Boot Camp Part 13

September 6, 2009
Camp Lejeune
17:21

T8 - Circuit Course

I remember this day pretty well. It was the day that Kinney joined the platoon. He's a recruit who's been held back for a few weeks (maybe even a month) because he got sick. In boot camp if you get sick bad enough and miss enough training days you'll be sent to MRP or PCP to recover and then you'll have to wait to get picked up with another training platoon. In Kinney's case, he picked up back on T8 where he left off last time. I can't even imagine how it must feel to be there longer than you have to.

Kinney immediatley volunteers to become a squad leader and remains one for the rest of recruit training. He was the first Lutheran to become a squad leader. At this point, people were getting fired left and right and I think Samuels had failed to get a count of recruits after chow, so Syer was made the guide.

Syer and Samuels alternated in their positions as guide several times before Syer ultimately became the guide of 1067.

Like I mentioned previously, Truitt had been there for about a month before I entered boot camp.

Anyway, the circuit course is pretty pointless, even looking back on it. It involves a lot of physical activity in between exercises. Wait, let me correct myself. All we do in between exercises is scream and "in place double time" which means run in place. It's obnoxious to have to war cry from station to station...but it's only the 8th training day and it's only just begun for us.

The circuit course involves doing push-ups with your feet up on a step behind you while blood rushes to your head. There's some dumbbells to do curls and military presses while standing as well. We walk up and down steps while holding an ammo can in each hand. If we don't sound off we have to hold the ammo cans out in front of us with our arms locked out and parallel to the deck.

This goes on for maybe an hour. There are certain regulations for recruits being outside in the sun for a certain amount of time. I don't think I was able to complete every exercise, but like I said, it was all pretty pointless anyway and I didn't care.

Later, we're practicing drill. The previous night, Sgt. Virto called someone out when we secured the head. He'd seen someone laughing and the person didn't confess. He knew who they were, but they didn't come out with it. Sgt. Virto didn't say anything; he just let them carry it on their own concious. While we're drilling, someone laughs again when we're in a school circle. Sgt. Virto marches out in front of us demonstrating a movement. He power walks through the platoon and comes face to face with Weinmann, who I end up loathing.

Weinmann is the perfect example of a spoiled brat who probably never worked a real job in his life. Why he enlisted in the Marine Corps instead of getting his parents to pay for college, I'll never know and I hope I never encounter him again. Sgt. Virto says something along the lines of, "You're the liar from last night" or whatever. Weinmann is a total asshole, and when he makes some comment about me screwing up when we're drilling I simply respond with some comment about him being a scumbag.

I believe this moment is when I first start breaking down. Many people refer to First Phase as the "Breaking You Down Phase" while in 2nd and 3rd phase you're built back up.

T9 - Obstacle Course

The Obstacle Course is never referred to as such. It's called the O-Course (as the Endurance Course on Lejeune is called the E-Course. The Marine Corps loves destroying the English language). The O-Course involves mainly jumping over logs, pulling yourself over pull-up bars, sliding down bars, climbing over walls, and then finally climbing up and down a rope at the end.

We're formed up alongside the O-Course in a mass formation as a DI instructs us on how to do it and a few Drill Instructors demonstrate it in their PT gear.

It begins with a bar that's maybe two feet higher than my head. One of the ways to do it is roll backwards, bringing your feet over your head. This is called the "college boy roll," and I don't even bother trying it. I just hold onto the bar and walk my legs up one of the side poles holding it up to flip over it. The rest is pretty simple, jumping over logs, jumping over walls, slinding down some bars.

When I get to the rope I kind of freak out. I got my same 17 pull-ups that I alway got as a poolie in the initial IST, but I've been getting weaker here due to the lack of actual weight training.

I begin climbing the rope with SSgt. Arzola watching me. I get maybe 3/4 of the way before getting extremely tired.

Some Corpsman on the ground looks up at me and says, "Look at how skinny you are. You should be done already."

I don't make it to the top and for the rest of the day my wrists are killing me.

