thedrifter
07-16-06, 09:40 AM
Wannabe Marines get a taste of training
Drill instructors bring Parris Island to Ohio
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The muscular Marine Corps recruiters wore T-shirts with a message on the back: Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body.
Well, a big OO-RAH to that.
The whoop — the Marines’ way of saying woohoo — swelled up from the throats of young recruits over and over at a city park in the Ross County seat yesterday.
It was the annual field meet, and nearly 200 future Marines from across Ohio competed against one another in teams. The "poolees," called that because they’re from the recruitment pool, are delayed-entry recruits either newly graduated from high school or still in school.
They did pull-ups on bars 8 feet high. They did push-ups and crunches. They ran relay races. They hauled one another on their backs in the fireman’s carry event and pulled hard and furious in tugs of war.
They submitted to two bellowing, mean-faced drill instructors imported for the day from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C.
The instructors yelled things like "Knees up higher!" as the poolees ran in place and "You ain’t nothing to me, understand that?" to one who looked at his tormenter the wrong way.
The exercises gave the young men and a sprinkling of young women a taste of what Parris Island boot camp will be like.
"This is to get them prepared for recruit training," said Sgt. Joe Lewis, a Columbus-based recruiter. "If we get them together to eat pizza, are we doing them a favor? No."
Yesterday, the taste was the salty sweat dripping from the poolees’ heat-flushed faces as they were put through their paces.
To their credit, no one threw up or passed out, even after they wolfed down a 3,000-calorie lunch from their Meals Ready to Eat pouches, shouted OO-RAH a number of times and ran back onto the sweltering field for the second half of the four-hour field meet.
The poolees relished it.
"It is hard work, but I love the sweat, the yelling, the motivation," said 18-year-old Zach Pizzedaz.
The Reynoldsburg High School graduate is scheduled to depart for Parris Island July 24. He considered other branches of the military but picked the Marines.
"I wanted to go all-out," he explained. "I wanted to go through the longest and the hardest. The harder something is, the greater the reward."
The other poolees talked with the same pride.
"I am definitely looking forward to this," said 17-year-old Jeremy Shriver, who graduated early from Hilliard Darby High School and leaves for Parris Island on Tuesday.
He plans to be an infantry machine gunner and has no qualms about going to Iraq, Afghanistan or another hot spot.
Nor does Eric Foster, a 17-year-old senior at Reynoldsburg High School who expects to go to Parris Island after he graduates in June.
He plans to be an infantry rifleman.
"If I worried, I wouldn’t have signed up. That’s the job."
A group of parents watched from beneath a canopied stand as their sons and daughters drilled on the field.
"It’s amazing. It gives you a perspective of what they are going to be doing," said 42-year-old Lori Nelson, of Canal Winchester.
Her 17-year-old son, Morgan Penn, graduated from Canal Winchester High School and is scheduled to leave for Parris Island Aug. 7.
Does she worry?
"Of course, I worry a lot. But he fought to get in, and my philosophy is that I have a good faith in God. I pray he’ll come back if he has to go over."
mlane@dispatch.com
Ellie
Drill instructors bring Parris Island to Ohio
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The muscular Marine Corps recruiters wore T-shirts with a message on the back: Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body.
Well, a big OO-RAH to that.
The whoop — the Marines’ way of saying woohoo — swelled up from the throats of young recruits over and over at a city park in the Ross County seat yesterday.
It was the annual field meet, and nearly 200 future Marines from across Ohio competed against one another in teams. The "poolees," called that because they’re from the recruitment pool, are delayed-entry recruits either newly graduated from high school or still in school.
They did pull-ups on bars 8 feet high. They did push-ups and crunches. They ran relay races. They hauled one another on their backs in the fireman’s carry event and pulled hard and furious in tugs of war.
They submitted to two bellowing, mean-faced drill instructors imported for the day from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C.
The instructors yelled things like "Knees up higher!" as the poolees ran in place and "You ain’t nothing to me, understand that?" to one who looked at his tormenter the wrong way.
The exercises gave the young men and a sprinkling of young women a taste of what Parris Island boot camp will be like.
"This is to get them prepared for recruit training," said Sgt. Joe Lewis, a Columbus-based recruiter. "If we get them together to eat pizza, are we doing them a favor? No."
Yesterday, the taste was the salty sweat dripping from the poolees’ heat-flushed faces as they were put through their paces.
To their credit, no one threw up or passed out, even after they wolfed down a 3,000-calorie lunch from their Meals Ready to Eat pouches, shouted OO-RAH a number of times and ran back onto the sweltering field for the second half of the four-hour field meet.
The poolees relished it.
"It is hard work, but I love the sweat, the yelling, the motivation," said 18-year-old Zach Pizzedaz.
The Reynoldsburg High School graduate is scheduled to depart for Parris Island July 24. He considered other branches of the military but picked the Marines.
"I wanted to go all-out," he explained. "I wanted to go through the longest and the hardest. The harder something is, the greater the reward."
The other poolees talked with the same pride.
"I am definitely looking forward to this," said 17-year-old Jeremy Shriver, who graduated early from Hilliard Darby High School and leaves for Parris Island on Tuesday.
He plans to be an infantry machine gunner and has no qualms about going to Iraq, Afghanistan or another hot spot.
Nor does Eric Foster, a 17-year-old senior at Reynoldsburg High School who expects to go to Parris Island after he graduates in June.
He plans to be an infantry rifleman.
"If I worried, I wouldn’t have signed up. That’s the job."
A group of parents watched from beneath a canopied stand as their sons and daughters drilled on the field.
"It’s amazing. It gives you a perspective of what they are going to be doing," said 42-year-old Lori Nelson, of Canal Winchester.
Her 17-year-old son, Morgan Penn, graduated from Canal Winchester High School and is scheduled to leave for Parris Island Aug. 7.
Does she worry?
"Of course, I worry a lot. But he fought to get in, and my philosophy is that I have a good faith in God. I pray he’ll come back if he has to go over."
mlane@dispatch.com
Ellie