A reflection of my 10 months in the pool.

[Andrew09]

I leave in just under 3 weeks for Paris Island and just wanted to reflect for a bit so that those who may have just contracted will know not to take the pool for granted.

This month is my 10th month in the RS Canton, GA pool. Here are points I would like to shoot the breeze with:

- 10 months is long enough to see poolees contract, PT, leave for RT, come back, chill with them for 10 days, watch them go to SOI, they come back, chill some more and talk about training and the old DEP days of PT with them, watch them go back off to job school, then they come back and chill some more after that, then they go off and hit the fleet and you talk to them on Facebook about how much they love or hate the job their in. It's motivating to me to see the whole process that we anticipate so much actually take place. Utilize these guys that leave before you or have been in the pool longer to ask questions and get advice, any decent poolee or Marine would be willing to talk to you if you actually have good questions and concerns.

- Yes, waiting 10 months to ship to bootcamp sucks but make the most of it, don't be a lazy poolee that never shows up to PT or only shows up once every 2 weeks because you have "work" or whatever. I understand that a lot of us still have bills and family obligations while we're waiting to leave but just understand that next to God and country, striving for excellence as a future Marine should be high up there on your list of priorities. Make friends in the pool, grab food after PT and talk about stuff -- motivate each other. The pool should be a family of wanna-be-marines and mo-tarded poolees, the sooner you realize this and start working like a team the sooner you'll start motivating yourself/others and preparing yourself to excel in bootcamp.

- Being at the office prepares you more for bootcamp, as well as PT and being around your recruiter. I have not been to bootcamp yet but have had enough friends tell me that often times one of the biggest break-offs to new recruits at RT is the inability to get past the culture shock of Paris Island or San Diego because they BS'd in the DEP and never PT'd or got to know their peers and recruiter. Our office PT's 3 days a week and has 2 pool functions a month, the recruiters teach us, motivate us, break us down, mess with our heads, yell at us, lecture us, and then build us back up again. I've become good friends with my fellow poolees. My PFT/IST blows big chunks of fail but it's because I haven't PT'd as much as I should have. I was doing a high 1st class PFT when I first contracted but now I have a high 2nd class PFT with some odd 30+ points off a 1st class. It's just now starting to come back up because I have fellow poolees who realized I was starting to suck and decided not to let me fail. That's what it's all about and as a result I'm turning right around and helping out the newer poolees the same way the poolees who have already left and become Marines helped me. Don't be worthless, get involved in the pool and don't take the resources that it provides for granted.

- Running, especially in the cold, SUCKS. GET OVER IT. Run everyday or every other day building up over time, because until you see improvement in your run times your not going to be able to motivate yourself effectively and motivate other poolees. This applies to PT in general.

- Referrals. Get them.

- Stay motivated. 10 months is a while, I had times when I second guessed what I was doing and wasn't as motivated to go to PT. Stay focused, it'll all be worth the dedication when your just a couple weeks from your ship date. Befriending your fellow poolees will help with this, I can't tell you how many times I got this text.. "NEAL, where the HELL are you?" from a friend whenever I didn't show up to PT.

- Girls. Ehh, try not to get distracted by girls. Easier said than done but all it does is distract you unless you've actually got a respectable woman who is past all the highschool level bullcrap. Some of you are too ugly to get girlfriends anyway so consider that a blessing in disguise. On a serious note, don't drop out of the pool over a chick. The right woman will be someone who supports the decisions you make and will be encouraging in them; someone you can also fully trust to stay faithful while your gone.

- Job situations. Look.. you need to decide you want to join the Marines because you want to be a Marine, not for a specific job that would cause you to leave the pool if you weren't able to get it in writing. I'm personally skeptical about my job, it isn't what I initially wanted but people will look up to you in regards to what caliber MARINE you are, not by the job you have. On another note, you never know what's going to happen. I've seen people leave the DEP because an MP job wasn't open, and as soon as they dropped out the job opened up - karma? - so have a good attitude about whatever your doing and don't go through life being worthlessly selfish.

- De-motivation. Everyone get's de-motivated sometimes, usually because of bad IST scores, job availability or second guesses about joining the military. Just cling to your initial decisions for joining, stay focused, keep PTing in a dedicated manner, talk to those around you about it and it'll get better over time. If you can't deal with the trials now how are you going to deal with it in bootcamp?

- Know your crap. Learn the ranks, learn the general orders, learn from your recruiter. If your on this forum then obviously you've taken it upon yourself to go out on your own and educate yourself so that you can do well later on, good on you.

All of this said, I really could babble for paragraphs on end but it all comes back to utilizing the resources available to you and taking the DEP seriously. You'll look back on it and the time you spent preparing for bootcamp and know what you could have done better to prepare yourself.

I'm done rambling now, would be more than happy to answer questions about the pool or get some input from those who have been in the pool for a while as well.

Andrew

[Kiri]

I've only been in DEP for 4 months, but being a female I wanted to give advice to any of the female recruits out there...

Don't let the boys beat you, and DON'T be last in ANYTHING! I'm not saying this out of some feministic ideal, but because it'll be best for everyone. The male poolees get really motivated when they end up getting beat by a girl at something, and their IST scores usually jump way up, and so will yours.

Good post Andrew

[PvtSam]

Don't let the boys beat you, and DON'T be last in ANYTHING! I'm not saying this out of some feministic ideal, but because it'll be best for everyone.

Lol for some odd reason the possibility of a girl beating you on an a PFT is just really motivating. Out of 40 guys I got partnered with the one girl in our RSS when we did crunches...I think I did my all time best hahah.