T-10 Counters to Strikes

Since I hate MCMAP and I hate talking about it, I'm not really going to say anything. As I haven't been to Boot Camp in a year, my memory if each individual day has faded and I don't know what else to say about this day.

If I had my Green Monster knowledge I could elaborate on some of the classes we were receiving,

No doubt by this time we were at First Aid III (out of 5) and probably History II or III.

Incidentally, here's a picture of Sgt. Saldana, my kill hat. You can't see his face.

To All Followers

September 6, 2009
Camp Lejeune
17:15

I was just copying and pasting all of my entries into Word to see what kind of a word count it would come up with. I noticed that there were a lot more comments made then I initially noticed. My apologies for being so slow with this blog between March and August. I was just in a poor state of mind and really didn't feel like working on anything, but recently I've been getting myself back into a writing routine, so things should come more regularly.

Unfortunately, it seems like some of you are already in Boot Camp now...

I don't really know what to say other than good luck. You'll see this message when you come back. Hopefully you'll follow through with reading this. I have a lot more material to offer about the Marine Corps than just boot camp, as I'm almost a whole year behind myself as far as where I want to be with this blog.

My goal is just to catch up with where I'm currently at and this means posting entries covering September 08 through September 09!

I'll get on that...starting now.

By the way, up through Part 12, this blog contains at least 32,000 words and covered 61 pages in microsoft word.

Boot Camp Part 12

August 29, 2009
Camp Lejeune
1745

Four days past my year mark.

The Chow Hall

I have not yet elaborated on the procedures of going to eat and what it all entailed, so I thought I'd take this time to do so.

The "Chow Hall" (mess hall) is basically a hub for the Recruit Depot. The Recruit Chow Hall that is. Only recruits eat here, and of course the Drill Instructors. When looking at a map or google image of the area, it's located in the center of the multiple barracks for convenient access.

Upon marching to the chow hall every morning, afternoon, and evening, we are most likely going to have to wait in line. The period of waiting in line starts when our platoon reaches the building. The area is loud as platoons are yelling in response to their DI's commands or reciting knowledge.

Within the first week we receive a piece of white paper which has been laminated by taping both sides with clear tape. It shows the general orders, rank structure, chain of command, etc. We are always supposed to have this knowledge sheet on us which we simply refer to as "a knowledge" if I'm not mistaken.

Our platoon halts in formation, we stand at attention, and Sgt. Saldana power-walks out front and begins yelling.

"Get our your knowledge!"

"Aye aye, sir!"

We unfold the papers which are stuffed in either our chest or cargo pockets and look down at it while we wait for the platoons ahead of us to go through the door.

Sgt. Saldana screams, "General orders!" and we respond "General orders, aye aye, sir! This recruit's first general order is: To take charge of this post and all government property in view! This recruit's second general order is: To walk my post in a military manner-"

And if we're not loud enough we'll simply be cut off by Sgt. Saldana yelling "General orders!" once again. He was in charge of our learning of the "Prac" which stands for Practical Knowledge (I think) and is later tested on T-50. There are several things we "recited" in front of the chow hall.

"Four life saving steps!"

"Four life saving steps, aye aye, sir! One, restore the breathing! Two, stop the bleeding! Three, protect the wound! Four, treat for shock! Four life saving steps, aye aye, sir!"

This would go on for perhaps fifteen minutes, which seems like hours. Sgt. Saldana is constantly shouting "Eyeballs! Ears!" and if we're not loud enough "Okay, EARS!" until we respond with "OPEN SIR!" so loud that we lose our voices. I lost my voice during the first couple weeks but then didn't really scream as loud as I could've for the rest of my time there. I yelled, but I didn't go nuts like I was supposed to.

The platoon ahead of us is finally far enough in the chow hall that we are about to get in a single file line behind them.

Our guide at the time is Samuels, a short, black muscular guy with little common sense and even less competence. He was a character. Samuels is carrying the guidon (out platoon's red flag) and marches out in front of the platoon.

"Ears, 67!" he shouts.

"Open, guide!" we respond.

"Ears, 67!" he answers louder.

"Open, guide!" we increase volume.

"The platoon will be sitting at Deck 3, far bulkhead! Does the platoon understand?"

