"Now scream aye Sir!!!" Welcome to Parris Island...

It has been awhile since I posted on this blog. A long while now that I think of it. A whole lot has happened in that time, more than I can possibly explain adequately in one post, so I'm going to write a series of posts bringing my journey up to where I am now. Buckle your seatbelts, because unless I get in trouble for it I intend to give the most thorough and truthful inside view of boot camp you will probably ever see. I have an excellent memory, and many memories of Parris Island are as vivid as if they happened yesterday. At the same time, understand that my memory of exactly _when_ certain things happened is sometimes faulty. Time doesn't exist on the Island. Also understand, that I'm not just telling my story, but the story of 80 of my of fellow Marines from my platoon, some 400 Marines who graduated from Charlie Company with me, and every Marine who comes out of Parris Island. 

I'll begin this story at the end, with a somewhat bizarre piece of ceremony that would look odd if you saw it and didn't know what it was. Its astonishingly silent on the Parade deck, which is usually ringing with drill instructor's cadences and commands, the thud of recruit's boots, and the crack of hands slapping rifles executing the manual of arms. Its not that early in the morning because the sun is just coming up, recruits are already training all over the island, but drill instructors know to keep them away from the parade deck, or keep them silent. They know what's going on, and will do everything in their power to preserve the gravity of the moment. Classic patriotic band music plays over a loudspeaker while recruits are arranged into the odd formation, I say odd because you don't make formations like this any other time. Its bitter cold, the wind cuts right through the light desert uniforms we are all wearing, but we ignore the discomfort, a skill that has taken 12 weeks to learn. The recruits all formed up, the commanding officer and first sergeant take their places in front of the U shaped formation and call the recruits to attention. The color guard marches out, then marches up onto the pedestal around the iwo-jima memorial. At the order present-arms, the recruits and drill instructors salute. The color guard takes a folded flag and hoists it up the flagpole being perpetually raised by those Bronze Marines from another time. The national anthem plays. Its ironic, all I can think about as order-arms is given and the color guard retires, is how cold those Marines must be in those short sleeve khaki shirts. Now the chaplain comes out and has a brief prayer. Between the tired, the cold, and the intensity of the moment much of the military customs of this opening portion of the ceremony go unnoticed, I'm almost in a dream world. Then suddenly it begins, a slow, powerful version of the Marine's Hymn plays over the loudspeaker. My heart begins to beat faster, Marines in campaign covers are going up and down the ranks with little red boards. Stuck into the boards are dozens of little metal symbols that cost a couple dollars at the MCX, but as a man who commands more respect and fear than anyone I've ever met presses one into my hand and says congratulations, its value is priceless beyond measure….

12 weeks before, Monday August 11th, I sat in a white 15 passenger van, on the way from Montgomery AL to Parris Island SC, along with 14 fellow wannabe Marines. Its hard to describe the emotions in that van. We all knew where we were headed, but somehow it hadn't really sunk in yet. One of the young men in the van joked repeatedly about how we're on our way to a field trip at a Bluebell ice-cream factory. "I can't wait to get to bluebell!" it was his way of dealing with whatever nervousness is inside. One of the fellows in the van looked like he was about 35, and he wore a wedding ring. Turned out, he was married, but only 21. He suffers from severe pre-mature balding, and has a very mature face. We stopped halfway to PI for what our driver called our "last meal" a government paid for all-you-can-eat Golden Corral buffet. I had two steaks and wondered what the chow will be like at bootcamp. The second half of the drive was quieter than the first. I tried to sleep, but I had very little success. Most of the van managed to nap. We stopped at a gas station about twenty minutes from the gates for one last breath of free air. Our driver was a Marine veteran. He told us to drink any drinks we had, and get our last tobacco fix in. Everything has to be thrown away before we set out on our last leg. Before we boarded the van he passed around an Eagle Globe and Anchor coin from his days in the Corps. He dismissed us to board the van with an Oorah! My heart began to pound as we approached the gates to PI. Someone pointed out that I was screwed since I was closest to the door, and would be the first person they would see.

We had passed all our ID's to the driver, and it only took a minute for the guard to check them and wave the van through. It was after dark, around 10pm as we drove to the receiving building, so we couldn't see the route. My heart just kept beating faster as we approached the famous yellow footprints, and the driver told us to put our heads down and not to look up until greeted by a drill instructor. The van stopped, and so did my heart. I heard someone in the van quietly say "Oh shit, oh shit!" Then the door was ripped open by the very first drill instructor any of us would meet. It is quite simply impossible to describe exactly what its like to be on the receiving end of a Marine Corps drill instructor, but its much more difficult when its a female drill instructor. Thats exactly who was now screaming in my face in an inhuman voice, voicebox torn apart by constant abuse. We ran out of the bus and were directed by more scary hats to the terrace in front of two large silver hatches (doors). The gold letters above the door bore the famous words: "Through these portals pass prospects for America's finest fighting force. United States Marines." The female drill instructor paced back and forth in front of us like a wolf surveying its prey, bellowing out a speech I don't remember one word of, basically welcoming us to hell. Then she ordered two in the front to open the hatches and we were rushed inside. I barely had time to process the fact that we didn't stand in the yellow footprints. I would later understand that the night we arrived was what's called "L5," meaning lighting has struck within 5 miles of the base. Personnel are required to remain under cover during L5 conditions. Since the footprints are out in the street, we missed out on them. 

Inside the building we were in a large room with a very high roof. The room was full of school desk looking things. We were directed to fill in these desks. I say directed, but in fact it involved a lot of very loud screaming. Every command was followed by "now scream Aye Sir!" Which we dutifully did, adding to the chaos of the situation. We were in the room for what seemed like a long time, but it really wasn't. To sum up, we received a blue bag, and wrote our names and a number we didn't understand on it. Then we put our Id's and money. Some papers may also have been involved. What I remember most vividly about this whole experience is that my whole body was shaking, and I could barely do what we were being told to do. The commands came thick and fast, and every one had to be followed by a screamed "Aye Sir" or one of the hats pacing up and down would be in your face in a heartbeat. From this room we filed into a hall where a row of phones was on the wall. Here we lined up in front of phones in little gray cases and made our last phone-call. This phone call involved yelling verbatim a script written on the inside of the door on every phone. I called my wife first, but she didn't answer. This is a bad thing because the constant barrage of screaming from the hat strongly implied that nothing short of living death was in store for anyone who didn't get an actual person. I tried twice to call my wife, and wound up leaving a message of the script, which by the way we were not supposed to do. But the hat was busy screaming at someone for failing to close the door on the phone after their call and didn't notice. After that I kept trying to call someone. I wound up being the last one in the hall with an angry hat before I finally got my recruiter and rattled off the script. Relieved I closed the phone and scuttled off after the other new recruits, screaming "aye sir"s back to everything the hat was yelling at me. From that point we were able to catch our breath while we received a couple briefings and filled out paper-work for our paychecks and stuff like that. It was hard to stay awake once the adrenaline cooled down a bit.

Note, I call the drill instructors who were interacting with me during this point "hats" because thats really all I remember of them. Those drill instructors are only there to provide initial shock and awe, and guide you to the next step in receiving. I don't remember faces or names, but I'll never forget that campaign cover. After those classes we met a drill instructor who would specifically work with our platoon for the remainder of receiving. His name I do remember because he would be the first DI to actually interact with us, but I won't put it out there. The first day and a half of receiving is very difficult to remember and describe because in encompasses the initial shock of arriving at Parris Island, along with sooooo many stops and events. The best I can do is describe particular parts, but the order isn't necessarily correct. The first day of receiving lasts a day and a half. We arrived monday at 10, and went straight through till late Tuesday evening. So exhaustion is involved as well. I remember initial issue of personal items, where we received a white mesh bag full of stuff like a razor, canteens, "skivvies" (our underwear) soap, towels, ect. We also received our go-fasters (running shoes) at this point. All of these things were deposited in a huge open room upstairs in the receiving building. This room would practically be our home all through receiving week. That done we received our uniform issue. Seeing each other in those desert digital cammies restored a little bit of motivation that had been lost in the stress of those first few hours. It didn't last long though. We did not get to wear boots, these we stuffed into green sea bags, along with the rest of the stuff we received. Instead we wore our go-fasters. We also had to hang neon reflective green glow straps across our bodies. The go-fasters and glowstraps tell the world that you are a receiving recruit. You can't get any lower in the Marine Corps world, except for poolee. 

