Guide

[Moderboater]

Any ideas on the best way to train for guide and company honorman? I have come up with some ideas, but I don't know if they will help me or not. I was thinking I already do 3 miles run almost everyday, and I was wondering if I should turn a 3 mile jog into a 3 mile indian run, where I sprint 20 secs and then jog the other 30 and keep doing that for 3 miles. I am willing to go to any lengths, as we speak I am taking 13 classes in a day so I can go to bootcamp on time...so I have time for PT, school, and thats about it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Moderboater

[konman1]

To be quite honest with you, PT is only part of it. I was a guide in Boot Camp for a while, but got fired, along with 8 other guys. The best advice I can give you is..ATTENTION TO DETAIL. You will understand as soon as you hit the footprints. Good luck

[Camper51]

There is no training for Guide/Honorman.

Go in, bust your butt, do 110% and more on absolutely everything you do and good things will happen.

Guide is a LEADERSHIP post. If you are so lucky as to be chosen to be a guide and you do not LEAD and MOTIVATE everyone in the platoon, from squad leaders down to sh*tbirds then you will be fired and someone else will be chosen.

If you aren't chosen at first then show LEADERSHIP and MOTIVATION by helping others and you yet may be chosen.

The same goes for squad leaders. They need to LEAD and MOTIVATE, if they don't they are relieved and someone else is chosen who WILL do what is necessary to LEAD and MOTIVATE the squad.

I guarantee you that the honorman in a platoon or company will be a highly MOTIVATED individual who has also exhibited LEADERSHP traits. The honorman can be the guide or a squad leader, high PFT, or even hight shooter might become honorman. The one thing for sure is that no matter who is chosen they will be HIGHLY MOTIVATED and they WILL exhibit LEADERSHIP skills.

If you aren't a leader of your peers now, either in school, or scouts, or Tae Kwon Do or whatever it is you are doing now then you won't be a leader in boot camp.

Leaders aren't mice or sheep who follow around or run and hide. Leaders aren't afraid to "face the music", they just "get it done". Sometimes they KNOW they are going to get grief over a decision they make, but they do it anyway. Why? Because it is the right thing to do.

Don't believe me. Just read up on people like Lew Walt, Lewis Puller, Dan Daly and the other heroes you hear about.

Those men, and the new crop of leaders yet unknown in our Corps all have the same thing going for them. They are LEADERS. People who stepped up when the going was tough, took charge, and did not worry about what some idiot in the rear would think of their actions...

[The1stSgt]

I agree with everthing that's been said. I was the platoon Guide from week two until graduation (12 wks), and I was also a Drill Instructor at Parris Island.

You have to demonstrate MOTIVATION, the desire to excel, and leadership ability to your Drill Instructors.

You can't be just another average recruit. Lead by example, sound off, do everything as fast as you can (without making mistakes), maintain a positive attitude (even when you are hating life), the other recruits will react positively to that, and help your fellow recruits by encouraging them, especially your bunky. Believe me, some recruits will be ready to go home the first day and you can be a strength and stablizing force in the platoon. You've got to think and believe, "I love this s**t, I want to be here, I want to excel, I want to be a MARINE" and mean it to your core.

That's what I looked for in a recruit before he became the platoon Guide.

I was so pumped up when I finally got to boot camp I'd have done anything my Drill Instructor told me to do. I wanted to be there and I wanted to do well. I expected to get my ass beat, be hazed and experience any other demented thing a Drill Instructor could dream up. They didn't let me down either, but I loved it and figured it was the price I had to pay to earn the title MARINE.