"Yes, guide!"

"Does the platoon understand?"

"Yes, guide!"

"Aaaaatack!"

"Where's 66?"

"Aaaaatack!"

"Where's 68?"

"Aaaaaaaaaatack!"

"WANT SOME COME GET SOME!"

And then if we're not loud enough one of the Drill Instructors makes us do the whole thing again. I we are loud enough he'll come out in front of the formation. Finally, we're all thinking.

"Ooooooone two three four attack the chow hall!" he calls out. Sometimes (if it's SSgt. Arzola) he'll call the numbers out in a different order. The order of the four numbers dictate the order in which the squads will file off from the formation to get in line.

"One two three four attack the chow hall, aye aye, sir!" we answer. Sometimes they repeat this over and over again, changing the order of the numbers if we're not loud enough.

"Move!" he yells. "Kill!" we respond.

We run out of the formation in line, me almost stepping on Rodriguez's heels everytime. After the first week I became a "Double Rat" which is the designation for a recruit who gets double rations. I was given a seperate tag to wear on my blouse to show the chow hall employees. The double rats run up to the front of the line because they need more time to eat the double portions of food. Being a double rat recruit was one of the best parts of boot camp. When I first started eating more I became sick a couple times, but I eventually got used to it.

When our platoon starts moving to the door in line, Samuels stands with the guidon.

"Four recruits!" he yells after gauging how much room there is for us to line up inside. As each recruit walks through the door and takes their cover off they yell "Four, aye aye, guide" "Three, aye aye, guide!" and two, one, etc. so the people behind know when to stop. If there's a DI inside the door they must also yell out "Good morning, sir!" or whatever time of day it is.

The verbal greetings seem pretty absurd to anyone just coming into the area. People walking by a Drill Instructor will be literally screaming at the top of their lungs "GOOD AFTERNOON, SIR!" or gentleman if there's more than one.

"Oh, so it's afternoon then is it?" a DI will ask if it's morning. Recruits always call out wrong verbal greetings.

"Good morning, sir!" they'll yell out again.

Anyway, we go through the line. First is the salad, then the main courses, of which I'm allowed two. Desert is after that. I always set my tray down and get back up to get bread to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I do that for every meal. I have to put that back at the table and go to get something to drink as we're not allowed to carry more than one thing at a time. When we're eating, our eyes do not wander away from our food, and I don't finish what I'm chewing before I start eating the next thing. What I mean is I might still be eating fish, macaroni, spaghetti, or something else when I start eating my cake or brownies.

Sgt. Saldana early on watched us like a hawk. He would get up in your face while you were eating if he saw you look around and would make you get out, or just yell at you and IT you later.

One afternoon I'm sitting and eating on Deck 4, which is at the side of the building. We were eating at the far bulkhead which is next to a window when I glanced up to see Sgt. Saldana standing in the bushes right outside the window looking in at us staring at someone and yelling something muffled through the window. I cracked up and then made eye contact with him, which is a mistake to say the least. He calls me out and asks my name but he forgets later because I managed to blend in so well.

When we're done eating we get up, hold the tray with our elbows hard against our body, and power walk to the door, setting the tray down on a conveyor belt in the process. When outside we must do ten pull ups before getting into formation.

Every...single...meal.

I just found this video which illustrates some of the ares at MCRD pretty well. I've been to every place shown, so when you're reading this, you can picture what you see here.

Boot Camp Part 11

August 18, 2009
Camp Lejeune
20:20

T6 - Upper Strikes

The beginning of my second week of actually training begins like any other. We wake up to "LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS! GET OUTTA THE RACK! GET UP! LET'S GO! WELL, YOU HAVE 300299298297296295..." as Sgt. Virto runs up and down the Drill Instructor Highway (middle of the squadbay). Sgt. Saldana is behind him screaming as well. We are tired, annoyed, pissed, we have to piss, we're nervous because we don't know what's in store for us today.

"LEFT BOOT SOCK, GET IT ON YOUR BODY NOW! WELL, YOU HAVE [counts down]" yells Sgt. Virto and I scramble to pull a brown sock onto my left foot. "Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one, you are..."