It wasn't till Tuesday night that we left the receiving building for the first time, and stepped it out to the barracks that would become our home for the next 13 weeks. I'll never forget my first sight of our squadbay. It was so unbelievably dismal. The floor was just plain, hard, smooth concrete. There was next to no color, metal racks lined both sides of the squadbay with two black boxes at the foot of each one. It felt like such a dismal place. It was dusk when we arrived, and we still had a ton to do before we could finally rest. We had a lesson on making military racks (beds), we had to mark our belongings, learn where to hang and stow our bags and belongings, and hygiene. The frantic rush of that first hygiene time cannot be described. We were given 10 minutes for 85 recruits to brush our teeth, shave, shower, and get dressed in green skivvies again, we didn't even make it in time. Its funny now, because by the end of boot-camp we would consider 8 minutes a luxury and would be able to get decently clean in that time. Finally, completely exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally, we climbed into our racks and promptly went straight to sleep. Except for the unfortunate souls that the Drill Instructor had picked to be the very first fire-watch.

I felt like I'd just fallen asleep when the lights flickered on and we all tumbled out of our racks to the screaming drill instructor's instructions. In fact it was only about 4 hours of sleep because of how late we hit the rack, and in boot-camp you get up at 0400. I'm not going to explain every moment of the next three days, but I'll share some of the key memories. One of the very first things you do, before we even left receiving, is learn to make a formation. The formation on the Island consists of four squads, facing the direction you march. We hadn't learned to march at that point, so instead you "step it out." This is a major feature of bootcamp, and consists of the DI yelling "Step it out!" and all the recruits yelling "Step it out Aye Sir!" This mantra is repeated over and over again as long as you're walking to where you're going. When you make a turn the DI yells "Turn right!" and the recruits reply "Turn right Aye sir!" When you stop its more complex because you respond "Stop Aye sir, Good morning/afternoon/evening Sir!" This is the formula for every time a drill instructor yells stop, and we spent plenty of time yelling it.

This brings me to another feature of bootcamp, the greeting of the day. It is absolutely mandatory that whenever you pass a drill instructor, or enter a room with a drill instructor, or many other circumstances that take time to learn, you must give the greeting of the day. Till afternoon chow it is "good morning sir," after that its "good afternoon" until evening chow, and so on. It is also vital that if there is more than one drill instructor, you must say "good morning/afternoon/ect _gentlemen." Woe to the recruit who only says "sir" when two DI's are within 50 feet, or who fails to scream the greeting to a Drill instructor, or who is late with the greeting.

During receiving we spent a lot of time in that large open room upstairs of the receiving building. We ate boxed chows there, and waited there for our turn for the next bit of processing. During these times we were often left alone with no Drill instructors around for an hour or two at a time. Usually two to three platoons would be in the room at one time. The result of placing a couple hundred stressed out, undisciplined, ambitious recruits alone like this was total chaos. A dozen or so recruits in each platoon, desiring to be "leaders" and usually with JROTC experience in high school, tried to take charge of everything, with utter failure. For myself, being a good 5 years older than 90% of the recruits, it was a supremely frustrating experience. I mostly quietly studied the book of knowledge we'd been given and tried to ignore the JROTC wannabe drill instructors. It is interesting to note that none of these wannabes ended up as squadleaders or guides once bootcamp really got going. Ironically a time would come when I would long for those hours of chaos with no DI's around. 

The most time consuming events of receiving are the medical and dental examinations and vaccinations. There's really not much to say about these. Some of the navy hospitalmen who supervise the process seemed to take Parris Island as an excuse to behave like drill instructors and be jerks to the recruits. Others were nice, and the doctors themselves were very nice, happy to answer medical questions and questions about the military. Two things stick out in my memory. The infamous peanut-butter shot is definitely one of those. This penicillin shot is very thick, theres a lot of it, and it is injected into the buttock which makes it very painful to walk or sit down for the next couple days. The other is my dental exam, because I knew as soon as I was sent back for a second set of x-rays that I was in for a lot of dental work. Boy did that turn out to be right.

The highlight of my receiving week came when we were getting our pictures taken for our military ID cards, called CACs. One by one we were entering a booth and sitting at attention in front of the camera while an admin Marine, not a drill instructor, asked a couple questions then snapped the picture. There was a parapet to the side of the booth that faced the main office. When my turn came, the admin Marine was chatting with a Drill instructor who was leaning on the parapet from the other side. I sat at attention facing the camera and answered the Marine's questions. While he entered the information, the Drill instructor said "hey recruit, how many channels do you get?" Confused, I replied without losing bearing or moving my head or eyes: "Sir, how many channels does this recruit get where sir?" The DI sniggered and said: "With your satellite dish ears recruit!" Without hesitating, moving my head, or making any expression at all I responded. "Sir, this recruit gets a thousand channels sir." This caused the Marine to laugh out loud, and got a tiny chuckle out of the Drill instructor. I didn't get in trouble. This is a supreme feat in bootcamp, to make a drill instructor laugh, and I was made to tell the story many times to my fellow recruits.

One of the receiving events I will never forget is the IST, the initial strength test. Each recruit must pass this test to begin training. It consists of a max set of pullups, as many crunches as you can do in 2 minutes, and a mile and a half timed run. We headed out to the PT field before the sun was up. As we stepped it out into the field it started to rain. It was dismal and dark as we made a U turn and got set for the run instead. It was literally pouring down rain as we did our mile and a half run. In spite of the conditions, I still ran the best time that I had ever run, 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Once the run was completed we went back to our squadbay and did the crunches and pullups indoors. There was a set of pullup bars hanging out of the ceiling that we used for the pullups. During the IST, I noticed some men in red C company T shirts hanging around. I would later find that these were our drill instructors, come to see what kind of platoon they would be getting. One person failed the IST, they were trying to cheat on their crunches and got caught. They were immediately dropped, meaning they would join the next platoon to arrive and try the IST again. I don't even remember them leaving. 

One last interesting note about receiving is that already, there were signs of things to come. On our second day in receiving the receiving Drill instructor began teaching us how to march. His cadence was painfully slow, "LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFFFFFFTT………..RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGHT!" but we quickly began to get in step. We also learned how to execute a right and left face, and an about face. As we marched around to our receiving events, and to chow, I noticed that no other receiving platoons were marching. They were all still stepping it out. It wasn't till the last day of receiving that one other platoon started trying to march. It occurred to me at this point that my platoon might be a good platoon, yea even the best. It seemed like we were catching on to things pretty quick. We discussed the possibility in whispered conversations after lights out. We wouldn't know for a very long time whether or not this was true. By the way, that number we didn't understand, that we wrote on our little blue bags in the first minutes on the Island? That was our platoon number, 1081. A number that is seared into my soul. 

By the time these first three days in receiving were drawing to a close, we honestly couldn't wait to start real training. We were sick of waiting around, and were anxious to meet our drill instructors. Boy was that naive. All of our uniforms and gear had been issued. We'd learned where to stow our gear, and how to lock our rifles to our racks, hanging by their slings. We'd learned the basics of how to make a rack, and how to march. We felt ready to attack boot-camp. Well as it so happens, boot-camp was about to attack us. Lights out on thursday, the night before black friday. The after lights conversation was focused on one thing, how we felt about the trials before us, and wondering what it would be like…

Ninth Letter from Boot Camp

20140921

This week, we got our uniforms. We switched from tan cammies to green ones with our names on them. We also got the dress uniforms, though we turned them in right away to be tailored to fit properly. Still, holding that dress blue jacket and imagining wearing it gave me motivation to keep going hard. Let's see, at the beginning of the week after initial drill, we did the gas chamber and rappel tower. I did really great at both of those.

Tomorrow starts grass week. That's where we learn to shoot without ammunition. I can't wait! I hope to shoot expert on firing week, next week. Time is going to fly by for me the next few weeks. We have a lot to do. I do enjoy boot camp for the most part, but a lot of times all I can think about is what I'm going to do when I leave here.

Eighth Letter from Boot Camp

20140914

We have Initial Drill and and Initial Knowledge Test tomorrow so I don't have time to write much. Time is starting to fly here. We are more than one third done. Next is testing week, some more obstacle courses and stuff like that. We did this crazy PT yesterday plus an obstacle course. It was physically one of the toughest things that I've ever done, but I did really well and I was so proud when I finished.

Tomorrow is initial drill. Our platoon has a good chance of winning both the drill and knowledge tests. That means the highest score out of 6 platoons in Charlie Company. I want us to be the best. I've kinda reached a point where boot camp is becoming fun. The things that suck, I'm just used to them, and some things are starting to be pretty fun. Like we do the rappelling tower on Tuesday. This week doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, but next week is grass week, that's where we practice with our rifles, but no bullets. It will probably suck, but be fun too.

20140915
So guess what? Platoon 1081 won Initial Drill test. In fact, we knocked it out of the park. We scored outstanding, beat the closest runner-up by a large margin, and were only 1 point away from breaking the Regimental record. We got a trophy of a guilded boot for our platoon to display. Sadly, we only came in third for the knowledge test. But we're still strongly in the running for honors platoon.

