View Full Version : Whats your biggest piece of advice?
Drock54
03-11-08, 08:52 AM
I was wondering what you Marines who have already earned the title, biggest piece of advice would be for us Poolees who are getting ready to try and become Marines. Whether it be that we have a year left before we leave or just a few short months. What would be the best advice you Marines could give us?
My biggest piece of advice is one that I gave to plenty of my Junior Marines when they complained that the Marine Corps has too many rules and they can't do anything.
I told them: You can do anything you want to, just bring a pen to sign the paperwork if/when you get in trouble.
This also holds true in everyday life.
yellowwing
03-11-08, 09:23 AM
The Drill Instructors will be all over you like white on rice. Do not take it personally. Half the time they will not even know your name. They will cover that up by saying things like, "Come here there, you!"they will put the inflection on You as if it was a dirty word, but it is because they have forgotten your name. Its not personal.
Parker-0321
03-11-08, 11:39 AM
My most common advice. Keep your head up, don't get beaten or defeated by boot. All Marines go through it, it's how you react to it that determines who you are. Will you stand up and take charge or...
usmchauer
03-11-08, 11:47 AM
Always remember that thousands upon thousands before you have embarked on the same quest as you, and made it. It's not impossible.
Drock54
03-11-08, 12:19 PM
Thank you gentlemen my biggest fear is just coming home not a Marine I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I come home with that title.
yellowwing
03-11-08, 12:28 PM
Thank you gentlemen my biggest fear is just coming home not a Marine I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I come home with that title.
Once you step on the Yellow Footprints, its got to be the only thing in your mind. Your girlfriend and your mom will be passing thoughts as you take the challenge of a lifetime. It won't come around again.
Drock54
03-11-08, 12:37 PM
Once you step on the Yellow Footprints, its got to be the only thing in your mind. Your girlfriend and your mom will be passing thoughts as you take the challenge of a lifetime. It won't come around again.
So what your saying is that if thats all on concentrate on at Recruit Training than I can obtain the goal....I konw its not going to be easy but if i put everything I have into it, and do what im told to do with speed volume and intensity that I just might make it?
yellowwing
03-11-08, 12:40 PM
Just keep in mind ONE THING, Never Quit. Its our Corps Legacy that we will Never Ever Let Down another Marine. It starts in that ever so brief three months in Recruit Training. Are you going to Quit on Us?
yellowwing
03-11-08, 12:46 PM
Brian Chontash, Chris Adelsperger, Chesty Puller, all of them woke up on a combat morning to meet and engage the enemy. Every last swinging dick said. "I am not going to let down my Marines. They are depending on me."
yellowwing
03-11-08, 12:49 PM
Brian Chontash, Chris Adelsperger, Chesty Puller, all of them woke up on a combat morning to meet and engage the enemy. Every last swinging dick said. "I am not going to let down my Marines. They are depending on me."
That is the one basic Character Question of Recruit Training. Forget pull-ups and run time, are you the type that will let us down?
No one remembers Crhis Adelsperger last IST score. We remember he Never Quit and saved a lot of Marines.
Big Jim
03-11-08, 01:58 PM
So what your saying is that if thats all on concentrate on at Recruit Training than I can obtain the goal....I konw its not going to be easy but if i put everything I have into it, and do what im told to do with speed volume and intensity that I just might make it?
Yellowwing is right...as always. The mentality of programming yourself into preparing for the unexpected is probably the most valuable advice you can get because you don't know what's to come. Just be ready for it and anything...mentally especially and physically of course. But, if your brain housing group can't take the strain and stress of being pushed, molded and re-made...you're setting yourself up for sailure. It takes a serious promise and committment to yourself to find who you really are...that's why you have to search your heart and soul to see if you have the strength and will power to complete what you start with the Marine Corps. Can YOU do it...???
E5NAMKROW
03-11-08, 02:08 PM
Follow orders to the "T" and keep your eyes and ears open. Move with a sense of urgency and you will do fine. Take everything to heart, you will carry it with you everywhere in life. Good luck.