"DONE, SIR!" we answer in unison. We stand at attention but of course someone doesn't have their sock on all the way. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get a sock on when someone's screaming at you. And of course we all have to take our socks off in a time limit and start over. Eventually we're totally dressed.

"PORT SIDE GET IN THE HEAD, STARBOARD SIDE MAKE YOUR RACKS. READY..." we take a breath. "MOVE!"

We yell "KILL!" in response. The port side of the squad bay scrambles to get into the head to piss and brush their teeth. We, on the starboard side, scramble to make our racks as one of the DIs counts us down. Miranda, my half brain dead rackmate, will hardly respond to me when I make a suggestion. It's either "huh?" or "what?" which is more frustrating than it sounds.

Either way we survive without wetting our pants.

After eating breakfast and whatnot we change over into green cammies for MCMAP training, which I come to hate eventually. We march over to a "pit" filled with rubber chunks and get covered and aligned in a mass formation with the rest of follow series. There's an instructor with a green shirt in front of us (the DIs wear a shirt of the color of their battalion, in our case red).

We begin by doing warm up excersises. We start with "BENDSANDTHRUSTS!" as the instructormakes it sound. This is dropping down, shooting your legs out, doing a pushup, and jumping back up. These are sometimes called burpees.

After this we learn about setting up the dojo. The Mexican instructor we have (who's talking on a bullhorn periodically so we can all hear) says it like this: "set up the doJO!" People who went through Boot Camp in San Diego within the past year or two know exactly who I'm talking about. It's a well quoted phrase to say the least. I can't recall his name, but it was one of those long, Hispanic compound names.

We begin with "body hardening" which I'm not exactly comfortable with at first. This involves essentially hitting your partner while he hits you to deaden your nerves a little bit. We hit the insides of our elbows together, the insides of our wrists, we punch eachother in the stomach, we kick the outside of eachother's thighs, and we kick the inside of eachother's thighs. The first couple times I did this was with a guy named Moulard. Physically, he's a beast. As we do it he keeps muttering "harder to me" as we beat each other in tandem. I'm wincing pretty much every hit, and the worst is getting kicked inside the groin. Ouch.

Either way we finish it and learn basic "Upper Strikes" such as punching and uppercuts. It's all worthless talk and just a time waster if you ask me. MCMAP is through in my opinion, especially the initial training one must suffer.

Everytime we execute a strike we have to do it twice and say "KILL! KILL!" which sort of makes me grin now. If I were watching recruits do this I'd probably break out laughing.

After this nonsense the training finishes...we eat...we hygiene...we hydrate...we sleep.

T7 - Pugil Sticks I

It seems like when I tell people about Boot Camp they always ask me about this part. "Did you get to do that thing with the sticks and the football helmets?"

"Yes...I did that. They're called Pugil Sticks. It's overrated."

After beginning the day like we normally do, we go to a large PT area. We've all picked up a rubber M16. Some people have really shitty ones that are bent or rusted. Parts of them are rubber, but most of them are metal. You could still do some serious damage with them. We take a rubber bayonet and click it onto the end of the barrel.

We all "set of the doJO" once again with our rifles and learn various butt strokes and bayonet stabbing moves. This all translates over to the pugil sticks, which have a red end (the front) and a black end (the back) to simulate an M16. There are some people I definitely would have rather used a rubber rifle on.

We organize by weight class (I was 150 at the time if I'm not mistaken) and line up in order of heaviest to lightest. Once at the end there are recruits that dress us with a flack jacket, large gloves, a groin protector, and a hockey/football helmet. The whole time we're watching other people in the large circle next to us fight (there are about three or four fights going on at a time if I'm not mistaken). The photographer that was taking pictures of us during pick up is walking around snapping shots of peoples faces. I didn't get photographed during this time, unless I missed it when I examined the CD back in April.

Finally, it's my turn. Many of the fights have been called by an instructor based not on how many times a person hits the other guy, but how accurately they execute one of the moves we were just taught.