Anyway, we were all pretty hyped. We were getting so pumped prepping for drill, our Senior Drill Instructor blasted loud music from his radio while we got our uniforms on, and we had several prayer circles, which is why I think that we won.

Birthday letter from Boot Camp/Seventh Letter from Boot Camp

20140911

I got birthday cards from people at church today. That improved my birthday a lot. I also got a nice present from a Navy Corpsman (Medical Assistant) at Dental. I had to go to get some fillings done. The Corpsman lady came and got me from the waiting room, took me to a dentist room, and me lie back. She said that she saw that it was my birthday in my file and that I could lie back for like 45 minutes before the dentist came. She got her phone out, opened Pandora and asked me what kind of music I wanted. So for the first time a month, I relaxed and listened to Gospel music. I shed a tear when it started playing. Pandora played like all my favorite songs. After the crazy of boot camp, 30 minutes of rest and Gospel music was an amazing birthday present.

20140912
Just had time to dash out a few more lines. Had pugil sticks 3 today. I destroyed my opponent. That's 3 wins and 1 loss. Not too bad. All our tests are on Monday, but when we pass we go to phase 2 of training.  

Sixth Letter from Boot Camp

20140907

Not quite sure of the date, they don't tell us. I had pugil stick fights again. I only got one fight, but I destroyed my opponent. We also did some fun Martial Arts this week, and the confidence course, which is a type of obstacle course. It was a lot of fun. I was one of the only ones who did the slide for life (look it up online) correctly and didn't get dropped into the water.

Other that that things have mostly sucked. They push our platoon really hard, a lot of PE and IT punishments. I get the feeling its because we are doing really well, but I'm not sure. They trash us after every drill for being lazy. I'm not, but other's are, so we all pay.

On the plus side, I'm getting close to halfway. Today ends week 4 of 12 training weeks. 2 more and I'll be halfway done to Marine week. Marine week is family day, and graduation. :) Next week is swim week. I'll pass that no problem. That will end phase 1. The week after is testing week, and after we pass we switch to green cammies. We get official name tags on them, and we get to blouse our boots. Then we are in phrase 2, where we do rifle training. I'm excited for that.

P.S. Sunday Evening

We had a really good drill today, plus church and extra free time, so it was a good day. Tomorrow starts swim week. I hope to qualify on the first day. Next week is testing week, so pray for me and platoon 1081. We've been working really hard, and we want to win all the tests. I mean score the highest out of all the platoons.

Fifth Letter from Boot Camp

20140901

Wow, September already. I don't know what to write right now. We have pugil sticks again tomorrow. So I can't wait for that. I also think that we have a drill inspection coming up. My platoon is pretty bad at some drill stuff so pray that it will go well. (It'll be over by the time you get this.) (Concidencally his platoon passed the drill inspection 1st on the Monday of this week that I am writing this.) We got a lot of extra free time for labor day, but I hope that it doesn't mess up training. It already pushed the obstacle course back a week. I can't wait for that. :) It's weird, I eat insane amounts of food, but I'm still hungry a lot. I think its just how crazy active we are. I'll write more later.

(Later the same day)
Wow, it's weird having this much free time. I like almost want the DI's to come back and tell us what to do. Almost. I get this is what it feels like after boot camp. I can't wait to be a Marine. It's easy to discouraged here, but I stay motivated pretty well. I can't describe the experience to you. It takes over your life . When I go to the head at night, I hear people yelling, "Aye, Sir!" and other boot camp stuff in their sleep. They tell me I do it too. It will be hard to go back to normal for my 10 leave. Then, MCT, then MOS school. But neither of those are like boot camp. This is some crazy stuff. I can handle it, don't get me wrong, but it's crazy.  

Fourth Letter from Boot Camp

Sunday Morning 20140831

Whew, Boot Camp is exhausting. I'm pretty fit, fitter than a lot of my platoon, but all day, every day activity really wears you down, especially when you actually put out the effort like I do. It is very frustrating when others don't put out. I've screamed and yelled myself hoarse, but our platoon keeps getting messed up for not screaming, because a lot of the platoon doesn't yell everything.

Its very frustrating to hear fresh voices from platoon mates, when my voice is so sore. We do a lot of drill, which is fun when we get it right, but we don't get it right very much. I see potential though. Had pugil sticks last week. I barely lost my round 1, but totally kicked butt in my round 2. Our platoon mostly won all their matches. Only one of ours got his mouth piece knocked out, and our guys knocked out like 6 mouth pieces from the platoons that we fought.

It is very physically and mentally tough going here. I live chow to chow. But I can feel myself getting stronger and tougher because of it all, so even when we are getting trashed I try to stay positive. Chow is crazy, we cram into the line so tight we can barely breathe, you rush through grabbing what you can while workers slap chow on your tray. Sometimes DI's block the drink station and send away people who don't yell loud enough. Once you sit down, you have like 10 - 15, tops, sometimes 5, before you have to stack trays and rush back into formation. Its still the highlight of the day though. I eat twice as much as I ever ate before, in half the time. I eat so fast I tend to finish early and take stuff from slow eaters. Anyway, I'm still going strong. It's still more fun then lots of things that I have done. I'm still motivated. :) Can't wait until the Crucible.  

Third letter from Boot Camp

20140827 - Wednesday

Life kinda sucks today. Today I got my teeth pulled, all 7 of them at once. It took over an hour and was very not fun. The doctor said I was really, really tough about it though.

20140828 - Thursday

To finish my story, after the teeth surgery, I was a little woozy and feeling weird, the desk lady (otherwise known as a secretary) called my DI about me and then I got in trouble because they thought I was misbehaving rather than just disoriented. Then I was on bed-rest for the rest of Wednesday and part of today. It was supposed to be 3 days, but our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training after afternoon chow. I was honestly glad because bed-rest sucked. It was boring and they kept putting us on other decks where other DI's would yell at us and treat us like dirty wimps. When they finally brought us back to our own squad bay and our Senior Drill Instructor told us to go back to training, I was so happy. I never thought that I would miss our squad bay and our mean Drill Instructors so much.

Speaking of which, we have three. Our Senior Drill Instructor is not around much, but he is like our daddy. He will give us a break if the other two are pushing us too hard, but only is we are doing our best. If people are being lazy, or disrespectful, he will trash us worse than the normal Drill Instructors. Our regular DI's are a "heavy hat" and a "kill hat" (side note: Since I am the one typing these out, (Joy Glass, Jonathan's Wife), please don't ask me what heavy hat and kill hat means, because I don't know. Okay end of side note.)

Our heavy hat is with us the most. He teaches us and also messes us up a lot with the punishments. He's a lot like the DI in "Full Metal Jacket." (Disclaimer: The movie is pretty good. But I would advise against ladies watching it because of a few things in there that I don't think are good for ladies to watch. That is just my preference and I thought that I would warn any ladies who are thinking about watching it.)

The kill hat does the punishment workouts, but apart from that, he's not bad. He's obviously very new and so he's just not scary or intimidating, unless you get IT'd (punishment workout), and then he messes you up.  

Second Letter From Boot Camp

Don't even remember the day. It's like 20140820, I think. Nothing, bar nothing, no movie, or youtube video, or book can prepare you for meeting your drill instructors. Boot Camp nearly broke me in the first two days after they took charge of our platoon. The yelling, punishments, running around doing dumb stuff because one, one person screwed up. But once I accepted that every platoon was doing the same stuff, and that it was all part of the process, I got my motivation back in time for training day 1 and 2.

Its hard, but drill is fun and I'm okay with the rest. I do get really mad at recruits who are motivated and don't run and yell hard like I do. It is hard and rough here, but I am can feel myself getting used to it and even starting to enjoy it. I get along well with my platoon mates, at least the good ones. I might beat up the nasty recruits who don't try to do well.

T1 (that's training day 1) we had classes, and MCMAP, Marine Martial Arts. Less fun then it sounds, especially when I already know the basics he was teaching. Mostly it was just tiring from doing the same thing over and over. T2 was morning PT, which trashed me, drill and classes. Everything before that was "forming" or basically processing us and teaching us to be recruits. The rest of the week is a lot of PT and classes. Hope it goes well.

First Letter From Boot Camp

Hi everyone

This is Joy Glass, Jonathan Glass' wife. I will be posting letters that I get from him at Boot Camp (Recruit Training) on this blog for him.

Thursday 20140814
Things happened so fast that its hard to keep track. They throw stuff at you, and then make you inventory it, yelling and ridiculing those who mess up. It happens a lot. Even I mess up occasionally. I already almost "this recruit" instead of "I."

The arrival was pretty crazy. A female drill instructor came up to the van door and just starts hollering in our faces. It was really hard to do what they asked us to, right after going through to silver hatches (oh doors) because my hands were shaking and they were screaming instructions while we had to shout, "Aye, sir" or "Yes, Sir." They took us to a lot of rooms, threw stuff at us and gave lots of instructions, then yelled at people who messed up.

