Glossary of Marine terms

MARINES: Glossary of Marine terms
The Herald Bulletin

— Oo-rah — the warrior cry with as many origins as there are legends about the Marine Corps. It is usually shouted by fellow Marines as a form of affirmation or congratulation.

Some Marines trace back the utterance to the Revolutionary War. One reader of The Herald Bulletin claimed it originated during World War II when Marines were mimicking the “ooga” sound made by submarines before they went under.

“Oo-rah,” sometimes pronounced “hoo-rah,” is distinctively different from the Army’s “hoo-ah.”

Semper fidelis — Latin for “always faithful.” The Marines adopted the saying in 1883, and it now appears on the eagle, globe and anchor medal.

Navy terms — The Marines, as part of the Navy, use many naval terms. A restroom is a head, a wall is a bulkhead, a floor is a deck, cover is a hat, colors is the raising and lowering of the American flag, a hatch is a door and scuttlebutt is a drinking fountain or rumors.

Leatherneck — originated in 1789 when Marines wore a leather neckband for protection of the neck during sword combat.

Ellie

Published August 25, 2007 10:24 pm -

10:25 p.m.: MARINES: What is the USO?

The United Services Organization was founded on Feb. 5, 1941, by President Franklin Roosevelt. It was chartered by Congress as a nonprofit charitable corporation. Each successive president has been honorary chairman of the USO.


There are 120 USO centers throughout the world with headquarters in Arlington, Va.

The purpose of the USO is enhance the quality of life for members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families, and create a cooperative environment between the military and civilian communities.

A typical USO has television and plenty of paperback books that service members can take with them. It’s a place to relax until duty calls.

Source: USO Web site.

Published August 25, 2007 10:26 pm - The depot sits on 388 acres adjacent to San Diego’s international airport. This accounts for the “San Diego pause.”

10:26 p.m.: MARINES: Marine Corps Recruit Depot - San Diego

The depot sits on 388 acres adjacent to San Diego’s international airport. This accounts for the “San Diego pause.” Drill instructors or anyone engaged in conversation outdoors have to stop when planes take off, which is every few minutes.


Construction on the base began in 1919 and opened in 1921. During World War II, a half million recruits trained at the San Diego depot.

There has been talk in recent years of closing the base so the airport can expand. A Naval recruiting station once sat next to the Marine base but has been converted to apartment complexes and shopping centers.

Should the base close, recruits would be trained at Camp Pendleton, about 35 miles north of San Diego.

Source: Marine Recruit Training Depot Web site

Ellie

the educators workshop saw during the week, is more than marching, firing the M16 and learning how to survive simulated combat. There is a lot of class time.

6:05 p.m. Marines learn how to spot terrorists
Day 2 of 3-part series

Steve Dick

Marine training, as the members of the educators workshop saw during the week, is more than marching, firing the M16 and learning how to survive simulated combat. There is a lot of class time.


One class, taught by Sgt. Duane Blank, from New Orleans, La., focused on how to spot a terrorist.

“It’s terrorism awareness,” he said. “We teach them to spot suspicious objects,” such as explosive devices that have claimed the lives of many Marines in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Robert Scott, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion Recruit Training Regiment, said terrorism awareness has been going on in the Marines since before Sept. 11, 2001.

“The classes will make you a harder target,” he said. For example, Marines are taught to blend in with their surroundings in hostile parts of the world. Don’t wear uniforms, don’t wear short hair and don’t fall into patterns of behavior that could tip off a terrorist.

At the same time, Scott noted, Marines are on the lookout for such patterns in people, such as, for example, if they notice someone taking pictures of the base or people hanging around outside the gates. “We look for people out of place,” Scott said.

When terrorism alerts rise, Scott said each base reacts to the heightened awareness. The Marine Recruit Training Depot hasn’t had a high alert level to respond to in the last year, Scott said.

Ellie

Published August 26, 2007 08:15 pm - CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. ...”
This Marine slogan was made famous in the Stanley Kubrick film “Full Metal Jacket,” but Staff Sgt. Jason Gallantine, of the recruiting station in Indianapolis, confirmed that Marines do say this. It wasn’t made up for the movie.


8:11 p.m.: Marine recruits learn to survive in combat situations
Day 2 of a 3-part series

Steve Dick


CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. ...”


This Marine slogan was made famous in the Stanley Kubrick film “Full Metal Jacket,” but Staff Sgt. Jason Gallantine, of the recruiting station in Indianapolis, confirmed that Marines do say this. It wasn’t made up for the movie.

Gallantine, originally from Idaho, organized the Marine Corps Educators Workshop. In the Marines for nine years, he got out Aug. 17 because he has custody of his children and doesn’t want to risk losing them by being deployed.

