thedrifter
08-15-08, 08:17 AM
Witnessing the making of Marines
Rick Lemyre
Email:
rick@brentwoodpress.co
Published 08/14/2008 - 1:19 p.m. PDT
They scramble off the buses wearing typical teenager haircuts, Nike T-shirts and looks of bewilderment, trepidation and uncertainty. Driven by sharp commands from a cadre of men in crisp uniforms and impatient countenances, they attempt to comply with orders to both “Hurry up!” and “Stop running!” and form up on precisely aligned yellow footprints stenciled on the sidewalk.
In a few moments, they will be ushered through a nearby door – which they will soon learn is properly called a “hatch” – never to be seen again.
That’s because these young men are arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego, and over the next 12 weeks they will be stripped of their hair, their civilian clothing and their uncertainty as they are transformed from what they were when they arrived into United States Marines.
Jerry Black, an administrator with the Liberty Union High School District, and David Koch, a teacher at Antioch High School, were among 72 educators– and one journalist – from the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Las Vegas recently given the opportunity to observe that transformation process up close during a weeklong Educators Workshop hosted by the Corps. The workshop was held at MCRD, the Corps’ Air Station Miramar and Camp Pendleton in Southern California.
The purpose of the workshop, said Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commander of MCRD San Diego and the Corps’ Western Recruiting Region, was to “show community leaders our commitment to excellence” and to give them firsthand knowledge and experience they could bring back to their students.
More than 22,000 recruits began the process last year and 93 percent of them completed it. The success rate is due to numerous pre-screenings that ensure only the best would-be Marines ever get a chance to stand in the yellow footprints. The days are long gone when the Marines accepted recruits who only wanted to escape problems.
“If you have problem kids, don’t send them to me, because I don’t want them,” Salinas said she tells parents. “I’m not going to change a thief in 12 weeks when they couldn’t do it in 18 years.”
Nevertheless, the transformation the Corps achieves is dramatic and thorough. It begins on the yellow footprints and moves quickly to the “contraband room,” where recruits’ pockets are emptied and, as one drill instructor told the educators, “I take away everything I told them not to bring in the first place.”
Gum, airline tickets, notebooks and myriad other items are flung to the floor to be disposed of. Also soon to hit the floor is the recruits’ hair: one barber boasted that he was the base record-holder, having shorn a recruit in six seconds.
Workshop participants, too, got a taste of the first few moments of boot camp –short of the haircut. They were taught by drill instructors how to stand at attention, and told the proper way to march was with 40 inches between their chest and the back of the person in front of them.
It turns out that, among the educators, the term “40 inches” was open to wide interpretation, a fact that the drill instructors occasionally gently pointed out. Real recruits would not be so fortunate.
The myth of the wild-eyed, nearly apoplectic drill instructor, apparently ready to burst out of his skin with rage at the smallest infraction, is, in fact, understated. They freely admit that much of it is an act, because it doesn’t matter. When recruits are confronted with a torrent of volcanic fury erupting inches from their face and delivered by the supreme master of their immediate future, they don’t give much thought to whether the tirade is genuine. They learn to do exactly what they’re told without hesitation, and acquire the rigid discipline that is the backbone of the Marines’ effectiveness.
The recruits’ transformation is not just achieved through bombast, however. Indeed, the vitriol quickly does its job, and tapers off as training progresses. Should the experience become too much for some recruits, the chief drill instructor steps in, taking the role of a father figure, helping them get over the hurdles that must be cleared before becoming a Marine.
And the hurdles are high. There’s relentless physical conditioning, instruction in field maneuvers and marksmanship, and training in the Marines’ own brand of martial arts (“This is not sport,” said the instructor. “The prize for winning is that you get to stay alive.”) Practical problem solving and unit interdependence are instilled through endless repetition using tried and true methods honed over the course of the Corps’ 232-year history. Educators who were veterans of the other branches of service said they never had to endure what they saw the Marine recruits going through.
While making recruits into warriors is paramount (every Marine, male or female, receives exactly the same basic training, although females are trained only at Parris Island, S.C.), the Corps also places a high value on education. Ninety-five percent of all recruits already have a high school diploma, and the rest must have a GED from an accredited school. Once enlisted, tuition assistance of $750 per term is available to offset college costs, and many Marines have earned degrees online while stationed overseas.
