Boot Camp Ep. 7

Interesting how they do pugil stick training now - more equipment (body armor, full cage mask) in addition to the "California jock-strap," NFL linesman's helmet/mask and padded handgrips on the stick. When I went through boot, and later when I was a DI, recruits met each other on a log over a pool lined with sandbags - the loser got wet, and sometimes the winner did, too. But intensity and focus was the key, not only in pugil stick bouts, but in everything they did - drill, uniforms, field training - everything. 110 per cent was demanded and gotten in everything recruits did. Or else. Failure to do that would be sure to garner the wrong kind of attention - a lot of it - and possible set-back to another platoon. I noticed how patient that DI was when the 3rd phase recruit screwed up the "inspection arms" drill movement. When I was a recruit in 1967, that would have gotten me knocked on my can (recruit training was a very "hands-on" experience then), and when I was a DI (1977) it would have gotten the recruit's position at drill physically "adjusted" (the only time we could legally touch recruits). Evidently, todays' recruit training is a lot more patient and "kinder and gentler." However, despite that, I note that the results in terms of esprit de corps and battle success have not changed from earlier days. I work on a Marine Corps Base and pay attention to the troops I see. When I was a young Marine, we had a lot of Cat 4's and guys who had not graduated high school, including some people who couldn't read or write. The quality of today's troops is higher, in my observation, and it shows in the results.

TSgt Joe C. PO3 Steven Sherrill CW3 Kevin Storm SSG (Join to see) SGM Steve Wettstein SMSgt Thor Merich MSG (Join to see) PO1 John Johnson MAJ Ken Landgren LTC Greg Henning PVT Mark Zehner MSG Tom Earley Alan K. SPC Mark Huddleston PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Elizabeth Scheck Sgt Deborah Cornatzer SSgt Boyd Herrst SPC Diana D. Sgt Wayne Wood

You mean going back to the way things were