Oh yeah, can't forget the medical check-ups. Shots are tomorrow. That will suck even more. Learning (and failing at) all the little details like how to hang up a bag. A lot of people are really dumb sometimes and get us in trouble. Our platoon gets yelled at a lot and we don't even have official drill instructors yet. We get them Friday. Still having fun in spite of it all though.

 

We Have An Opportunity For You "Time to Go"

The call came on a Tuesday, it was my recruiter, Sgt. Lovett. He said they had an opportunity for me, to go to recruit training on August 11th. I told him I would talk to my wife about it and call him back. I had previously turned down an offer because my wife and I weren't ready for me to leave. Since then we had taken steps to ensure that we would be prepared if another such offer came. This opportunity gave us almost three weeks to complete our preparations. Considering that it would let me get started earlier in the year and thus get me back home earlier next year, it seemed like a good idea.
One hiccup that I discovered was that it involved changing jobs. Where I previously was contracted as a Field Radio Operator, my job if I accepted this offer would be 2841 Ground Radio Repairer. It's a more technical job, that doesn't necessarily involve much field work. But it's also a job that offers new skills that have a place in the civilian market. Besides this I already know I enjoy working with electrical components because I did wiring at a sign factory for my very first job.
I talked it over with my wife, and we decided to accept. My new ship date placed me leaving for boot camp exactly one week before our 1st anniversary. We agreed to celebrate a week early. The following morning was a wednesday, I went to the recruiting station early in the morning for PT and to fill out paperwork. Sgt. Lovett told me that I had to do the 1.5 mile run portion of the IST because I didn't do it at the pool function. At that time I wasn't on the short list to ship, so I went to the PT at the track field instead. Sgt. Lovett drove me to where they did the timed IST run. I ran as hard as I could, hard enough that I retched and nearly threw up at the end. We had used my watch to time the run by eyeball, and Sgt. Lovett said that he recorded it as 11:20, but that being unfamiliar with my watch it was possible that it was as fast as 10:20. Either one is a pretty good time, and since I ran my fastest It's nothing to be ashamed of. After that we returned to the office and I initialed and signed the new contract paperwork. We talked about doing my reserve brief Monday morning. The reserve brief would consist of driving me over to where my Reserve unit was and talking to someone there about where I would be working.

The next few days were weird. It was hard to think about going to boot camp without my heart racing. My wife broke down crying at least once every day thinking about me leaving. Her parents offered to fly her to Austrailia to stay with them during boot camp, and she spent several days drying to decide what to do. In the end she decided to stay in America so we could keep our home and she could be closer to me for writing letters.

On Monday, the day after my wife made her decision, I had my reserve brief. My reserve brief was just that, brief. I went to the recruiting station at 8AM, and had to re-sign the contract paperwork due to a mistake on the previous one. I've gotten used to this by now, I've filled out this same form at least a dozen times since enlisting. After that My recruiter drove me to the reserve station in Alabama. It was a large building, with a central gym type area that I glimpsed through an open door, and countless offices and halls, a veritable maze. Sgt. Lovett guided me to the Marine wing where I was introduced to the 1st Sergeant of the unit I would be joining. He briefly explained how the reserve unit works and gave me his card. He asked if I had any questions and I asked if I could see where I would be working. He called over to the Comms area and told a Sgt. that we would be coming over. We exited the back of the main building and walked around a large steel building that looked like one of those storage units. The comms area was in an identical building on the other side. The Sergeant there introduced himself and showed me the work area. It reminded me a lot of my work at Adam's Signs, the sign factory in Ohio where I did the wiring. Plain concrete floor, steel building, and electronics and equipment for working with electronics everywhere. The Sergeant explained that they don't do much actual repair on site. Mainly they diagnose the problem and send off the equipment to be repaired. He opened a cage and showed me the shelves upon shelves of radio equipment, which I shall not describe in detail for many reasons. Suffice to say that it was fairly interesting. I asked him if they ever get to go out in the field and the sergeant said that it is possible. He said that to get in the field as a radio repairer you have to be exceptional: in top physical shape, a good radio repairer, and a better radio-man than the radio operators. Well I would feel like I was letting myself down if I was anything less than all of the above anyway, so no problem. Sgt. Lovett asked how many radio repairers he had and the sergeant said that he recently lost several. He mentioned that one of them had left to join MARSOC. This piqued my interest and I asked how possible it was to make it into MARSOC or recon from this job. He said it was definitely possible, but not probable and not to get my hopes up. I said I understood, and that it was just nice to know there was a chance of doing something more challenging. I know what I've signed up for, and understand that nobody is obligated to let me do anything other than diagnose, operate, and repair radios.
I will strive to be exceptional in every area of my life and work, and If that opens doors for special opportunities, fine. If it doesn't, also fine. Whatever I do I'll do to the best of my ability for the glory of God.


Sergeant Lovett and I had an uneventful and fun drive back to Pensacola. I found out that he was also a gospel singer when he was younger, and sang in church and with his sisters who he described as being exceptional singers. We sing different types of gospel music, but love for music and singing crosses the boundaries of genres and church denominations.

All that remains is to finish putting my affairs in order so that when I leave I won't have to be worried about anything left undone.

Lessons I've Learned

Before I leave for recruit training I'd like to share some things that I've learned along my journey before I've even gone to boot camp. Some I learned through the process, some I learned outside of it, but strongly apply. Some are big, some are small, and some are downright trivial. Some are amusing, some I think are important and want to impart on others. 

1. Always tell the truth exactly and simply, even if it is uncomfortable. 

At MEPS, one Gunnery Sergeant asked us if we understood a document we read. We all said yes, and were then grilled on it and chastised because we did not actually understand it fully, so the correct answer was NO. I took this simple lesson to heart. Sometimes we tell half truths or slightly bent truths because it seems easier than explaining the whole truth, or because we think that it's what someone wants to hear. Or we simply say yes when it's really only an 80% yes. Well 80% yes might as well be 100% no. While it might seem easier to skip hard truths, in the long run it might come back to haunt you, so just be completely truthful the first time, even if that means taking an 80% yes and simply saying no. Better to feel dumb for a couple minutes than to find out later on that you really needed that 20%. 

2. Never hold back, always give 100% effort. 

I learned this through PT, but it applies to all of life. I've never regretted the times I pushed myself to the limit and broke. Like puking after the Murphy challenge, or being unable to do even one pullup at the end of a workout. But I have regretted the times I quit before I was really done, and I've regretted not spending more time improving certain things. Sometimes things in life will be hard, even painful. But that isn't an excuse to go easy on yourself or give up. If you give 100% of everything you have and you don't make it, you at least won't have regrets. The feeling of accomplishment after doing something difficult that you didn't think you could do, is simply amazing. But you'll never have that feeling if you don't leave it all on the field. 

3. Do it faster

At the last pool function PT we had to repeat the same movement multiple times until everyone was doing it at max speed. I realized that at recruit training we will be expected to do every single thing we do with speed and intensity. But I also realized that there's really no excuse for doing anything less, ever. Speed and intensity is important at work too. Why should I casually perform a task that I can perform just as well quickly, leaving more time for other tasks and running the job more efficiently. 

4. Bearing is key

I made the mistake of grinning a little bit while being reprimanded at MEPS. I was not smiling at the reprimand, but at myself for being so dumb. Never-the-less, it got me a proper and deserved tongue lashing. It is ironic that during my time working at the teen shelter I learned to conceal my frustration or anger perfectly, but I never learned to conceal amusement. Now I'd better learn to conceal all the rest of my emotions or I'm going to get thrashed in bootcamp. 

5. Hurry up and wait! 

I said that speed and intensity is important, but from MEPS I learned that sometimes you just have to wait with speed and intensity. Don't get mad or frustrated at the situation, because it's just life and its going to happen alot. Wait patiently, but don't be that guy who zones out and doesn't notice that its his turn finally. 

6. How to shave with a regular razor

I've spent my whole life shaving with an electric shaver. Well they don't have those in boot camp, so in preparation for my departure (before I got my august 11th ship date) I finally bought a Gillette razor and some shaving cream and taught myself to shave with it. 

7. How to shave with a regular razor… without shaving cream

After a recently returned from bootcamp PFC mentioned shaving with hot water, or even with things that are not shaving cream, like hand sanitizer. I proceeded to practice shaving with just hot water. Surprisingly, I think I like it better. I always hated that messy shaving cream. 