He’s behind the wheel of the van taking media types around Camp Pendleton, a sprawling Marine base 35 miles north of San Diego where the desert meets the Pacific Ocean. The recruits, dressed in fatigues with full gear and grease paint all over their faces, are in no mood to enjoy their surroundings.

They’re carrying M16s, the Marines’ weapon of choice. Some are in the prone position, shooting live ammunition at targets 500 yards away that look to be the size of a paperback book. The Marine Corps, the workshop personnel are told, is the only branch of the service that shoots at targets that far away. “It’s a confidence booster” is the reason given by the Weapon and Field Training Battalion.

All recruits have to shoot and meet the minimum requirements of the Marines to graduate boot camp. Dylan Cyr, 20, North Liberty, Ind., was on the firing range. “I’m OK,” Cyr said when asked how he was shooting. He said he had a shooting range in his backyard in Indiana and hunted deer and small game. But a 12-gauge shotgun is a little different from the M16, he admitted,

All Marines have to qualify on the M16 as either marksman, the lowest qualification, sharpshooter or expert. Ninety-five percent qualify on the first time out, according to personnel at Camp Pendleton.

“It’s better if they don’t have any shooting experience,” said Gallantine.

At the Leadership Reaction Course, recruits get into small groups to solve battlefield problems. One group was trying to swing over an area that was outlined in red. If they touched red, they were pronounced dead and had to do it over again.

Before they try again, however, they have to “drag Fred,” a 70-pound dummy, to the firing line. Bent over double, the unlucky recruit drags Fred down a dusty path.

Chris Norwalt, an 18-year-old recruit from Fort Wayne, Ind., took the exercise in stride. “There is a lot of challenging stuff, but nothing too hard. You work as a team, you get it done.”

On another part of the base, Capt. Mike McDowell, who said he is good friends with Pat Knight and worked with the legendary Bobby Knight at an Indiana University basketball camp in the 1990s, explains the drill coming up. Recruits will dodge steady machine gun fire and mortar shells (no live ammunition is used) as they work their fire teams to advance. Fire teams consist of four people, two moving forward and two covering them through a maze of obstacles.

Muncie’s Adam Selvey, 18, who graduated from Delta High School this year, looks a little tired at the end of the course. He’d tripped on some barbed wire.

“The war inspired me to join,” he said. “I have friends at home who complain about how the country is going. I may as well do something about it.”

What he’ll do, as most Marine drill instructors and officers note, is be in Iraq within a year. Around 95 percent of the DIs have combat experience to get them ready.

Ellie

Published August 25, 2007 10:30 pm - SAN DIEGO — Watching recruits go through boot camp brings to mind the old metaphor about making sausage: You like it, but you don’t want to know the process it goes through.


10:30 p.m.: MARINES: Strangers in a strange land: Marine recruits leave their old lives behind


Steve Dick
steve.dick@heraldbulletin.com


SAN DIEGO — Watching recruits go through boot camp brings to mind the old metaphor about making sausage: You like it, but you don’t want to know the process it goes through.

Young men from all corners of the western half of the United States (East Coast recruits go to Parris Island, S.C., as do all female recruits) stood around the United Services Organization Aug. 6 waiting for the Marine Corps buses to arrive and take them to the depot, which has been around since 1921 and trained a half million recruits alone during World War II.

Adam Pinkerton, 18, from Huntington, Ind., said he wasn’t too nervous. “But I know that will change when I get on the bus.”

He said he joined for the reason many of the recruits give. “I wanted a challenge. I want to do combat support.” When asked if he worried about the conflict in Iraq, he said, “The war doesn’t worry me.”

Tim Hroma, 19, Chesterton, Ind., harked back to Sept. 11 for his reason to join.

“I’ve wanted to be a Marine ever since the attacks. I’ve been waiting a long time.”

The wait was over when a drill instructor, Sgt. Murch, sporting a black eye patch, came in and told the young men that if they wanted to be Marines, they would get outside — right now — and fall in by the bus. The USO emptied out — right now.

“Get on the bus,” said Murch. “Drop those two yellow packages (their orders) on the first two seats. Move quickly.”

When the new recruits arrived at the depot, their heads were lowered.

Gunnery Sgt. Rafael Vargas was waiting at the receiving building. The plaza in front of the building was marked with yellow foot prints as Vargas, joined by Sgt. Anthony Soehagen, climbed into the two buses to let the recruits know they were in a different world.

“Get off my bus,” they yelled. “Right now. Quickly.” The recruits were directed to the yellow foot prints. “You stand on those footprints, aye aye sir.” The recruits responded, a little timidly, “Aye aye, sir.”

“You yell as loud as you can, ‘Aye aye, sir,’” screamed Soehagen. “AYE AYE, SIR,” the recruits yelled.

