RETIREMENT CEREMONY AND PARTY

Retirement Ceremony will go at 1300 at the Engineer Museum aboard Fort Leonard Wood.

This page focuses on the party due to so many friends and family coming from all over the midwest. Here are some things you need to know:

- The party is being held on our property (The Covington Five Oaks).

GPS Location:

Latitude:38.0613028°
Longitude:-92.1764976°

Directions from I-44:

Take I-44 out of St. Louis. Your GPS may offer an alternative route, I do not recommend that.

Take exit 163 (Hwy 28, Dixon) North.

Follow for about 18 miles until you roll into the town of Dixon.

Turn Left on Hwy C when you come to Casey's.

Follow Hwy C out of town, go over the hills, turn right on Hwy 133.

Travel about two miles and turn left on Hwy BB.

Go 5.6 miles. You will go down a big hill and up another and come to a 90 degree bend in the road.

After passing a dirt road on your left, turn into the next driveway on your left.

You will see indicators as you arrive.

- The drive from Illinois takes five hours.

- This is an adult party. There will be beer, whiskey and four letter words.

- Kids are not discouraged; however, just keep the above in mind. If it is okay with you, it is okay with me.

- There is a pond. There will be fishing poles staged down there. If you jump in the pond, you may end up with a hook in your lip. Swimming is not recommended.

- A nice fella, Jay Miller is going to be smoking and preparing the food for us. He has volunteered to do this for me for free. Thank him for me if you get the chance.

- The party is an all night event. There are two choices for a place to stay:

- Hotels are about 30 minutes away.
For Hotels,go to: http://www.visitpulaskicounty.org/hotel_list.asp

- Camp on the property.

- Bring a tent with you if you have one. If you don't, let me know and I will secure one for you.

- I have rented port-o-johns for the event.

- There will be an outdoor (enclosed) shower available.

- Missouri roads are not like Illinois. They are hilly and winding. Bring a designated driver if you plan to stay in a hotel.

- I will have cornhole games, a golfing game, horseshoes and guitar pickin at the party. If you have another redneck game that will be fun, bring it along!

- It will be very helpful if you let me know how many will be coming to the party, if you will be camping and if you will be having breakfast.

E-mail: wade.covington@gmail.com
Phone: 573-528-8853

I really look forward to seeing everyone. THIS is gonna be fun!

2nd Annual Covington Fish Derby

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2nd Annual Covington Fish Derby

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1st Annual Memorial Day Covington Fish Derby

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1st Annual Memorial Day Covington Fish Derby

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Property

Humbled

I have over the course of the past few years received lots of letters from people, friends and family while deployed. Yesterday, I received a package that was very unexpected. It was pictures, drawings and cards from Kevin and Kelsie Clapp (AKA "The Clapp Twins") for Veterans Day. The pictures attached to this post is the awesome artwork of Kevin Clapp - What an imagination!!

I also received a card and some great pictures of their trip to the museum that they took with grandma. I think it is phenomenal that these kids understand and respect the unmeasurable meaning of Veterans Day.

I am taken aback that it was me that they thought of on this day.

I would like to remind all that even though the media has lost interest in the two wars still going on; there are brave Marines, Soldiers, Airman, and Sailors that are continuing to improve conditions and face adversity daily. They deserve the atttention and gratitude for braving the tip of the spear. There is a lot of downtime while over there, especially now. If you would like to fill some of that downtime with a letter or more, you can click here which will take you to anymarine.com.

Kevin and Kelsi, thank you so much for what you sent. It makes me very happy to see young kids so proud of their nation.

Hope everyone is doing well. I can be contacted at wade.covington@gmail.com .


See more award winning art work below :-)

Grandma and Kevin Go to the War Museum

The resemblance is uncanny!!

I CAN SMELL THE BARN

I know you have not heard from me in a while, I tell you, it has been one heck of a trip. We were off of the coast of Africa dealing with Pirates in October and were called on to steam east to assist in humanitarian efforts in Bangladesh. It was the first time a Marine Expeditionary Unit from the east coast had been that Far East since the last time we helped Bangladesh. We were there for about a month and darted once again west and stopped in Dubai, located in the United Arab Emirates. There have been a lot of shows and reports on the news about Dubai, I hope you had the chance to catch one, it is quite impressive. From Dubai we participated in some training in the Arabian Gulf and took off to the Red Sea to transit back through the Suez Canal. Once home, I plan to post some good pictures of Dubai and others for everyone’s viewing.
As we arrived into the Mediterranean Sea we stopped in Israel for six days. I told Jessica before leaving, I didn’t care if we floated around aimlessly for six months, if we stopped in Israel for one day it would make the trip worth it. I traveled to Nazareth, Jerusalem, Massad, and the Dead Sea. I saw and learned a lot. I took over 300 pictures in the four days I traveled around Israel. I could write five pages about what I saw in Israel (but won’t bore you with it). One thing I did do that not many people in the world would have, was I put on shorts and swam in the Dead Sea. It has 10 times the salt as the ocean, and because of that, you literally float on top the water. It was an interesting experience, but cold (40 degrees F).
From Israel we stopped in Rota Spain for four days to conduct an agricultural wash down of the vehicles and cargo. It was a big operation, but we finished it very early. That was mostly due to the teamwork and dedication of all the young Marines, amazing what they will do when they know liberty is involved!! Right now we are screaming toward my favorite part of the world, the USA. The Ship’s Captain has the throttle as far forward as she will go (about 24 knotts) so I am getting anxious. When I left Bangladesh, I was 12 hours ahead of Jess and Brianna, today I am only 2 hours ahead.
Because of computer restrictions I have not been able to send large files for dad to post in the blog so I have held off. I will be putting a two-part Israel post and Dubai post on when I get home. Looking forward to seeing everyone, hope all is well!!

Wade

P. S. For those of you that regularly e-mail me, you can now send e-mails to wcovington2@ec.rr.com. My ship e-mail will become invalid within the next week.