8. Goals

Before I enlisted I had been training towards some Parkour goals. I went from zero physical activity, to being able to do intermediate parkour, simply by setting goals. As I achieved each goal I set for myself I set a new one and started training towards it. In a real sense this was the thing that drew me to the Marines over the Army. The Marines set goals and expect you to achieve them. Setting goals and achieving them through hard work is basically what the Marine Corps advertises about itself. Before parkour and the Marines I wasn't setting very many goals or trying very hard to achieve them. But without goals, without targets to strive for, we as people stagnate. We become leaves in a stream, just going where we're carried. Our nation and world is full of people like that, and sadly many of the people in the world with goals have bad, yea evil goals. The terrorists have goals, and they're willing to put out the effort and sacrifice to achieve them. I have a goal to serve my country and help defend it against those guy's goals. I also have a goal to become a chaplain and help other young military men and women. 

But below those lofty goals is another level. You can set goals in every area of your life. You don't have to become a Marine, or join the military at all to make a positive difference. You can set a goal to be a better employee at your job, to improve your physical fitness, or to spend time reading your Bible. Don't be satisfied with where you are, reach for the stars, achieve something. Make a difference in your school, church, and community. I've got a long ways to goal to achieve those goals myself. But now I know that I can achieve anything I set my mind to. 

Semper-fit- Third Poolee Function

I've decided to switch to past tense for now. I'll only use present tense for special occasions. 

I knew well in advance when this pool function would be. I got a text from my recruiter, Sergeant Lovett, two days ahead of time that said simply "Pool function Saturday at 0745. Mandadory and locked on. If you don't know what that means then call me." followed by the uniform requirements. I did text him and ask what "locked on" meant, and he explained it simply meant to come prepared to follow instructions and protocol and be motivated no matter what. I knew that wasn't an indicator of an easy day. 

Saturday night I couldn't sleep, thunderstorms woke me up at 4am, and I never went back to sleep. It was still raining pretty good when I arrived a good ten minutes early at the recruiting station. I was surprised to find about a dozen other poolees already inside. More piled in pretty quick and we just stood around speculating about what we would do, considering the rain. There was a brand new Marine, fresh out of boot camp there in his desert cammie bottoms and boots, and tight fitting Olive T shirt. We all crowded around him asking questions about boot camp, which he happily answered. At 0745 Staff Sergeant Castleberry (male, his wife is also a Marine recruiter at the office) called for us to line up in alphabetical order to be weighed and sign in. We all immediately turned to each other and began sharing last names. We got worked out into line pretty quickly. In Boot camp it would never be fast enough, but it satisfied the recruiters. I was only 2 pounds over my minimum weight for my hight, definitely need to gain weight. 

After that a list of names was called for the IST (Initial Strength Test). The IST consists of a max set of pull-ups, max number of crunches you can do in 2 minutes, and a 1.5 mile timed run. Those individuals who were called lined up in front of the pull-up bar. The rest of us milled about briefly before being instructed to form ranks and sit down. This we did, all crammed together on the floor. We sat for quite awhile watching poolees doing their pullups. We cheered them on and boo'd the ones who quit before they were really finished. As the last of them headed for the bar the recruiters worked out a SNAFU and decided everyone else was going to do an IST as well, while those who'd finished pullups went outside to do crunches. By this time the rain had stopped, so it was on. We all got in line for the pull-up bar and waited our turn. When we got to the bar we had to say "Poolee Glass requesting permission to mount the bar." Then the recruiter would say "mount" and then "begin," and count for us. I managed 11 pullups, despite giving my all to get one more. I had done 12 less than a week ago and was hoping to repeat that performance. As soon as I finished my pullups I jogged out to a grassy area a short distance away where poolees were being lined up for crunches. I took a spot at the end of the line and the next poolee to arrive became my partner. After filling the grassy area we got down and began. My partner did 60, I matched my all time record with 86, but just wasn't able to exceed it. The ground was very wet from the rain, and our backsides got all muddy. I didn't let it bother me, which would turn out to be a wise move. Once we gave our scores to a recruiter with a clipboard, we were sent back up to the parking lot to form a formation. From there we lined up and re-filled our water-bottles, then re-formed again and were split up. Those completing the IST were sent one way to do their run, the rest of us were instructed to go to the nearby college track for PT. 

I hopped in with somebody and we carpooled the short distance to the track. It was a very short track, probably 1/8th of a mile, with just open grass in the middle. There our little crowd of poolees was greeted by a very large, heavily muscled man wearing a Marine shirt and woodland marpat Bottoms and combat boots. He was wearing a Marine Veteran ball cap, so I deduced that he was not an active duty Marine, but somebody brought in to torture us. As he introduced himself my deduction was proved 100% correct. He introduced himself as a Veteran of OIF and OEF, a former Football player, and current certified "Semper-fit" instructor working at a nearby fitness gym. He briefly explained that we would do a short warm-up formation run, some formation PT, and then split up into a circuit using various exercise tools that were placed in intervals around the edge of the field, along with some stations with no equipment that involved simple exercises. Once his short explanation was finished, he called for four squad leaders to step forward. I know I want to be a leader, so I stepped up along with three others. The rest of the poolees fell into lines behind us, and the Boot Marine acted as guide. We swung our formation around onto the track and ran around it once calling cadences with the Fitness trainer. From there the trainer instructed us squad leaders on what to do and had us form up facing the rest of the poolees in a wide open PT formation. We then proceeded to do some of the Marine Corps PT staples: side straddle hops, leg lifts, pushups, and mountain climbers. We performed these with the fitness instructor setting cadence, and us providing the count. He frequently stopped the exercise to correct our various and sundry mistakes, then making us start the count over. I also learned that you can never move fast enough from position of attention, to exercise, or back again. You have to move as fast as possible, and when somebody isn't fast enough everyone has to do it over till they all get it right. When you go down for pushups, you don't lower yourself, you just fall straight down. I'm happy to say that after the first time we were corrected I was one of the fastest. I figured that as a temporary squad leader I needed to set an example. 

Once we were all panting, we were given a walk-around of the circuit stations, where it was explained to us what to do at each one. But when the instructor tried to have us set our water bottles down in an orderly fashion it went FUBAR in a hurry. We were yelled at roundly and placed back into the formation we had used to PT. From there I figured we would divide up by squad, but instead we split up by rank, which put all four of us squad leaders as one group. This turned out to be interesting, since being high level A- type personalities, who felt that we should be setting an example, we probably pushed ourselves and each other much harder than would otherwise have happened.  At each station we assumed the position of attention until instructed to prepare, then we would exercise for one minute at the max pace we could manage before running to the next station within 30 seconds, standing at attention, and beginning the next exercise. There were 8 stations total. Our squad leader team tried to be as organized as possible, even setting a cadence for ourselves for some of the exercises. Halfway through it started pouring rain, and we just kept right on going through it, slipping and sliding in the mud the field had become. By the end of this mad dash PT session I thought I was feeling the hurt. We re-formed into formation for water and rest. But when the instructor asked if we thought we could go another round, I loudly joined in with a hearty "yes sir" along with most everyone else. This time we did 30 second sessions with 30 second breaks in between. It wasn't raining anymore, which made it a little more bearable, but this time around you could start seeing the strengths and weaknesses of our little group. I petered out on pushups, and mountain climbers, but I had no trouble with squats, crunches, or weight swings. Others excelled or flagged at different stations. We stayed motivated through it all. By the end of the second round I was definitely hurting everywhere. Once I caught my breath it felt really good. We re-formed for water and rest and after a short speech from the instructor about the pride that comes with pushing yourself and not quitting, and the pride of earning the title Marine, we were dismissed to return to the recruiting station. 

The last half hour at the station once we got back consisted entirely of hanging around chatting with other poolees, and the Boot Marine. We swapped stories of the amusing things that happened to us at MEPS and the hotel, and talked about the stories our military friends had told. Eventually everyone who didn't have shipping paperwork to do was dismissed, though a couple of us hung around talking for a few more minutes anyway. 

It I had had any ideas that boot camp would be easy (and I didn't) they would have been crushed by this pool function. The new Marine fresh out of boot who was with us at the field PT, assured us that PT in recruit training is harder, and the drill instructors aren't as nice as the fitness instructor was. He also said that those who excel in boot camp, those who do well, get extra attention as the drill instructors try to push for their breaking point. I want to earn PFC in recruit training by being a leader and setting an example, so I suppose thats what I have to look forward to. I went away at the end of the day with fresh determination to never quit or give up, to give 100% at all times, at work, church, or boot camp. 

Unprepared

Today I was less than 48 hours away from the gate of Parris Island and a pair of yellow footprints with my name on them. I got up early to go PT with my recruiter at the station, but he called me at 6am when I was about to leave home to say that he had an early appointment he took from another recruiter and he wasn't going to be there to PT. I opted to just knock out a few sets of pullups and crunches later since I had a sore achilles tendon and didn't want to run without consulting my recruiter about it. For now I decided to go back to bed for a little. I wasn't tired and didn't really sleep but it felt nice to lay down.