More than one told the group that they had chosen to enter the service rather than attend college, only to find that constant encouragement to get an education – and the chance to advance in rank by doing so – had changed their minds about school. Also, changes to the GI Bill coming in 2009 will provide $80,000 in post-service educational benefits that will be assignable to a spouse or child.
“We don’t expect them to be with us for 20 years,” Salinas said of the education and ethics training provided. “We want them to return to civilian life and be good citizens.”
The educators marched through the week as best they could (said one, mimicking the tone of his drill instructor, “Forward, mosey!”), taking in combat aircraft, amphibious assault craft and rifle ranges. They were given a chance to fire M-16 rifles and 9mm pistols on a computerized shooting range, and to gear up and run the grueling bayonet assault course.
Divided into squads, they attempted to solve field problems such as ammo supply and wounded evacuation missions, learning through it all that what is seen in movies and news video is far more difficult than it appears. They visited the barracks, learned about the famed Marine Bands, and twice ate lunch with recruits at various stages of the transformation.
For many, the highlights were the same as for the recruits: a pair of ceremonies that marked significant milestones. One involved the pageantry of boot camp graduation, but the other, even more moving, came earlier, when the recruits received the eagle, globe and anchor emblem for their uniform.
That ceremony came at the end of the intense exercise known as “the crucible,” a 54-hour marathon of fully equipped hikes totaling 60 miles, weapon firing, maneuvering and problem-solving, all accomplished on four hours of sleep and three 2,500-calorie meals. The recruits, now in their 11th week, marched directly from the field to the ceremony, and, exhausted, filthy and famished, they received the congratulations of their drill instructors and were addressed for the first time as “Marines.”
To a person, the educators came away highly impressed at what they’d seen.
“I have a much stronger feelings of respect for what the military does for us,” said Black. “I’m impressed by the dedication and the true passion they showed about what they do here.”
As for the recruits, they were proud of what they were doing.
“I’ve done things I never thought I’d do, like climb 60-foot towers,” said 19-year-old Andrew Meyers, who passed up a soccer scholarship to Washington State University to enlist. He said he joined not despite the probability that he will soon face combat, but partly because of it. “I want to make a difference, and the Marines give you a real sense of pride that you are. This was definitely the right thing to do.”
Ellie
Rick Lemyre
Email:
rick@brentwoodpress.co
Published 08/14/2008 - 1:19 p.m. PDT
They scramble off the buses wearing typical teenager haircuts, Nike T-shirts and looks of bewilderment, trepidation and uncertainty. Driven by sharp commands from a cadre of men in crisp uniforms and impatient countenances, they attempt to comply with orders to both “Hurry up!” and “Stop running!” and form up on precisely aligned yellow footprints stenciled on the sidewalk.
In a few moments, they will be ushered through a nearby door – which they will soon learn is properly called a “hatch” – never to be seen again.
That’s because these young men are arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego, and over the next 12 weeks they will be stripped of their hair, their civilian clothing and their uncertainty as they are transformed from what they were when they arrived into United States Marines.
Jerry Black, an administrator with the Liberty Union High School District, and David Koch, a teacher at Antioch High School, were among 72 educators– and one journalist – from the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Las Vegas recently given the opportunity to observe that transformation process up close during a weeklong Educators Workshop hosted by the Corps. The workshop was held at MCRD, the Corps’ Air Station Miramar and Camp Pendleton in Southern California.
The purpose of the workshop, said Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commander of MCRD San Diego and the Corps’ Western Recruiting Region, was to “show community leaders our commitment to excellence” and to give them firsthand knowledge and experience they could bring back to their students.
More than 22,000 recruits began the process last year and 93 percent of them completed it. The success rate is due to numerous pre-screenings that ensure only the best would-be Marines ever get a chance to stand in the yellow footprints. The days are long gone when the Marines accepted recruits who only wanted to escape problems.
“If you have problem kids, don’t send them to me, because I don’t want them,” Salinas said she tells parents. “I’m not going to change a thief in 12 weeks when they couldn’t do it in 18 years.”
Nevertheless, the transformation the Corps achieves is dramatic and thorough. It begins on the yellow footprints and moves quickly to the “contraband room,” where recruits’ pockets are emptied and, as one drill instructor told the educators, “I take away everything I told them not to bring in the first place.”
