247th usmc birthday BAll, las vegas (2022)
In 2022, Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal invited me to take pictures at the Nevada detachment’s annual United States Marine Corps birthday celebration.
Held at the Orleans hotel/casino that year, the historical pageant was performed by students at Basic, where I was the yearbook teacher. Our students had practiced countless hours under the direction SgtMaj. Without fail, every day (or at least it seemed) I would be leaving quite late from work and see this or that group of the MCJROTC practicing something. Rifles in the air. Physical training. Something.
After retiring from the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Kasal came to teach at Basic. I was fortunate enough to have met and worked with him, and especially during COVID, I was happy to assist SgtMaj go online. If ever a person could be summarized by one word, you could summarize him as embodying true integrity.
paint the b—2022
Each year at Basic Academy (formerly Basic High School), the senior class makes a pilgrimage to the very-nearby foothills of the River Mountain range, the base of which the school sits. A visually-deceptive steep incline, seniors and staff realize how out-of-shape they really are lugging cans of watered down, environmentally-friendly white paint, trash bags, and various gardening instruments.
Unless it’s 2023 and you’re Mr. Jones, in which case you drive your Jeep up the side of the mountain because you didn’t buy it to be pretty, you bought it to be a Jeep and blast Taylor Swift while looking not unlike a stereotypical 2020-s firefighter or police officer. But the rest of us are out of breath.