they each had to take out $20 and got to eat WHATEVER they want). So we decided to wait there for the off chance that my brother would come out. Obviously he would want nachos and a churro so he had to come out eventually. Sure enough we saw him come through the tunnel and we felt like we just saw a celebrity! He had us follow him into line where he was ordering food. We got to meet some of his closest friends and get our first real look at him. He instructed us to sit further at the top because thats where he was. Sidenote- Jason did order nachos, a churro, and a bag of m&ms.
When we got back in the stadium there was nowhere to sit directly near him so Jason decided to move all the way to the last row where the Marines were sitting and we got to sit directly behind him for 9 innings of the baseball game. We met more of his friends, sent their family and friends pictures and even called some of their family. It was such a special moment not only for us but also for all of them because this was the first time they've gotten any contact outside of the base for three months!
Jason's DI ended up asking him if he knew who we were and gave him a look that all the guys knew meant Jason was gonna be made fun of for a while but it was worth it. Surprising Jason is pretty hard to do so it was really fun to get this opportunity! He looks so fit now and seems to be really natural in this setting. He has made some great friends and even though it wasn't always easy, he made it with flying colors! We're going to get to see him at Family Day on Thursday and then he graduates on Friday! We were bummed we couldn't hug him or anything but it was still pretty awesome to spend a few hours with him and see him in his element. Enjoy the paparazzi pictures that we took. I'll post again after Family Day!
For future reference, they sit at the upper right deck at the games (sec. 325) so the best place to sit is section 323!
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