Making marines
10/10/06
5:46 PM
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Senior Drill Instructor Staff Sgt. Christopher Carlisle leads Platoon 3001, Kilo Co., 3rd RTBn., during a graduation practice.
MAKING MARINES History and traditions foster spirit and resolve in Leatherneck recruits
T
hey come from all over – small, rural towns and large metropolitan cities, farms and barrios. Initially, they are strangers with only one thing in common. Each has accepted a challenge. This ordeal will irrevocably alter the rest of their lives in ways they cannot possibly fathom. Their reasons for signing enlistment contracts to become U.S. Marines are vastly different, personal and private; however, each individual understands they are about to undergo 13 weeks of the most intense training of their young lives. They also know they will soon embrace a warrior’s ethos. The Marine Corps recruits those who enlist specifically for combat training, not for technical skills. Some may later acquire specialized training by attending service schools to meet the needs of the Corps. But every Marine is first a rifleman, and could eventually move into the line and fire at an enemy, regardless of skill level. Each recruit beginning boot camp is not yet a Marine. That title must first be earned, along with the right to wear the distinctive Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblem of the Corps. This insignia is elusive, out of reach for
the next three grueling months, and not everyone will measure up and earn the title Marine. Recruits will soon learn the meaning of a French phrase, esprit de corps – the spirit of the Corps. It is ethereal, profound, and contagious. Once acquired, it lasts a lifetime. The “once a Marine, always a Marine” aphorism expresses it well. Recruits also learn a new language, one full of nautical terms honed over years of operations at sea with the Navy, fighting from ships and seizing objectives ashore. Called “Boots,” recruits are often referred to as “maggots.” They are told that they are lower than whale feces at the bottom of the ocean. The only grudging recognition they will ever gain is by performance, doing the job better than anyone might expect. And for weeks to come they will hear “heels, heels, heels,” at 120-steps-per-minute cadence, as recruits dig their heels into the grinder marching for hours on end. In rare moments, Boots are exposed to sardonic wit, the unique gallows humor of the Corps. Whether asked five or 50 years later what it means to be a Marine, the memories that come flooding back are of boot camp and that first encounter with the drill
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USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Darhonda V. Hall
By Clarence A. Robinson, Jr.
