Boot camp blog: A week with Marines at Parris Island
October 25, 2007 6:00 AM
Pocono Record - Oct 24 11:04 PM

Editor's note: It's not just for shaved-head, dazed recruits any more. Sixty teachers, school counselors and reporters from Pennsylvania are at Parris Island, S.C., this week for an inside look at Marine Corps boot camp. She's not wearing boots, but Senior Managing Editor Susan Koomar will report on the adventure.

Day One

Arrived at Savannah Airport. I'm traveling with about 60 teachers and guidance counselors from schools across Pennsylvania. They're here to get a taste of Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island so they can answer questions from potential recruits back home.

The Marines put us in formation for roll call before we even leave the airport. Passengers walking by flash us strange looks. I'm already wishing I could break away to check out the PGA Tour shop in the concourse.

First real taste of recruit life: hollering.

Enter Staff Sgt. Kelton — a pixie-sized woman with a French manicure and the lungs of a gorilla. We're loaded onto a white school bus. She shouts orders and demands, we scream in response. If she asks a question, it's "YES ma'am!" "NO ma'am!" If she makes a statement, it's "AYE ma'am!" in acknowledgment.

The bus ride from Savannah to Beaufort (near Parris Island) is about an hour. We're less than halfway there when I start hoping Staff Sgt. Kelton will tumble off the bus and be eaten by an alligator.

More hollering. She knows we're snickering, but she doesn't miss a beat, challenging us to learn each Marine Corps rank and insignia.

"E2?" she demands.

"Ma'am, E2 is a private first class. They wear one stripe up, ma'am."

One stripe up. "Mosquito wings," she calls it.

Today, we meet the man with the bling on his collar: the General.

For Cyrus Bowmon the toughest thing is waking up early. "Early" as in 3 or 4 a.m.

"You've got to get warmed up," he said.

I interviewed Bowmon at lunch time in the "Thunderdome," a large pavilion on the training grounds where recruits assemble when there is a serious threat of lightning strikes.

Bowmon, 18, is a new recruit right out of high school from Benton, near Bloomsburg. He wants to become a Marine because to him that means being "the best of the best."

"I'm not the smartest guy out there, I'm a physical guy. I want to protect my country."

Bowmon's dad was in the Navy, but to him the Marines teach more discipline.

"Honor, Courage and Commitment, we live by that. You learn that in boot camp. That's why it's so long."

Bowmon is halfway through USMC's 12-week-long basic training.

Day Two

We're on the bus by 6:30 a.m., and we actually think we're going somewhere. Instead, they drive us around Parris Island in the dark for an hour as Sgt. Kelton drills us on Marine Corps rank structure and General Orders for Sentries.

"Is your mouth broke, 'cause I DON'T HEAR YOU!"

"Good morning, Sgt. Kelton!"


"General Order No.1: To take charge of this post and all government property in view."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Sgt. Kelton is still hollering, but we're used to it now. Her in-your-face drill sergeant patter has some clever twists. If our schedule changes, she tells us to be flexible. Semper Gumby ... Always Flexible. A spin on the Marine motto Semper Fidelis.

Tell her something she doesn't like and you'll hear in rapid sardonic response, "Too bad, so sad, don't care." She says it so fast it comes out like one long word.

We didn't get to meet the General; he's out of town. Instead, Col. Andy Solgere gave us a PowerPoint briefing on recruit training. He stressed the intangibles of the Marine mystique, those words that aren't just words. Discipline. Honor. Courage. Commitment.

"You can have all the high-tech gear you want," he said. "There's nothing more powerful than a moral force on the battlefield."

For new recruits, it begins simply with a walk through doors called the silver hatches and initial processing that includes the ritualistic head shaving.

"You go in with your teeth and your smile. We take your hair," Solgere said.

Base Operations: Buses are always on standby to gather recruits quickly from training grounds when lightning threatens.

Sporting Life Meets Wildlife: The Parris Island Golf Course has a Casual Alligator Rule. If your ball lands near one of the five or six big gators (10-footers) in the area, you can take a drop and it won't cost you a sroke.

Parris Island Numbers: All East Coast recruits — and all female recruits — train here for 12 weeks

20,000: recruits per year

$5 million: meals per year

$3 million: ammunition per year

$22 million: clothing per year

5 million: pounds of laundry per year

100,000: visitors per year

860: civilian employees


Next installment: Firing an M-16 on the Parris Island rifle range (previous weapons training: used BB gun to shoot squirrels at backyard birdfeeder).

Ellie