The footprints were lined up four deep as recruits ran to fill in one row, then the next. What they were carrying, they placed on the ground.

“You hold your arms straight out, make a fist with your thumbs sticking up. Then you put your arms by your side,” said Vargas getting the recruits to stand at attention.

Ellie

Published August 26, 2007 06:03 pm - Each year, the Marine Corps spends the summer months flying teachers, counselors and media people to San Diego so they can see firsthand what recruits go through, from arrival at boot camp to graduation.


6:01 p.m.: Marine Corps Educators Workshop
Day 2 of 3-part Series

Steve Dick


Each year, the Marine Corps spends the summer months flying teachers, counselors and media people to San Diego so they can see firsthand what recruits go through, from arrival at boot camp to graduation.


A group left Indianapolis on Aug. 6 and returned Aug. 10. In San Diego, they met up with a similar group from Des Moines, Iowa. During the week, these groups were treated much as Marines were. The day started at 0530 and ended at 1800.

The group was put in lines for close order drill, and each was assigned a drill instructor who yelled cadence as the group marched to different functions.

When the DI yelled “Ears,” the group responded, “Open, sir.” Or “Eyes.” “Click, sir.” When they entered the bleachers to watch an amphibious vehicle demonstration, they waited to be seated until the DI gave the command. If they didn’t sit in unison, he stood them back up to try it again. When they finally got seated properly, Sgt. Marvin Torres, who had been giving the orders, told another sergeant, “I love this.”

But he also told the group that he wasn’t too thrilled about this extra duty because it took him away from his recruits who had to prepare for an important test the following week.

The workshop members also participated in some combat training, dressing in “desert cammis” (camouflage uniforms) to run an obstacle course and dive into fox holes before charging with their bayonets toward a dummy. All the while, the DIs were yelling, “You can go faster than that.” When the week was over, however, the workshop members couldn’t wait to have their picture taken with Torres, who was all smiles when the female members of the group had a hug and kiss for him.

Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and commanding general of the western recruiting region, said the intent of the visit was not to make recruiters of the educators, but to give them a working knowledge of the Marine Corps.

When the Indianapolis and Iowa groups departed, the public affairs Marines had a weekend to get ready for two more groups, from San Diego and Los Angeles.


Enlisting immigrants

The Marine Corps will take noncitizen immigrants into the service as long as they have a green card that makes them eligible to work in the United States.

According to Lt. Col. Robert Scott, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion Recruit Training Regiment, these recruits are put on the fast track for citizenship. While it might take ordinary immigrants four years or more to be a citizen, one joining the Marines can become a citizen in one or two years.



Educational opportunities for Marines

Published August 27, 2007 07:17 pm - Michael Eiler flew out of Indianapolis Monday for San Diego. His 10-day leave went fast, he said. But it’s time to start chapter two in the life of a new Marine.

7:16 p.m.: Leave over, Eiler heads back to the Marines
Day 2 of 3-part series

By STEPHEN DICK

Michael Eiler flew out of Indianapolis Monday for San Diego. His 10-day leave went fast, he said. But it’s time to start chapter two in the life of a new Marine.

Eiler graduated on Aug. 17 from the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot in San Diego. His family, wife Clerisa and baby son Brian and parents Cheryl and Greg Eiler, made the trip west to watch his big day.

On Family Day, Aug. 16, Eiler joined his fellow recruits in the traditional motivational run. “It was hot,” Mike, in uniform, remembered as he and his family joined a reporter Friday at Town Center Park. “Everyone was drenched.”

Since he’s been back in Anderson, he’s been on the go. Cheryl said Friday was the first day she’d seen him since they returned Aug. 19.

“It’s hard to slow down,” said Eiler. “We’re always on the move (in boot camp), always doing something. I don’t want to sit and watch TV. Call that discipline.”

His mother has noticed the transformation. “He’s more confident, more goal-oriented and has a better idea of his future. It’s been good for him.”

That future looks to be more than one hitch in the Marine Corps. “Oh yeah, I’ll make a career of it,” he said.

“He’s more motivated,” said Clerisa. “He doesn’t sit around. He gets things done.”

He’ll return to Camp Pendleton, about 35 miles north of San Diego, for combat training for the next three weeks. That will be followed by training in his military occupational specialty (MOS), which, for Eiler, will be financial technician. That school will be in North Carolina. If he has to wait for an opening in that school, he said, he’ll be doing patrol and military police duty.

After that will be a permanent duty station, at which time he’ll move his wife and son.

“It will be exciting to get away from Indiana,” said Clerisa who plans to use her husband’s Montgomery GI Bill to study nursing.

She’s glad that the two will be able to communicate more often now that boot camp is over.

While at home, Eiler said he talked one of his friends into joining, although not the Marine Corps. “He’s going to join the Air Force, but it’s still military.”

Ellie