Around 8:30 there was a knock at the door. I peaked through the blinds and saw dress blue deltas. I hopped out of bed and threw a shirt on pretty quick. Staff Sergeant Thorne was at the door. He said "A slot is open for 0321 Recon-man." I asked when, but I knew the answer since he was at my door. "You come over to the station, we put you on the shuttle to go up to the hotel, then you process and go to recruit training tomorrow." My heart about stopped. This was what I wanted. From the moment I found out that recon was an option it's what I wanted to do. I've always dreamed of working in military special operations. I briefly paused to mention that I had been considering trying to get into active duty, but Staff Sergeant Thorne pointed out that I would need to replace my reserve slot to do that, which isn't likely to happen soon. He also pointed out that I would be earning active duty pay for the next year while going through training. By this time Joy was up and dressed, and she in her wife smarts invited the recruiter in so we could sit down in the living room. I knew that the biggest issue with this opportunity was that my affairs are not in order. My wife has no driver's license and depends on others from transportation, my car needs Florida tags, and there's a dozen other little things that need to be done. I told Staff Sergeant Thorne this plainly and he said he understood and that the recruiters and their wives were available to help in any way they could.

The next hour was a bit of a blur. I determined from the start that my main concern was my wife. I knew that I could go to recruit training and do just fine, even with such short notice. I asked about my physical state, since I had been told they wanted people to pass an IST with certain standards in order to take a recon slot. Staff Sergeant Thorne said that he had been tracking my progress and had talked to the recon unit's commanding officer. He had gotten clearance specifically for me to go, because I had shown dedication in working toward my goal. It might be the only opportunity that will arise to take an 0321 recon slot and he only just got word this morning.

My wife was pretty nervous, but she was taking it surprisingly well. She talked to Mrs. Thorne, the recruiter's wife on the phone, about what it was like to deal with the separation. I called and talked to a friend, my Pastor's son, and he advised me that there was an awful lot that needed to be squared away still, and that I be sure that there was some sort of solid plan to get it done without me. Finally I talked to my wife's parents, a very important call since they are the ones who have volunteered to take care of her financially in my absence. Her father told me that they are supportive of my decision to join the Marines, but that he was very concerned about this timing. Joy is totally dependent on others, without a drivers license or any experience with handling the car or finances. Plus we still have one month to go before our first anniversary of marriage, and he was worried how she would take that. He said he would not tell me not to do it, but that I needed to think carefully about what I was doing. I thanked him and went inside with a heavy heart. I could tell that he did not want to tell me what to do, but that he strongly felt that it was a bad idea for me to leave today. I could tell that he saw it as leaving Joy in a bad situation.

I went back in the house and looked at my wife, she was talking with Staff Sergeant Thorne, clearly in control of herself in spite of the major shock she had just received. She is strong, whatever she thinks about herself. At that very moment she was thinking that I was about to leave, and had spent the past hour thinking that I was about to leave. She knows that this is what I've always dreamed of and assumed that I was going to go, but she wasn't blubbering or incoherent. She's a wonderful woman and deserves better than to be dumped with all the responsibility of taking care of herself, without even having some of the most basic tools to do so.

I told Staff Sergeant Thorne that I could not accept the offer. I told him that I knew when I signed up that might not be able to have the job I wanted, and that my decision to join stands firm regardless of whether I get to join Recon or not. The situation is that my wife is just not prepared, physically or emotionally, and that leaving now would probably damage my relationship with her family. I told him that saying yes would have been the easy choice, following my dream right now. But putting my wife's good before my own was the right choice. Staff Sergeant Thorne was very understanding. He said that he could understand why I made my decision and that he would use it as an example to his recruiters. I told him that I had made a mistake by assuming that I had yea however many months before I would be leaving, and had been lazy in taking care of my affairs. I determined to learn a lesson from this, and I would ensure that if he showed up in a couple weeks, or a couple months with another chance, we would be prepared.

Staff Sergeant Thorne departed, and so did my chance to be less than 48 hours from Parris Island. It was a very sobering experience to say the least. I was faced with a very difficult decision, and I made a very hard choice. I could have been on my way following my dream, and really the only thing that held me back was my failure to prepare for this possibility. I assumed that I had time to prepare for my departure and I focused alot on my physical preparation. I've worked very hard to grow stronger and faster, and set myself up for success, but I failed to set my wife up for success. I will learn from this and make sure that we are both ready for anything that the Marine Corps might throw at us in the coming months. So for now my priorities are clear, get Joy her driver's license, get her enrolled in college for the fall, and make sure she has the ability to take over the finances and car at a moment's notice.

Also, I think Joy and I will both value the time we spend together a lot more, because we don't know when another knock might come to the door and yesterday will become the last day we have together for a long time.

"Double Time!" Poolee Function on the Beach

(All set up to grill some burgers and hot dogs.)

I arrive a good fifteen minutes early, a good habit to have. The Recruiting office isn't even open, so I just sit in my car. This Pool function was well announced and all the Poolees for the Pensacola and Pace Marine recruiting stations are supposed to be here today. Within a minute a truck pulls up next to me. I see a Marine Corps sticker and figure that it's another poolee. When the driver gets out wearing his poolee uniform, the navy blue shirt with maroon emblem, and required black shorts, I'm proven correct. I get out of my car too and greet him. Within a couple minutes we are joined by several more poolees. We discuss when we ship out, and the plan for the day. Originally we know this function was supposed to be a run on the beach followed by a grill out. The weather was really nasty yesterday calling this plan into question, but by the looks of the morning it might be back on. We won't know till later. By the time 7:30 arrives, the time I was told to be there, there are many poolees gathered around the door to the recruiting office. More keep arriving too. I hang around chatting with various and sundry poolees. Most are pretty sharp, both in appearance and intelligence. Most are between 17 and 19, only a couple others are in their 20s. I estimate around 40 poolees in total, and an exact count later gives 37. Around 7:30 the recruiters start arriving. Staff Sergeant Thorne opens the office and comes out a minute later with a clipboard. He gives it to a poolee and tells him to start having people sign in. The poolee he gives it to wears a black "Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body" shirt. I met him at the last pool function. He is a fitness nut and has a lot of experience in NJROTC. He apparently passed some insane challenge at a previous poolee function, which is how he earned the shirt. He ends up selected as the de-facto platoon sergeant for the pool function. While everyone signs in, conversation continues. Staff Sergeant Throne pulls his truck up and calls for volunteers to unload the grill and propane. I quickly hop up with another poolee and we hand the grill down to other willing hands. After a time, I hear a voice loudly call "Fall In", which just about causes me to fall apart. I have no idea what I'm doing. I see other poolees scrambling into a formation and I find a place in it as best I can. Eventually we form a very sloppy formation standing at attention. First off we have to fix our formation. We are instructed on how to spread out our squads (rows) by having the first rank take so many steps forward, the second rank (where I am) take so many steps forward, the third rank stands still and the fourth rank steps back. Then we are allowed to relax to parade rest. 

Next Staff Sergeant Thorne reads off the names of the six week and thirty day shippers. These are the poolees who are within six weeks, or within 30 days of their ship date. He reminds them that they must be ready to go to boot camp right now, as within the 30 day window he can call them at any time and tell them they're leaving tomorrow. Six weeks shippers also have some paperwork to do in order to be ready for their 30 day shipping window. Now for the fun part. Staff Sergeant Thorne announces that we will have inspection. We should be wearing the correct uniform, have our Marine water bottles and knowledge books, and we should be clean shaven. I'm good on all of those except the knowledge book. I forgot I was supposed to bring that. Staff Sergeant Thorne starts at the back of the formation, Sergeant Hensley starts at the front. Neither go easy. I can hear Staff Sergeant Thorne somewhere behind me asking Poolees if they're going to "forget" their rifles or ammunition or other crucial equipment if they become Marines. These poolees forgot their water battles or knowledge books, or forgot to shave. That last one seems to be a big one. Sergeant Hensley is verbally more abusive. I hear him calling every other Poolee a "Nasty little thing" for not shaving. Some tried shaving the night before in order to sleep in a little longer this morning, they don't get any mercy either. I consider myself lucky, Sgt. Hensley walks right past me and looks at my face. He shakes his head and says something about "Nasty little thing" as he walks away but I'm not sure if he's addressing me or still grumbling about the previous poolee he inspected, who got a real dressing down. He is so focused on the shaving (which appears to be a big issue with todays poolees) that he does not ask about my knowledge book that I forgot. I resolve to put my lucky escape on this issue to good use by not forgetting it next time! Once the inspection ends the recruiters address us as a group about the shaving issue. All poolees must shave the morning of pool functions. If we have this problem at the next pool function, we will do group PT as punishment. The threat of what happens if you "forget" things in boot camp, is held heavily over our heads. 