SGT7477
03-11-08, 02:20 PM
The Drill Instructors will be all over you like white on rice. Do not take it personally. Half the time they will not even know your name. They will cover that up by saying things like, "Come here there, you!"they will put the inflection on You as if it was a dirty word, but it is because they have forgotten your name. Its not personal.
We wore name tags so how could they forget and when you did screw up they had your name tags and you were called to the classroom that night to pay your dues.:flag:
Don't have an attitude and don't ever quit on yourself.
Camper51
03-11-08, 02:50 PM
It is all mind over matter. Basically if you don't mind the pain, the yelling, the stress, the hurry up and wait, and any thing else thrown at you then it doesn't matter...
Drock54
03-12-08, 08:40 AM
Thank you very much Marines everything you gentlemen do on here for us DEP members helps a ton...I will take all of your advice to heart and yellowing brian chontosh i read about in a report I had to do before school an extremely courageous story. Thanks for the advice again Marines.
davblay
03-12-08, 09:58 AM
Most Poolees try to prepare for the mental and physical part of boot camp! Well let me tell you something......you can prepare for the physical part, and even if you fail the IST they will prepare you for training in PCP for a few days, but the Mental part....now that's a different story all together! Your mind is either strong enough or it isn't. There is absolutely no way that anyone can prepare for the mental part. The Corps already knows you pack the gear to be a Marine, it the DIs job to Make you or break you mentally!
My advice........while you are on those yellow foot prints thinking "what have I gotten myself into", that every Marine went thru the exact same thing! From that moment on, and for the next 13 weeks, do what you're told, when you're told, how you're told, where you're told, and to whom you're told to do it to! Do it with speed and willingness, and when they speak to you answer them LOUD (they like people that yell back at them).
Other than that, I'd say once you get used to the 5 minute meals and showering in open showers with the rest of the platoon, you're all set!
That's my 2 cents,
Dave
Parker-0321
03-12-08, 10:21 AM
Thank you gentlemen my biggest fear is just coming home not a Marine I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I come home with that title.
It sucks when your parents pick you up at the airport in the same clothes you left in...
Drock54
03-12-08, 11:16 AM
It sucks when your parents pick you up at the airport in the same clothes you left in...
exactly I DO NOT want that to happen to me. The advice given has helped me relax a little I realize thousands have done it before me. And im sure some of them were in my same shoes worried about not making it. Your guys's reassurance has helped. Ive just been told its not an easy obtained title and fully understand that myself. Like they say you dont promise us a rose garden.
yellowwing
03-12-08, 11:20 AM
They trashed our skivvies that we arrived in but brown bagged everything else of our civliian items. Three month old dirty drawers would just be nasty.
We got the brown bag back in the last week. We all opened them up and were just staring at them like odd relics from another demension.
Take nothing personal, it is all bussiness.
S/F,
CEYA!
Camper51
03-12-08, 03:40 PM
They trashed our skivvies that we arrived in but brown bagged everything else of our civliian items. Three month old dirty drawers would just be nasty.
We got the brown bag back in the last week. We all opened them up and were just staring at them like odd relics from another demension.
Things must have changed because when I went through bootcamp we sent EVERYTHING we wore to bootcamp home in the suitcase we brought, or in a box they provided. We were given skivvies and utilities and a scalping first, then everything else was shipped home...
sparkie
03-12-08, 07:11 PM
Advice? Hard for your generation to take,,,, but here goes.
The World and it's Sun doesn't revolve around you, and if you're a spoiled little wuss, that is damm hard to figure out.
Consider yourself to be nothing, or perhaps just plain dead. You will not be quickened by your own will, but the will of the unit.
You don't have need of patience, cause you don't count anymore, and you will learn it's the unit that counts.
Stay afraid, It's healthier that way. If you try to laugh off the fear, fear will slap that off your face. You will outgrow the fear.
This advice can counter the games, physical, and mental. The Marines WILL teach you Marinehood, if you stay open to the teaching.
Physical can be mental, and mental can be physical. You want the Title?????You gotta become the title. It's so much more than a title. It's a life.
Leave your ego with your old dirty drawers.......
My biggest piece of advice whether at Boot Camp or anywhere else in your career and even after the Marine Corps is do the right thing even when you think nobody's watching because they are. Make good choices. Always strive to improve!