[IHaveEGA843]

Good luck Recruit! You'll no longer have the title Poolee and transitioned to Recruit.

I've been one of the slacker Poolee's of the bunch and my line of work does play heavily on my attendance to Poolee functions. My recruiter knows but alot of the work I've done is by myself. I need to go to a IST function to put my numbers in.

I dont know why but I stay motivated because I want this that bad. My thoughts keep me motivated and if I'm in the gym getting it in and I see a Marine recruiting add I just get more pumped sometimes then burning out and finishing my run earlier then what I expected.

Anyways man come back a Marine! Good luck Recruit!!!!!!!

[RBrouse]

- Running, especially in the cold, SUCKS. GET OVER IT. Run everyday or every other day building up over time, because until you see improvement in your run times your not going to be able to motivate yourself effectively and motivate other poolees. This applies to PT in general.


Andrew

I live in minnesota and we've had weather below 20 degrees for about a month and a half now and I get out there and run at least 4 times a week and I know my IST scores suck but I still am motivated when I see people do better than me cause I know if i kick my ass now I will eventually be up there with them, but also about the cold for the past two weeks my pt has been canceled do to cold weather/snow like last saturday I got the text saying PT was canceled a few minutes before I left, we got 18 inches of snow, they said it was to dangerous to drive so I put on some snowpats my jaket and hunting boots and ran the 5 miles to my RS just to find out no one was there . I cant belive that none of the recruiters even showed up!! what ever happened to any terrain, any climate?

[Kiri]

Out of 40 guys I got partnered with the one girl in our RSS when we did crunches...

Oh, poor you.

[Jwjchsr]

Wow, everything Andrew said is what I'm going through right now and probably you guys will go through too in the poole. Other than that, I have only been in the pool for 7 months

-I would like to add that the last people you want to **** off is the recruiters in the office especially the boss. Do what they expected of you, they are the ones controlling your future or else, you can expect a lot of ass-chewing.

[kjohnson8824]

Stay motivated for PT? I can't think of anything more fun on a Saturday night than eating pull up bars and running in cold weather. The more miserable the more fun!!!

[emptyjarhead]

I have been in the pool for the better part of eight months and have the distinct possibility of shipping just after the new year. I dont know exactly what I can say to add to Andrew09's novel on the pool (which was awesome btw).
But if there was anything I learned from my time spent hereI would say that you should never miss a warrior training or pool function. EVER. If you miss it once you'll feel like a ****bird. Miss it twice and you just wont want to come afraid of what they'll do to you when you do finally decide to show up.
If you got a f*cked up schedule and cant make it then get on the horn with your recruiter and tell them you're coming a different day and you can PT then.
You do NOT want to be "that guy" in boot camp who always messes things up for everyone else. Trust me, three will be at least one guy in your platoon but dont let it be you.
Work out on your own so you dont fall out because you cant handle a little pain in you wherever.
HYDRATE. I cannot emphasize it enough. If you do not drink enough water you will get dehydrated and become a heat case. Dehydration sucks. If you PT you should be drinking at least six of your water bottles per day. Yeah, you'll **** like a race horse but you wont fall out because of it.
And that's another thing. Clean out your water bottles WEEKLY. A few drops of bleach and rinse it out does the trick. You really dont want hostile bacteria growing in the thing you put your mouth on.

One last thing. Stay motivated. I know I struggle with it from time to time during PT and studying knowledge and sh*t but you just gotta think forward to holding that eagle, globe, and anchor for the first time out on the parade deck. I dont know from experience (yet) but im told it's one of the greatest feelings to shake your senior DI's hand and accept your EGA.

I dont want to sound like some Yoda of the pool but a lot of these things are just common sense and things you pick up from your recruiters and other Marines. Im lucky enough to have an older brother in the Marines so tips come freely and ITing even cheaper.

Good luck and hope to see you out in the fleet!

[Andrew09]

Thanks for all the responses guys, glad to get some other poolees input.

Just a little update on my own situation.. my ship date was pushed back 2 weeks from January 3rd to January 18th due to medical miss-communications. My MOT-IST is tomorrow morning, hoping all goes as planned..

[Steve018]

I'm gonna be 10 months in the pool in Jan as well. Good info, i've seen to many poolees waste their time. I know guy who was in the pool almost as long as me, he was supposed to leave in Jan but my recruiter pushed his date back to april cuz he still hasnt gotton a single pull up in. USE YOUR TIME WISELY NEW POOLEES.

[Andrew Jackson]

Man, I will tell you I have only been in the DEP for 6 months. I leave for boot on January 9. HOWEVER, essentially it was exactly a year ago I decided to man up and join the Marine Corps. I weighed 240 at the time. The IST was a complete failure at the time. It took me 10 minutes just to run 1 miles and I was dying. I couldn't do but 2-3 pullups.

I now weigh 205 lbs, only 2 lbs shy of my ship weight BUT I can now do 14 pullups, 83 crunches, and an 11:35 1.5 mile run. BTW youngins, I am 26...age does become a factor. A lesson on age btw, it is easier to stay in shape than get back in shape!

Motivation is key. Actually going to PT is key. Working out on your own is essential. Since I DEP'd in I saw one guy kicked out and brought back in and can now FINALLY pass an IST. I see 3 people who have also DEP'd in at the exact time or around the same time who are STILL failing an IST.

COME ON! Just PT people! It ain't that hard.

[alphamarine23]

This is good stuff! I'm been several different RSS and I'm glad ours isn't the only one that actually pt's regularly and have motivated poolees that care about their pool and optimizing their time before recruit training!

Keep it up!!

[Brian508]

At my poole they would chew your asses out if you had less then 7 pullups and 70 crunches