Next we do hight and weight. By squads (rows) we go into the office where Staff Sergeant Castleberry (female) has us give our name, step on a scale, and give our hight. I only weigh in at 146 pounds, 2 pounds over the minimum for my hight. Granted I haven't eaten yet today, but still, I feel the need to gain weight. After the hight and weight It feels like we stand in formation for quite awhile. At one point I hear a poolee in the first squad try to request a head call. He gets it wrong and is told by Sergeant Hensley to try again. He still gets it wrong, about five more times before he manages to get it correct at the top of his lungs. "This Poolee requests permission to make a head call!" Then he is allowed to go use the restroom. Staff Sergeant Thorne addresses us about the day's plans. We're going for a "fun run" on the beach in formation while calling cadence. He calls up Staff Sergeant Castleberry (male) who is going to start off the cadences. Staff Sergeant Castleberry asks who does not know how to run to cadence and I raise my hand along with about half the poolees. He has us run in place and demonstrates. I'm getting a little pumped by this point, this sounds like a lot of fun. They ask if any poolees know cadences and would be willing to lead them, much is made about how "C130 rolling down the strip" doesn't count because everybody knows that one. Nobody volunteers. 

Staff Sergeant Thorne also explains that we will need to carpool to Pensacola beach. He instructs us to figure out within our squads who is driving and riding. I turn to my left and right and announce that I have two seats. The two poolees on my left need rides so that pretty well settles it. A little later Staff Sergeant Thorne asks if everyone has rides and who the drivers are. He gives final instructions and dismisses the formation. I grab the other two poolees who are riding with me and we hop in my car. One sits in the back and is really quiet. He doesn't say much at all. The fellow in the front and I enjoy conversation about various things. Turns out he has played a lot of airsoft, like me, so that makes for fun talk. At the meeting spot at the beach we meet other poolees gathering outside the bathrooms. We stand around talking about what our run will be like and how hot and sunny it is. When the recruiters arrive they have us move to a large pavilion. A a few poolees help unload large coolers of water as well as the grills and food supplies. I start stretching, along with some of the other poolees. I don't know how hard this run is going to be, but it will be easier if I'm stretched out. A poll goes out who would prefer to run barefoot and who would prefer to wear shoes. Barefoot wins and everyone has to take their shoes off. After a time we are called into formation again inside the spacious pavilion. This formation is not the same as the previous, we don't all end up in even remotely the same spots. Once it's formed it gets slightly re-arranged when Staff Sergeant Thorne has slower runners take the spots that will be at the front of the run. He says he wants to set a slow pace and not wear everyone out. 

When we're ready, we move down out of the pavilion, then right face, which aligns the formation for the run, and head towards the beach. One of the recruiters sets the marching cadence. We mostly don't know squat about marching, and the formation sort of gets messed up, especially trying to weave around beach goers, but I do my best. When we reach the beach we wheel left and come to a halt. I am on the right side of the formation, and I'm knee deep in surf. I realize that this is going to be a little bit wetter than I'd imagined. Recruiters hand out final instructions, at the command double time we are to shout "Marine Corps" and start running. Then the order comes, "forward march" and we start walking. When the double time command comes a few moments later we shout "Marine Corps" and start running. Sort of, it seems like the shout fizzled out. Once we start running Staff Sergeant Castleberry starts out the cadence with what I call the "lefty righty" cadence. It consists entirely of variations of "left" and "right" along with calling noises. I think it is designed to set the cadence and help us get into rhythm. A problem immediately becomes apparent however. We're running in the the surf, the noise is crazy. I can barely hear Staff Sergeant Castleberry and sometimes I can't hear him at all. As soon as he leaves the lefty righty cadence and tries a real one, most of the formation is unable to hear or follow along, and the thundering unison turns into more of a weak quartet of whoever is closest to Staff Sgt Castleberry. I resolve to just make noises that sounds vaguely like whatever I thought i heard, and I wind up doing that quite a bit to be honest. Things improve slightly when Sergeant Lovett or Hensley takes their turn at the cadences. Their voices are a little louder and they alternately speed up and slow down so that they are sometimes near the back of the formation and sometimes near the front, which helps keep everyone able to hear sometimes and thus motivated enough to at least make those vague noises when they can't hear. Sergeant Lovett has a nice simple call he starts his cadences with that everyone can follow. First "Left foot!" a couple times, then "Drill Foot" then back, or sometimes "Kill foot!" then he'll launch into a cadence. He calls a couple that sound a lot like those called by the fictional Drill Instructor Hartman in the movie Full Metal Jacket, which makes them a lot easier to follow since even when I can't hear I know what is supposed to come next. The running itself is not that hard. I'm slogging through water that is sometimes up to my waist, but the pace is pretty slow and a couple times we halt briefly or walk to give us a chance to catch our breath. To my surprise I notice that some people are falling out. I know this only because several times I have to move position in the formation as the people in front of me are shifting to fill gaps toward the front of the formation. After awhile we come to a stop, then wheel all the way around and start back toward where we started. Now I'm on the beach side of the formation, which is nice since it's a little easier to run with water only around my ankles, and I can hear a little better. On this side I'm able to notice that we are running past hundreds of beach goers. Many are cheering us on and taking pictures. On the way back I notice more people falling out of formation. One comes right down the middle, flagging and slowing down with the formation flowing around him. We all slap him on the back and shout encouragement as we pass. In filling gaps I wind up moving from the back to almost halfway to the front of the formation. I'm in the zone by now, calling cadences and running steadily at a slow pace. The recruiters seem to have recognized the hearing problem and are calling the "lefty righty" cadence a lot, since it's easy to follow even when you can't hear. Sergeant Hensley even does the "C130 rolling down the strip" cadence he said we weren't going to do, presumably because if everyone knows it they can follow better. When we come to a halt where we started my first thought is "that's it" I don't feel very taxed at all. My body is telling me I've been using it, but I'm not winded, tired, or sore. For our finisher we receive instructions on falling out by column into single file and running back to reform in the pavilion. The guidon carrier (carrying the maroon colored standard for our recruiter's unit) takes the lead, with the column behind him running behind him as he heads off, then as soon as the last person in that column passes the first in our column we fall in running behind them in single file, and so on all the way back to the pavilion. This short run, up hill through deep sand, gets my wind going more so than the whole beach run up till that point. I'm actually breathing heavily by the time we sloppily re-form the formation. 

The recruiters immediately instruct us to retrieve our water bottles and begin sipping them to hydrate. We stand at parade rest sipping on water for a little while. I hear one girl ask to retrieve hers as well. Sgt Hensley asks why she did not get it when she was instructed, and tells her to listen closely to instructions. Then he tells her to go get and double time. She starts walking and he starts yelling "go go! Faster! 13, 12, 11," he counts down and she doesn't make it back to her spot in time. He yells "on your face!" And a random poolee in the first rank drops to the pushup position. "No not you." Sgt Hensley begins, then changes his mind. "Nevermind, everybody on your face!" He tells us that we need to pay attention to instructions, and to move quickly when we are instructed. Then we all do 20 pushups. After this Staff Sergeant Thorne addresses the group. He asks who was embarrassed and a lot of hands go up. He says they should be and scolds everybody for not showing motivation and sounding off loudly in cadence. He does say that plenty of us did fine, but that it seemed like some people were acting like they didn't want to be there. I certainly don't feel embarrassed. I ran steady, sounded off loudly, and at least made noise when I couldn't hear. It really was hard to follow the cadences over the sound of the surf. Once Staff Sergeant Thorne walks away Sgt Hensley gives a more sympathetic address, which I find amusing considering how hard he has been on people so far. He says that we did good, and that most of us should be proud of ourselves. Then he allows the de-facto platoon sergeant poolee to dismiss the formation. Some of the recruiters and poolees go to cook burgers and hot-dogs. A couple other recruiters are talking with poolees about their experience. I hang around chatting with poolees I know while we wait for dinner. I bump into Sergeant Lovett, my recruiter, who asks me how it was. I tell him it really wasn't hard, just fun and I could do it again. After a while Staff Sergeant Thorne gets everyone's attention and instructs us to form a line down the pavilion ramp and around to the grills. I realize that where I've been standing I'm at the very front of the line, and poolees begin falling in behind me. "Ladies first!" I call out, and others echo. The female poolees gratefully come around and form the line in front of me, leading us off to lunch. The burgers are good and I enjoy chatting with the poolee I drove down with too. Eventually the recruiters call for their particular recruits to gather around. Sgt. Lovett congratulates myself and his other poolees for running well. None of us fell out of formation and some of us expressed willingness to go again. He tells us that we are free to go or we can stay and continue to hang out. One of the poolees I drove up with needs to head back so all three of us throw away our lunch plates and cups and head back to the station. I drop off the other two and bid them farewell. I actually go back to the beach, my wife works right nearby the beach and I have to pick her up in the near future. But it has been a full hour by the time I get back to the beach and everyone is gone, so I simply go to my Wife's place of employment to wait the hour till it's time to take her home. The poolee function is officially over for me. 