I get into the ring with someone from another platoon, who stares me down through the mask on his helmet. The whistle is blown and we rush at eachother. He throws his stick around a couple times and I block him, and I execute one butt stroke, hitting him in the head with the black end of the stick. The whistle blows again. The green shirt comes over and hits me in the head. "Winner," he says. "Horizontal butt stroke," he says, which is the move I won with. Well, that was my ego booster for the week. I run out and take my stuff off and go back to where all of our canteens are staged. I stand in formation with other recruits from my platoon and drink water, waiting for everyone to finish.

Boot Camp Part 10

August 16, 2009
Camp Lejeune
21:03

I've been doing a good amount of writing today, the most I've done since back in March and April, so here's a second entry for you.

T3 - Intro to MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program aka A Joke)

I remember this day fairly well. It was too hot for training when we were actually supposed to be outside doing MCMAP (pronounced McMap). At the time we were wearing deserts, so for MCMAP we were switching over to greens, which I thought looked pretty badass. They're much more severe looking and with the sleeves rolled down, they just look cooler. At this point I believe we were also wearing our boots. Earlier in the week we were wearing desert cammies with tennis shoes...which obviously looks retarded. There's probably pictures you can find (or I can post) of recruits looking stupid like this.

Either way we were changed over and I was excited and then we had to change back to deserts! It was a "black flag" or something which means the USMC packs up and goes inside for the day. We sat around in one of the other platoon's squad bays as a MCMAP instructor demonstrated some of the Tan Belt moves we would be learning. He briefly mentioned body hardening, which I will get into later.

I became pretty disturbed at the time when we were shown the Eye Gouge move. You read that right, yes. We were shown how to gouge someone's eye out. Well, make that shown how to theoretically gouge an eye out. I doubt if anyone's every tried it with this form of martial arts in Iraq of Afghanitan. Normally we, you know, blow up the enemies with bombs or guns before we get that close. But you never know do you?

After the MCMAP we could have done any number of things. The first week at recruit training is very blurry to me, I can't lie about that. It was a shocking experience (not the first week, but just the whole transition).

Of course, we practiced more drill. See, Initial Drill was coming up in two or three weeks, and we had to look sharp for it, so practice for that is pretty continuous.

T4 - Marine Corps History

T4 was another classroom day.

I wake up, stand on line, get dressed in "300 seconds," go piss, brush my teeth, and get back online. Then I run downstairs in front of the barracks to my spot in the formation and we march to chow. Then we form it up outside and march to the classroom. Today is "History I." We are taught a brief period of history from the genesis of the Marine Corps through the Civil War if I'm not mistaken. Then we leave and do other things. More drill. Weapons maintenance. At some point in the week we learn how to totally disassemble our M16s and clean them, so basically the M16s are now a burden. It's a burden not lifted from our shoulders until November.

T5 - Sprints

This day is simply called "Sprints" on the matrix because that's what we did for PT (physical training). Sprints is a pointless Saturday activity. It's the same old sports exercise where you do high knees down to one end, jog back. Butt kicks and jog back. Sprint down and jog back. Kareoke and jog back. It probably takes three hours for follow series to complete this pointless exercise. This is when I realized that PT in Boot Camp was going to be easy, and I wasn't wrong at all.

Sunday

Another Sunday means another day with free time means another day I spend about an hour at church crying. It feels so strange everytime I go to church, because it's a total escape. I know that between this church service and the next service I'll be going through something awful during the weekdays. Living Boot Camp for me was living from meal to meal, church service to church service. The Drill Instructors will try and convince you that this is the unmotivated to live through the experience, but I guarantee it's the only way anyone makes it. Living meal to meal makes a day go by in the blink of an eye.

When I finish church (which I may have gone to with Pavlik) I power walk back to the squad bay. Every Sunday we have to re-mark everything. This means I have to have a 1 by 6 piece of a note card cut and stamped with my name from my marking kit (a stamp with my name on it which I still have). I need enough of these to mark my foot locker in two places, my rack, my rifle, my rifle rack, and I don't remember what else. This is the first time I've gotten free time all week. We haven't yet begun to get an hour in the evening like we will when our schedule levels out. We've still been showering by the numbers and such. Still playing Two Sheets & a Blanket (tearing the blankets and sheets off our racks and remaking them in a time limit or doing it all over again).

