‘I did it for the pride’

[thedrifter]

‘I did it for the pride’
By Tony Pennington
CNHI News Service

— EDITOR’S NOTE: Transcript writer Tony Pennington and photographer Kevin Ellis are taking part in the weeklong Educators Workshop sponsored by the USMC. They will share their pictures and stories of the young men and women as they complete boot camp and become Marines.

By Tony Pennington
Transcript Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO – A drill instructor’s cadence echoed by his recruits’ replies floated in the background and the roar of jet engines punched through the overcast Tuesday morning sky from the nearby airport as 41 educators representing the recruiting stations of Denver and Oklahoma City emerged from their buses. The first stop for the visitors was the “yellow footprints” of the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, San Diego. If they weren’t fully awake shortly before 7:45 a.m., the near endless shouts of “Run,” “Faster” and “Move it” provided a jump start to their morning.

“This is the initial phase of what we call ‘shock and awe,’” said Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Walker, 36. “This is how we let recruits know who is in charge.”

As the educators rushed to claim one of the 180 footprints positioned at the proper 180 degree angle, few couldn’t help but smile. After all, they were there to learn what the young men and women from their towns would experience stepping into the situation, but on a larger, more professional scale.

And according to James McManus, 20, of Edmond, stepping into the United States Marine Corps is no laughing mater.

“(Fred) Choate and I jumped on the buddy system,” the Edmond Santa Fe graduate said of his fellow recruit and friend. “Where we were at, we didn’t see ourselves going anywhere. The Marine Corps offered something different.”

The two friends left behind dead-end jobs and a lack of motivation and discipline for Marines and the recruiting depot in San Diego. Choate, 19, of Del City admired the Corps for its intensity and the respect the uniform commanded.

“I did it for the pride,” he said days away from his Friday graduation ceremony. “I didn’t do it for the money. It wasn’t easy at first. When I got here, I said, ‘****, I have to be here for three months.’”

McManus wasn’t as overwhelmed as Choate appeared to be that first day at the depot. He had spoke with several Marines and felt prepared. He called it a “roller coaster — you know the ride is building up to something, you just don’t know when it’s going to drop.”

“When I stepped off that bus, I was like ‘here we go,’” McManus recalled. “That was the beginning. I didn’t have much time to think.”

Many DIs will tell you recruits don’t need to think, they just need to react and follow orders. And for 12 weeks most of the time in boot camp is planned. The recruit training matrix is broken down into three phases. From entry level water combat survival with Staff Sgt. Jamie Nicholson, 28, where they learn to survive with more than 100 pounds of equipment strapped to their bodies to classroom instruction time with their “knowledge” – a book of basic information every recruit should and needs to know. That’s not counting almost 60 hours of martial arts training with Staff Sgt. Cole Walter, 35, and countless drops of sweat lost through the confidence course, formation runs and the “crucible.”

“The crucible,” McManus said with a wide grin. “It was really neat.”

McManus and his platoon 1077 Alpha Company First Battalion completed the three day exercise including the 10 mile “hump” up and down the “Reaper” wearing 120 pounds of gear during their eighth week or the end of Phase II.

“The Reaper is so steep that you can reach out your hand and touch it,” he said about the hill. “It’s five miles up and then five back down. After you do that, you say, ‘I just did the crucible.’”

The immediate reward for the recruits is a “warriors’ breakfast” where they eat as much food as they want. But in the long run, McManus said it strengthened the platoon and put the entire boot camp into perspective.

“After the crucible,” he said, “it was like I was more than ready for anything else they might throw my way.”

One thing McManus might have not have figured on was running into his old vice principal Rodney Stearns. As a member of the Educators Workshop, Stearns arrived in San Diego to learn about Marine recruitment and training. Stearns and his former student had an opportunity to catch up over lunch.

“I’m impressed,” Stearns said of McManus. “As an educator, it is exciting to see a former student doing well and having success.”

