Yesterday afternoon I got to attend my very first Marine Corps homecoming down at Camp Pendleton. It was so different from any other homecoming I’d ever been to. There wasn’t really a big entrance or any of the usual fanfare that military homecomings typically have – we mostly just hung out near the barracks for the 11th MEU as the guys brought all their gear in off their ship. As we were standing around waiting, Gina’s boyfriend CPL Zephan Thé actually came up behind her and surprised her, which was my favorite photo of the whole afternoon. A couple hours later, they did a short formation and then the best word ever was yelled out – DISMISSED! I have to say – Gina’s sign is probably the most detailed sign I’ve ever seen in my nearly 5 years of shooting military homecomings. She spent something like 17 hours cutting out the little individual islands from their trip (10 brownie points if you can guess which countries they went to!) – I told her she better frame that sucker and hang it up somewhere!

Thank you Gina and Zephan for inviting me to your special day! It was pretty great to see you guys reunited! Welcome home Zephan, and everyone else from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Charlie Battery!