Sekhmet
03-13-11, 09:29 AM
Fellow Poolees-
Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a Pool Function run by a former Drill Instructor (for the record, he had acted as a D.I. and a Senior D.I. for numerous platoons, and at present he is still serving in the Marine Corps). I'm not going to get into what went down when he ran us through a circuit course (you've heard about the yelling, name calling, etc., and really what he gave us was probably just a taste of the five-course ****-storm we'll be encountering when we all go to boot), but I thought I would share a few tips for boot he gave us after all was said and done. Chances are some helpful graduates have shared all of this, before, but I thought I'd jot it down, just in case:
1. Tell your parents, wives, husbands, etc. before you leave not to call your recruiter and complain when they don't receive letters from you. If they call your recruiter, here is what will happen: Your recruiter will call your Senior D.I., who will ask your D.I.s to "motivate" you into writing a letter. You will not like their motivational techniques, so either write one *******ed letter or tell whoever is expecting letters from you not to worry when they don't get one.
2. Know the difference between being injured and being hurt. When you are hurt, you are sore (i.e. normal wear and tear). When you are injured, you cannot workout or carry on throughout the day without experiencing pain or your leg is at an 180 degree angle or half of your arm is gone (you get the idea). If you are INJURED, tell your Senior D.I., because otherwise you'll just end up injuring yourself further and possibly end up getting dropped.
3. Don't get mad, unless you can turn being mad into being productive. One girl in our pool who got a hefty amount of wrath started getting sassy and the D.I. noticed right away and doubled the amount of "attention" she got from him. Basically, he told her and the rest of us that being ****y wasn't going to fly at Parris Island, and that when it came down to it, your D.I.s will always win. So, if you're mad, just stuff it.
4. Know the difference between legitimate abuse and a "correction." Abuse is when a D.I. punches you, and if this happens, the D.I. we spoke with said we should inform our Senior D.I. right away and it will be taken care of. However, it is not unusual for a D.I. to correct your nasty civilian stance by kicking your feet together or grabbing your hands and the whatnot. This is not abuse, so don't write someone back home telling them you're being abused, because then they'll just call your recruiter and your recruiter will call your Senior D.I. and then everything will be horrible.
5. JUST DO AS YOU'RE TOLD AND DO IT FAST. This is the best thing you can do. I cannot tell you how many times yesterday I picked up and put down a waterbottle because some asshat wasn't doing it quick enough, or because they picked it up with the cap off or held it wrong.
6. Help each other out. If you have a minute to make your rack and you finish with twenty seconds left, don't stand there while your rackmate struggles. Help them out, because otherwise you don't look like a team player.
7. Someone is always watching. If your D.I. turns his/her back on you while you're doing mountain climbers, don't take this opportunity to take a break, because another D.I. will see this and you'll just end up doing twice as many mountainclimbers. Yesterday, we originally only had to do six rounds on the circuit course, but we had to do a seventh because the former D.I.'s son saw one of us (not me) take a break during a round.
Those are the key points I picked up from the experience; when the Marine we met spoke to us about boot, he just gave us the "waves" of the experience and skipped over the "**** pits" that comprise the rest of boot. If you have any questions about a topic, feel free to ask as he may have covered it, but honestly you're probably better off asking one of the recent graduates on this forum. Also, after the circuit course was said and done, we were given a class on assembling and disassembling an M-16 (the function took place at a military base), and it was incredibly helpful. So, if you can talk your recruiter into having a class like this before you ship, do so.
Hope this was helpful in some way.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a Pool Function run by a former Drill Instructor (for the record, he had acted as a D.I. and a Senior D.I. for numerous platoons, and at present he is still serving in the Marine Corps). I'm not going to get into what went down when he ran us through a circuit course (you've heard about the yelling, name calling, etc., and really what he gave us was probably just a taste of the five-course ****-storm we'll be encountering when we all go to boot), but I thought I would share a few tips for boot he gave us after all was said and done. Chances are some helpful graduates have shared all of this, before, but I thought I'd jot it down, just in case:
1. Tell your parents, wives, husbands, etc. before you leave not to call your recruiter and complain when they don't receive letters from you. If they call your recruiter, here is what will happen: Your recruiter will call your Senior D.I., who will ask your D.I.s to "motivate" you into writing a letter. You will not like their motivational techniques, so either write one *******ed letter or tell whoever is expecting letters from you not to worry when they don't get one.
2. Know the difference between being injured and being hurt. When you are hurt, you are sore (i.e. normal wear and tear). When you are injured, you cannot workout or carry on throughout the day without experiencing pain or your leg is at an 180 degree angle or half of your arm is gone (you get the idea). If you are INJURED, tell your Senior D.I., because otherwise you'll just end up injuring yourself further and possibly end up getting dropped.
3. Don't get mad, unless you can turn being mad into being productive. One girl in our pool who got a hefty amount of wrath started getting sassy and the D.I. noticed right away and doubled the amount of "attention" she got from him. Basically, he told her and the rest of us that being ****y wasn't going to fly at Parris Island, and that when it came down to it, your D.I.s will always win. So, if you're mad, just stuff it.
4. Know the difference between legitimate abuse and a "correction." Abuse is when a D.I. punches you, and if this happens, the D.I. we spoke with said we should inform our Senior D.I. right away and it will be taken care of. However, it is not unusual for a D.I. to correct your nasty civilian stance by kicking your feet together or grabbing your hands and the whatnot. This is not abuse, so don't write someone back home telling them you're being abused, because then they'll just call your recruiter and your recruiter will call your Senior D.I. and then everything will be horrible.
5. JUST DO AS YOU'RE TOLD AND DO IT FAST. This is the best thing you can do. I cannot tell you how many times yesterday I picked up and put down a waterbottle because some asshat wasn't doing it quick enough, or because they picked it up with the cap off or held it wrong.
6. Help each other out. If you have a minute to make your rack and you finish with twenty seconds left, don't stand there while your rackmate struggles. Help them out, because otherwise you don't look like a team player.
7. Someone is always watching. If your D.I. turns his/her back on you while you're doing mountain climbers, don't take this opportunity to take a break, because another D.I. will see this and you'll just end up doing twice as many mountainclimbers. Yesterday, we originally only had to do six rounds on the circuit course, but we had to do a seventh because the former D.I.'s son saw one of us (not me) take a break during a round.
Those are the key points I picked up from the experience; when the Marine we met spoke to us about boot, he just gave us the "waves" of the experience and skipped over the "**** pits" that comprise the rest of boot. If you have any questions about a topic, feel free to ask as he may have covered it, but honestly you're probably better off asking one of the recent graduates on this forum. Also, after the circuit course was said and done, we were given a class on assembling and disassembling an M-16 (the function took place at a military base), and it was incredibly helpful. So, if you can talk your recruiter into having a class like this before you ship, do so.
Hope this was helpful in some way.