Those words might not have been spoken about McManus prior to the Corps. He said he might make the military his career and might apply for officers training school. He also knows the Middle East could be a possible destination, but he feels he is more than prepared.

“Everything that goes through your head at that point is training,” he said. “It eliminates the fear and allows you to react more and fear less.”

For now, McManus will enjoy his graduation Friday with his sister and best friend and then spend 10 days back home in Edmond. His next stop will be back in San Diego for combat training and then Military Occupational Specialty school for Logistics or what he calls the “3 Bs” — beans, bullets and Band-Aids. For the first time in his young life, McManus feels his future is up to him.

“All of a sudden you have a sense that nothing can stop you,” McManus said. “The Marines give you the motivation and the drive.”

Tony Pennington
366-3541
schools@normantranscript.com

http://images.cnhi.zope.net/images_s..._130003746/med

Staff Sgt. William Feagin yells at a group of educators as they go through the “yellow footsteps” phase of a new Marine recruit. This is where recruits learn who is boss to get them prepared for the next 12 weeks. The Norman Transcript

http://images.cnhi.zope.net/images_s..._130004044/med

Marine recruits go through push-up drills as part of their physical fitness training. The Norman Transcript

[jinelson]

“This is the initial phase of what we call ‘shock and awe,’” said Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Walker, 36. “This is how we let recruits know who is in charge.”

One of our own is in print again. ROTFLMAO I hope he didnt scare the educators too badly. Get Some Gunny!

[thedrifter]

Into the crucible
The Norman Transcript

EDITOR’S NOTE: Transcript writer Tony Pennington and photographer Kevin Ellis are taking part in the weeklong Educators Workshop sponsored by the USMC.

By Tony Pennington

Transcript Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO — After two years at Oklahoma State University, recruit Richard Wade Boone felt he wanted more. He had a desire inspired by his grandfather and uncle who both served as members of the military. He wanted the challenge and discipline that came with the 12 weeks of the United States Marine Corps basic training. He wanted to be counted among the best.

“No ma’am,” the 21 year-old from Lawton responded when asked if he considered other military branches. “The Marines are just better.”

Boone is one of the 30,000 USMC recruits annually to test and prove themselves against the Corps training matrix. The three-month program is divided into three four-week phases. Phase I acclimates recruits to the Marine lifestyle. Phase II builds a sense of team while testing their physical and mental limits. And Phase III prepares the young men and women to assume their places as Marines.

“After Phase I we really have the rough product of what is to become a Marine,” said Capt. Matt McBroom, executive officer of Recruiting Station Oklahoma City. “They learn the Marine Corps basics so they can survive in the second phase.”

Phase II for the recruits assigned to the Receiving Depot in San Diego begins an hour away at Camp Pendleton. There they learn how to fire their M16-A2 rifles, work as a squad and fire teams and accomplish objectives, all under the watchful eyes and loud voices of their DIs. The final test of their time at Camp Pendleton is the “crucible” — a three day training exercise that will cover more than 50 miles including a 10-mile hike up and down the “Reaper.”

It was at the Infiltration Course Wednesday that the 41 members of the Marine Corps Educators Workshop watched Boone and his platoon begin their entry into the crucible. Behind Boone, the simulated sounds of gunfire and explosions faded like a scene change in an old war movie. He came to attention and stood silent and motionless as the guest educators asked questions of the handful of recruits assembled from the RS Denver and RS Oklahoma City areas.

During the brief question and answer period, Boone revealed he preferred the second phase to the first.

“Phase I is all about getting the discipline down,” he said, buried beneath more than 100 pounds of gear and a layer of dirt and face paint. “Phase II is more Marine training. It’s more physical and you learn about what it means to be a Marine.”

Norman recruiter Sgt. Shane Weeks, 24, said it was crucial to a recruit’s success that they understand the building blocks established in Phase I and expanded upon during Phase II.