Gum, airline tickets, notebooks and myriad other items are flung to the floor to be disposed of. Also soon to hit the floor is the recruits’ hair: one barber boasted that he was the base record-holder, having shorn a recruit in six seconds.
Workshop participants, too, got a taste of the first few moments of boot camp –short of the haircut. They were taught by drill instructors how to stand at attention, and told the proper way to march was with 40 inches between their chest and the back of the person in front of them.
It turns out that, among the educators, the term “40 inches” was open to wide interpretation, a fact that the drill instructors occasionally gently pointed out. Real recruits would not be so fortunate.
The myth of the wild-eyed, nearly apoplectic drill instructor, apparently ready to burst out of his skin with rage at the smallest infraction, is, in fact, understated. They freely admit that much of it is an act, because it doesn’t matter. When recruits are confronted with a torrent of volcanic fury erupting inches from their face and delivered by the supreme master of their immediate future, they don’t give much thought to whether the tirade is genuine. They learn to do exactly what they’re told without hesitation, and acquire the rigid discipline that is the backbone of the Marines’ effectiveness.
The recruits’ transformation is not just achieved through bombast, however. Indeed, the vitriol quickly does its job, and tapers off as training progresses. Should the experience become too much for some recruits, the chief drill instructor steps in, taking the role of a father figure, helping them get over the hurdles that must be cleared before becoming a Marine.
And the hurdles are high. There’s relentless physical conditioning, instruction in field maneuvers and marksmanship, and training in the Marines’ own brand of martial arts (“This is not sport,” said the instructor. “The prize for winning is that you get to stay alive.”) Practical problem solving and unit interdependence are instilled through endless repetition using tried and true methods honed over the course of the Corps’ 232-year history. Educators who were veterans of the other branches of service said they never had to endure what they saw the Marine recruits going through.
While making recruits into warriors is paramount (every Marine, male or female, receives exactly the same basic training, although females are trained only at Parris Island, S.C.), the Corps also places a high value on education. Ninety-five percent of all recruits already have a high school diploma, and the rest must have a GED from an accredited school. Once enlisted, tuition assistance of $750 per term is available to offset college costs, and many Marines have earned degrees online while stationed overseas.
More than one told the group that they had chosen to enter the service rather than attend college, only to find that constant encouragement to get an education – and the chance to advance in rank by doing so – had changed their minds about school. Also, changes to the GI Bill coming in 2009 will provide $80,000 in post-service educational benefits that will be assignable to a spouse or child.
“We don’t expect them to be with us for 20 years,” Salinas said of the education and ethics training provided. “We want them to return to civilian life and be good citizens.”
The educators marched through the week as best they could (said one, mimicking the tone of his drill instructor, “Forward, mosey!”), taking in combat aircraft, amphibious assault craft and rifle ranges. They were given a chance to fire M-16 rifles and 9mm pistols on a computerized shooting range, and to gear up and run the grueling bayonet assault course.
Divided into squads, they attempted to solve field problems such as ammo supply and wounded evacuation missions, learning through it all that what is seen in movies and news video is far more difficult than it appears. They visited the barracks, learned about the famed Marine Bands, and twice ate lunch with recruits at various stages of the transformation.
For many, the highlights were the same as for the recruits: a pair of ceremonies that marked significant milestones. One involved the pageantry of boot camp graduation, but the other, even more moving, came earlier, when the recruits received the eagle, globe and anchor emblem for their uniform.
That ceremony came at the end of the intense exercise known as “the crucible,” a 54-hour marathon of fully equipped hikes totaling 60 miles, weapon firing, maneuvering and problem-solving, all accomplished on four hours of sleep and three 2,500-calorie meals. The recruits, now in their 11th week, marched directly from the field to the ceremony, and, exhausted, filthy and famished, they received the congratulations of their drill instructors and were addressed for the first time as “Marines.”
To a person, the educators came away highly impressed at what they’d seen.
“I have a much stronger feelings of respect for what the military does for us,” said Black. “I’m impressed by the dedication and the true passion they showed about what they do here.”
As for the recruits, they were proud of what they were doing.
“I’ve done things I never thought I’d do, like climb 60-foot towers,” said 19-year-old Andrew Meyers, who passed up a soccer scholarship to Washington State University to enlist. He said he joined not despite the probability that he will soon face combat, but partly because of it. “I want to make a difference, and the Marines give you a real sense of pride that you are. This was definitely the right thing to do.”
Ellie