Create Post
Results 1 to 15 of 18
Thread: What can you take to boot camp?
-
05-14-07, 09:17 AM #1
What can you take to boot camp?
What can you take to boot camp?
By TOM DAVIS
Tribune Managing Editor
Sunday, May 13, 2007
A typical 18-year-old is more likely to be caught leaving the house each day without their pants on than to exit without his/her cell phone, MP3 and/or iPod or CDs. However, once enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps and you report to boot camp, you might as well leave that stuff at home because you won't be needing it.
"Once you get off of that bus (at the USMC Recruit Depot in San Diego), all of your personal stuff goes into a box and into storage," USMC Sgt. Jason Gallentine explained. "You won't see it again for 13 weeks."
On Saturday, over 300 of the 453 Marine recruits ventured to Grissom Air Reserve Base for a day of training and motivation and they were told what to do - as well as what not to do.
What not to do included lectures on activities that will follow them to the Marine Corps, such as partying on graduation night, getting into trouble with the law, and experimenting with drugs.
"We don't need any surprises once you report to (boot) camp," one sergeant explained. "If there is a legal problem that comes up, that's when mommy and daddy get a phone call telling them that you are on your way home."
The recruits learned not to bring anything personal other than some stationery and a pen to write home with. They were also instructed to be clean-cut, no piercings, no long hair, no facial hair, etc.
The sergeant also emphasized - rather forcefully - not to cause any problems in the hotel that the recruits stay in the night before reporting to boot camp.
During the day of training on Saturday, the recruits got their first taste, literally, of a typical meal for Marines. The infamous MREs (Meals Ready to Eat).
The recruits were given a breakfast MRE, which consisted of scrambled eggs with a salsa sauce to mix in, making an omelette (sort of), a hash brown, some bacon, cracker with cheese spread, a Pop-Tart, a scone with jam, and a small lemonade packet.
If that sounds like a lot for one meal - well, it is. A typical MRE includes between 2,000 and 3,000 calories.
But won't that make the Marines fat, eating that many calories for one meal?
Hardly.
The Marines are so physically active, that they burn off all of the calories that they ingest, with every calorie serving a purpose, and nothing going to waste.
"You'll use every one of the calories that is in one of those (MREs)," Staff Sgt. Cory Carter, who oversees the Kokomo Recruiting Sub-Station explained. "The soldiers won't have to (use the bathroom) more than once every three days because they are not eating wasted food."
Each Marine is given two MREs per day, unless they are in heavy combat, which includes some Marines eating up to four per day, or over 10,000 calories per day.
But are they any good?
"Mine was awesome," Wabash High School senior Michelle Mayo said. "But I am not a picky eater."
The Marines are even up with the times, as they offer a variety of different packages to select from, including even offering a vegetarian MRE.
Ellie
-
05-14-07, 10:11 AM #2Originally Posted by thedrifter
Anyway, good article.
-
05-14-07, 11:13 AM #3Originally Posted by PatriotGirl422
-
05-14-07, 11:17 AM #4
But that makes them Marines, not soldiers. You join the Army to be a soldier, Marines are Marines nothing else.
-
05-14-07, 12:28 PM #5
Marines are soldiers of the sea. From time to time you come across someone that used soldier as a generic term. When it is a Sgt and you are a PFC or LCPL you don't correct him.
-
05-14-07, 12:46 PM #6
Marines not Soldiers.
Originally Posted by ElDiablo
-
05-14-07, 01:04 PM #7
In the recruiting field the various services share locations and this may be one of those situations. This took place at Grissom Air Reserve Base which I do not think is a Marine Corps installation. I do not know as I have never heard of it. Was this Staff Sgt. Cory Carter indentified as a Marine? If he was Air Force or an Army Sgt., He would naturally refer to trainees as "soldiers"; it could also just be a simple faux pas by S/Sgt. Corey or the writer,one Tom Davis.
-
05-14-07, 01:20 PM #8
Thank you Pvt Knumb Knutz. I didn't mean any disrespect to anyone. I was raised on the fact that Marines are Marines, nothing else. My dad's a Marine, and when he reads or hears someone calling a Marine a soldier, he gets pretty worked up. That's just the way I was raised, sorry if I was incorrect.
-
05-14-07, 01:38 PM #9
Uh with all due respect, didn't drillinstructor make a topic for this?
-
05-14-07, 01:45 PM #10
Did he? Where is it.
-
05-14-07, 01:52 PM #11
-
05-14-07, 02:25 PM #12Originally Posted by Lionheart
-
05-14-07, 02:26 PM #13
My mistake.
-
05-14-07, 02:34 PM #14
and apologies
-
05-14-07, 02:51 PM #15
No Offense Taken
Originally Posted by ElDiablo
Thread Information
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Ghost Of Iwo Jima
04-04-24, 11:35 PM in Open Squad Bay