“It’s paramount for them to figure that out,” Weeks said. “For these recruits to be effective, they must learn teamwork and that not one man alone is going to accomplish a task.”

Boone’s platoon will continue through the crucible over the next few days. They will get little to no sleep as they travel from station to station building trust and the concept of one among their fellow recruits. And if they are able to walk down the Reaper, McBroom, 38, of Norman said they will have completed the most physical part of training.

“That is the point of culmination,” he said of the crucible. “Once a recruit has made it through that, he has made it through the toughest portion of boot camp. From there, the recruits will be transported back to MCRD for the final preparations of graduation.”

And when those recruits, who weeks earlier experienced the “shock and awe” of the “yellow footprints,” leave San Diego with their eagle, globe and anchor, they will do so with the knowledge and discipline to carry them beyond military service.

“Recruits can expect to gain those intangibles and characteristics that will help them succeed in every part of life,” Weeks said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Worthy of the eagle, globe and anchor
CNHI News Service

— EDITOR'S NOTE: Transcript writer Tony Pennington and photographer Kevin Ellis are taking part in the weeklong Educators Workshop sponsored by the USMC.

By Tony Pennington
Transcript Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO -- The United States Marine Corps band played the "The Marines' Hymn" Thursday morning as Timothy Smith stood at attention with his fellow recruits of platoon 1083 on the parade deck of Marine Corps Receiving Depot, San Diego.

In a few minutes they would be counted among the few and the proud. Three months ago, it must have seem a lifetime away.

Smith arrived at the Depot like any other recruit, head in their lap, silent and late in the evening. The "shock and awe" of basic training began when the doors of the bus opened and the ear-piercing shouts of 10-foot-tall drill instructors introduced them to life for the next 12 weeks. The process was under way. The recruits would be broken and rebuilt. No longer a collection of individuals, one way or the other, they would emerge as average, basic Marines.

From day one, the members of Alpha Company First Battalion lost more than their hair. Personal effects were removed and the distractions of the outside world banned in the isolated environment of boot camp. Their identities were stripped as they were all referred to as "Recruit."

Together they stood up to the challenges of physical training, classroom instruction, marching, marksmanship and team building. There were nights in the field and days climbing hills.
Every exercise and early morning led to the moment Smith, 19, of Midwest City and the others assembled in front of family and friends and accepted their eagle, globe and anchor pin, the final piece before they earned the right to be called a Marine.

And for Smith it was the best decision of his life.

"I had a lack of motivation and discipline to stay in college."

the new private said Tuesday as the reason for his enlistment.

"I decided to give it a shot and go with the hardest branch."

While he was nervous, stressed and not eating for the first few days of boot camp, Smith's family back in Midwest City was supportive, yet hesitant, about his enlistment.

"I knew he could do it, without a doubt," said Jesse Ryan, Smith's father, after Thursday's ceremony. "The harder things get, the more he excels. He's got a hard head and is very determined. He said if he was going do it, he wasn't going to do it half-ass."

Ryan may have been positive about his son's potential for success, but April, his mother, didn't like the idea of her boy leaving home.

"I was just scared," she said with tears forming in her eyes as she held her daughter Sara who was already crying. "It was just the thought of him being gone."

It would be months before April had an opportunity to embrace her son again. She wasted little time when the company was dismissed for five hours of liberty.

"It's great to see him again," she said. "I'm very proud. He looks awesome and taller."

The Marines will say the impression of a taller private is one of the by-products of 12 weeks of strength, discipline and pride.
After today's graduation ceremony, Smith will return to Midwest City with his parents for 10 days. He will then report back to San Diego for combat training.

But before he leaves again, Smith will eat a plateful of Hamburger Helper and give his family a chance to get used to the "taller" man he has become.

"It just amazing," Jesse said smiling while looking over his uniformed son. "We are just going to have to know him all over again."

Tony Pennington 366-3541 schools@normantranscript.com

Ellie