(Some of the other poolees hanging around talking after lunch.)

This poolee function was a great time, I got to experience an inspection and some formations, and had a motivating cadence run. It is a good reminder of what I am getting into. The close order drill maneuvers we butchered so horribly as poolees must be performed to perfection by the end of recruit training, and the drill instructors who will teach us will not be merciful like our recruiters are. The verbal grilling offered by our recruiters during the inspection paled in comparison to what we will face when our drill instructors inspect us. The recruiters didn't raise their voices, or get in anyone's face, something they made sure to remind us. Everything the Marines I've met in this enlistment process have done has had a purpose. At MEPS the Marines did their best to intimidate those who were processing to join. Why? Because they don't want undisciplined recruits. In describing my experiences to others I have frequently heard "I couldn't handle that," "I'd get mad." "You're not even in yet!" To which I respond that that is the point. The Marines don't want people who can't handle that. They want people who can handle anything that might be thrown at them, from harsh words to hand grenades. So the recruiter's goal with the pool function was to help prepare poolees mentally for boot camp, as well as motivate us and keep us excited about what we're doing. It sure works for me. 

"I Love The Staff Sergeant's Surprises." My First Poolee function.

Well what do you know, I enlisted on Tuesday and I'm showing up for a Poolee function the very next day. I walk up to the office past a group of seven young men. Inside Staff Sergeant Thorne tells me to go stretch with them. I introduce myself and meet my fellow Poolees. A couple look like they are in terrific shape, the others look about average, like me. Nobody knows what we're doing today, just that an IST (Initial Strength Test) is involved, consisting of crunches, pullups, and a mile and a half run. After that the only thing they know is that Staff Sergeant Thorne has been mentioning a surprise. During stretching Staff Sergeant Thorne has those of us who haven't had pictures yet go inside. I'm last, and the camera on SSgt Thorne's phone stops working. After a few comments about how I've been in the DEP for a few hours and already broken the camera; and an amusing "drop test" on the phone, he gives up and my picture remains untaken. I go back outside, and after a few minutes Staff Sergeant Thorn comes out. He has us run down to a little grassy area nearby to do our crunches for the IST. We pair up, me being the second tallest, I go with the tallest guy. 

I do my crunches first, only making it to 71. I'm ticked since I made 85 last time. But I still managed to do better than some of the group. My partner makes it to 72. After that we go back to the office to do the pullups. Sgt Lovett is inside talking to a young man and his family who are interested in the Marines, so we go in by pairs to do our pullups so as not to disturb them. I manage 10, my partner does 8. After everyone is done Staff Sergeant Thorn announces his surprise. We're going to do the Murphy challenge. This consists of a 1 mile run (approximate), followed by 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and another 1 mile run. I admit, I'm very daunted. I don't think I can do that. I feel much better when it is explained that we will do the challenge by pairs, with both of our efforts contributing against the total for each exercise. The only thing the Staff Sergeant adds is that we can choose to do 300 pushups instead of 200 and 100 pullups. 

We hit the run first, down the road, up the road, then back up to the driveway to the office. I have no problem with this, but it certainly gets my breathing and adrenaline going. After that some of the guys start knocking out pushups, planning to skip pullups. But me, I want to do Recon, and I'm currently a mere 5 pullups short of what I need to qualify. I want to do some freaking pullups. So I drag my partner up to the office to PT there. We go in a circuit with several other poolees. We take turns doing max sets of pullups (which quickly go down to one or two in a set) and doing sets of squats and pushups. I do my pushup and squat sets 30 at a time at first, then 20 at a time. I don't let myself slip to ten. I struggle on the pullups though, never getting more than 2 at a time after the first couple sets. I finish my 100 pushups and 150 squats while only managing 25 pullups. My partner also does his half of the pushups and squats while managing 25 pullups. So now we know we have to do 50 between us. It is a daunting number when neither of us is managing more than one or two at a time. Luckily, one of the really fit poolees who did pushups instead and has already finished the whole challenge with his partner, offers to do some pullups for our count. He adds them 5 or 10 at a time, pumping them out like a beast. My partner and I still just add one or two at a time. In the office, another guy is struggling to get his last pushups out. Everyone gathers around him, yelling motivation and telling him not to quit. Finally, I get the honor of doing the last pullup for our count, and my partner and I head out for the second run. I'm trashed, and I know it. But I tackle it with a will. I'm really dragging, and by the halfway point I have a bad cramp and have to walk for a short ways. My partner offers motivation, forcing me to start running again and not letting me slow down too much. Finally he has us make a sprint for the last twenty five yards to the finish. As I come to a stop I feel a horrible unsettle in my gut, and I immediately throw up in the grass. I puke a couple good spurts and then I'm done. My partner takes me inside to get some water from the water fountain, and then I feel fine, great in fact. 

Back outside another poolee is getting ready to puke. He is on his face, retching in the grass. The rest of us are done, and we stand around offering advice and encouragement. Eventually the poolee pukes horrible orange chunkiness on the grass, he barely has strength to move his head and keep his face from falling into it. We help him up when he's done hurling and sit him down on the front step of the office. Myself and another poolee place our legs behind his back for him to lean on, he doesn't have the strength to hold his body, or even his head up, he's swaying back and forth. His water bottle his thrust into his hand and he drinks liberally, squirting more water on his head. At about this point a fit looking young man gets out of a car and goes over to the Air Force recruiting office right next door. He finds it closed. He looks over at us and sees the state we are in. "Hey, wanna join the Marine Corps!" I yell. The recovering poolee who got really trashed manages to raise his head and give the guy a thumbs up. "Marines is where it's at!" He gasps out. Staff Sergeant Thorn comes out around this time and greets the young man, who describes his college degrees and says he wants to find out about officer training and see if he can use his physical training/rehabilitation degree for a position. Offering further proof that my recruiters do not fit the smooth talking conniving profile that recruiters are given, Staff Sergeant Thorne tells the young man straight out that there are no doctor's in the Marine Corps. He does start to talk with him about what options there are, but we take the exhausted Poolee inside and don't hear the rest. After a few more minutes of recovery he says he wants to finish the challenge. He has 9 pullups to go and thats it. We all cheer him on as he knocks these out with ease. Way to recover from a low point! His determination does him credit and totally motivates me, and probably some of the others too. 

We meander around and enjoy the heady feeling of success till Staff Sergeant Thorne comes back in. He gathers us around and holds a brief discussion and lecture about the Marine Corps values, what they mean, what they mean to us, and how to apply them as Poolees. He tells the story of a Marine who was manning a "Toys For Tots" box outside a best buy when a thief with a knife ran past him. The Marine chased the crook down and well, according to the Staff Sergeant "the bad guy fell off the curb in the struggle and suffered some injuries." I eat all this up. Honor, Courage, and Commitment. Those words mean a lot, and I believe in their meaning. When he is done we all sign our names that we have had this "Values based training" lecture, and we're free to go. I linger for a couple minutes to ask Staff Sergeant Thorne if I have a ship date for Parris Island yet. He checks his computer, and says it's not in yet. He shows me on a calendar that I'll most likely be taking an available slot for October 6th or 14th. I thank him and head home. My legs and arms feel like jelly, it's a really good feeling. I've been working out and running at home, but never that hard. I haven't worked myself that hard, since Kyokushin martial arts in Poland. The feeling of exhaustion reminds me of many hard days of training, and the rewarding feeling of accomplishment when you complete something so demanding. I think I've been missing that in my life since then. The last time I felt this way was after the Parkour jam I went to in Gainsville Florida, and although that lasted some 8 hours, nothing I did there matched today's intensity. The funny thing is that I feel like I didn't push myself hard enough. That one guy could barely get his last pushups and collapsed on the floor. I knocked out my last set of pushups at a decent pace, although i could feel myself flirting with muscle failure. Same with the squats, and even the pullups. I still had pushups, squats, and pullups left in me, so I kinda wish I had pushed harder, at least to do longer sets, if not more reps. I resolve to harden my personal PT, and push myself further. I'm going to be a Marine, no doubt about that. Based on my IST I could probably go to boot camp tomorrow and make it through. But I don't just want to be a Marine, I want to be a really good Marine, one of the best. That means I need to work harder, and motivate myself and not just depend on others. I need to make that 300 PFT (100 crunches, 20 pullups, 3 miles in 18 minutes), not just because I want to pass the IST and get my contract switched to recon, but because I won't settle for less than the best. That's why I chose the Marines, and that's the attitude I want to guide my actions.