When free time is over we march to lunch. Then we practice drill.

P.S. Sorry for the tense change during the beginning. This isn't the most polished thing in case you haven't noticed. I'm just trying to get my ideas and memories down in a basic skeleton for something to polish later.

Boot Camp Part 9: Training Begins

August 16, 2009
Camp Lejeune
12:01

1st Phase - T1 - Interior Guard

Training begins on the Tuesday after we receive our rifles. I wish I could elaborate more on what happened today, but all I'm going by is the training matrix. We receive a class on Interior Guard, which involves us "drilling" over to the House of Knowledge and running into the classroom while being screamed at. Nothing new.

It escapes me who taught the class. There were assorted instructors who were former DIs who taught classes and had different reactions to us falling asleep or having to get up, get out, and go to the head across the street. The classes are a nightmare. At our recommended 8 to 12 canteens a day, this is when a normal person has to take a piss: the most awkward time. I have to find someone else to go with me, then we have to walk up one of the side isles in the classroom, then we have to somehow get through the gaggle of Drill Instructors waiting outside the class.

We have to yell "GOOD MORNING, GENTLEMAN!" and it's never loud enough so we have to keep screaming it as we power walk across the street to use the bathroom at the armory. Worst case scenario a DI follows you and counts you down as you both piss in the same urinal, just like in the mornings.

After the class we learn drill. Column lefts & rights, left & right obliques, about face. We learn the simple things first. When we do good Sgt. Virto says "Good job, you understand me?" "YES SIR!"

Then someone will screw it up. He'll act like he takes it personally and we'll have to "RUN!" in one direction until he says zero.

"Zero!"
"Freeze or die!"

Then we'll have to "RUN!" in the opposite direction. This is how we learn to march. Of course at this point we still march at a painfully slow pace, but we pick up speed. If we mess something up then we march slow again.

T2 - First Aid

Today we begin the torturous process of learning our basic first aid. In the "Green Monster" binder we have I think there's something like 5 first aid classes. It's awful. We learn several basic first aid things. Let's see if I can remember them all:

Sucking Chest Wound
Amputation
Chemical Burn
Head/Eye Wound
Hemorrage
Rescue Breathing
Stomach Wound (intestines hanging out)
Compound Fracture

I feel like I'm missing one. We go to another classroom to learn these. It's sort of like a small gymnasium with bleachers that we're crammed into. If someone falls asleep the Sgt. instructing will call him a faggot. We'll have to stand up and sit down over and over and over again. We're wearing an awkward green belt with canteen pouches on it with our full canteens, which we're drinking constantly. Then of course everyone has a burning desire to take a piss and several people get up and leave which brings the instructor to say:

"You're all going to leave? You want to disrespect me like that?" or something to that extent.

We get in trouble by our own DIs because of things like this.

After classes one day it turns out that there are some people in our platoon who are going crazy. SSgt. Arzola (Senior DI) calls the platoon in a school circle around him in the middle of the squad bay.

"Hey, is this really that bad?" he asks, sort of with a knowing grin.

"No, sir!" we yell accordingly.

"You just gotta think of it as like a gang initiation, but you're joining the most badass gang in the world," he says reassuringly.

There was a recruit who I believe claimed he was thinking about suicide. He wasn't the first to go. Reedy was his name and he eventually left. There was another one named Raymond who claimed to have "bad dreams" who I didn't expect to leave.

Another guy named Truitt kept giving up. We were punished many times for him during 1st phase. He had already been at MCRD or a month before I got there, having been held in either the PCP or MRP platoon after being dropped from his own training platoon.

We received some other people like this, including Kinney (a fellow Lutheran) who ended up becoming a squad leader, although he didn't arrive until T8.

At the end of the day, we have our hygiene inspections, jump into the racks (I have the bottom one at this point), lay still for taps, and go to sleep.

A Map

To the right of the House of Knowledge is where Dental is. Underneath the PT Field area, you can just make out the edge of the runway. Yes, it's really that close.