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thedrifter
06-21-09, 08:49 AM
Posted on Sat, Jun. 20, 2009
Making of a Marine a true joy to observe
By J.R. LABBE
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT, SAN DIEGO | It took the members of “Indy Company” a ridiculously long time to master the responses to the simplest commands barked by their drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Rafael Vargas. “Stand tall, lean back” never did translate from words to actual posture as they marched, and the bayonet course almost bested those who chose to participate. They survived, but it wasn’t pretty.

But the 24 Indiana educators and their “embed” — a journalist from Fort Worth who was fortunate enough to share their weeklong experience — learned more than they could have imagined about what it takes to be a United States Marine.

The Educators’ Workshop program provides an opportunity for teachers, counselors, coaches and administrators from school districts across the nation to spend five days at one of the Marine depots in San Diego or Parris Island, S.C.

In five days, educators can experience a condensed version of what happens to a recruit from Day One of Receiving Week, when he steps off the bus that delivers him from the San Diego airport to the yellow footprints outside the processing center, to graduation in front of family and friends.

In real time, the transformation takes 12 weeks.

The Marines’ goal is to get the most influential people in a young person’s life besides family to consider the Marines an option for top graduates.

“Your bottom 10 percent students, who you’re trying to figure out what to do with? We don’t want them,” said Brig. Gen. Angie Salinas, the commanding general, in her welcoming remarks to educators from Indiana and Iowa on Tuesday morning. “We want the best and the brightest.”

Salinas isn’t expecting the educators to go back to their schools as recruiters. The Marines in the Western Recruiting Region are doing fine on their own, bringing in between 19,000 and 21,000 recruits annually.

“We made our number for the month on the sixth day of June,” she said. “If we weren’t very good at what we do, that wouldn’t happen.”

What she hopes the teachers and counselors take away is an appreciation for the educational and training opportunities that the Marines offer.

Recruit John Lowe, who attended high school in Carrollton, Texas, before going to North Lake College in Irving, plans to turn an interest in Asian studies into a career as a translator, an area much in demand.

Before signing up, Lowe had been teaching martial arts classes. A black belt in taekwondo, he wasn’t worried about the Marines’ rigorous physical training.

“Everyone thinks that Marines go through high-obstacle training every day,” said Lowe. “We spend more time in hurry-up-and-stand mode.”

Lowe has about six weeks to go before he earns the eagle, globe and anchor pin. He will train for 18 more months as a cryptologic linguist.

Eric Melson of Austin, Texas, had a more personal reason for signing the contract that will obligate him for four years of military service. The 21-year-old single father of a 2-year-old son said he had worked as a lube tech but wasn’t making much money. Melson said he joined for two reasons: Money for college and to “make my son proud of who I am, not what I was.”

His son will have every reason to be proud of his father, who went from recruit to Marine on Thursday morning, after successfully completing 54 hours in the Crucible, the defining test of stamina, ingenuity, intelligence, physical strength and teamwork.

I will never forget the honor of being the first civilian to call him “Marine.”

2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
E-mail Jill “J.R.” Labbe at jrlabbe@star-telegram.com.

Ellie