Week 3

This week Jared spent a lot of time learning Close combat skills.

Monday is Upper Strikes in the MCMAP program. Sound easy put punching for hours at a time with DIs all over you is not exactly the funnest of times. The key is to just keep going even when you are tired. If you pause for even a moment a DI will see you and suddenly you will be doing some REALLY stupid stuff.

Tuesday is Pugil Sticks. This is one of those event during boot that most everybody loves. All the aggression and anger you have been building for the last two weeks gets to be used on another person. AWESOME! There are very few rules. You wait for a whistle you run into the center and you try and land a killing blow on your opponent.

Wednesday and Saturday you do the circuit course. This is just a bunch of different exercises that you have to do. It is known simply as "bases" to recruits. There are a bunch of stages that you do for 2 or 3 minutes a piece. Each base is a pretty easy Exercise but put together this makes for a pretty tiring workout.

Thursday is the O (obstacle) course. This can be a lot of fun. Now it is a pretty simple set of obstacles to Marines because we do it a LOT of times in boot and then a couple in Combat Training but let me give you an example on how difficult it can apparently be. Buckley in Colorado has an O course but it is "Closed by order of the Base commander" Apparently 2 different high ranking Air Force officers, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Full bird Colonel, were seriously injured. On e broke his back and the other died from breaking his neck. This is a huge loss of value but seriously... HOW? you are never more than 10 feet off the ground except during the rope climb. Anyway Marine O courses are now closed on ANY and EVERY Air Force installation.

Friday is Counter to Strikes in MCMAP. You learn to block and kill the enemy with his momentum. Once again this isn't difficult until you figure in the boot camp equation. Anything Easy + lots of reps + Drill Instructors = Really stinking hard!

Just a note. All of the pictures are of Marines not Recruits. Recruits wouldn't be standing around just watching. They would be running in place waiting for their turn or "spitting knowledge"(reciting learned info) or getting ITed by a DI. All very high intensity.

Please send Jared letters. He will probably be punished for the holidays instead of getting a break. July 4th was one of the hardest days for me during Boot. Your Kill Hat(junior DI) will probably get stuck with you on the holiday and he will probably "play games" all day because he can't be with his family. Holidays are nasty business in Boot

Week 2

So this week is more fun.

Mom got her first letter from Jared. Sounds like he is doing fine so far. I didn't expect any less.

On monday you get your baby doll and you learn love(and hate) for the first time. You quickly learn there is nothing romantic about an M16. The are not fun to carry in any position your DI can think of. You will hate them during Drill. 7 pounds is a lot when you arm is fully extended and the rifle is held by the pinkie!

Tuesday is Interior Guard class. They teach you how to do Firewatch. Enough said.

Thursday is Intro to MCMAP. Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. Learn how to kick some trash. This program is a combination of the BASICS of a whole bunch of fighting styles. The difference between MCMAP and other fighting styles?

Other fighting styles teach you to incapacitate yout enemy. MCMAP teaches you to KILL yout enemy! The bad news is you only learn enough in Boot Camp to get you butt kicked in a fight! The real stuff comes later. However this helps a lot with your confidence!

Friday is Marine Corps History. I LOVE Marine History. You can see exactly why Marines in general think they are the best. I think it is cool that we teach History. I have asked James before and he said that in the Army you didn't learn history, thats a shame because every Military has great traditions. Marines just have more. You can ask any Marine and he will spit off dates and facts all day long.

You also learn the history of our uniforms. Every piece of uniform is earned and has background stories.

In Jared's case he has to earn everything. Right now his top button on his blouse is buttoned. His boots aren't bloused. He has no name tapes, he has no dog tags, he has no rank. We earn EVERYTHING in boot.

That is all the exciting stuff. He PT's everyday, he practices Drill for HOURS everyday. He is no longer the bottom of the Totem pole.

MOTIVATING!

Yesterday was probably the hardest day In Jared's life. He might be tough but I know it was the hardest in mine.


The first couple of days are pretty easy. The first night/day is kinda a blur. You get picked up from the airport in the middle of the night. I got picked up after 11:30 pm. Each story is a little different from here so I will have to tell my own, Jared can clear anything up in the future. From here you are put on a bus by a very loud Man. He is repeating everything he says with an "Aye Aye Sir" to let us know we are supposed to say it. He made us put our heads between our knees the whole bus ride over. By this time it is at least 12:30 and I thought we were going to go right to sleep. Boy was I WRONG

After what feels like an eternity you stop. A monster of a man got on that bus. He told us in not so kind words that we were at MCRD, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. He the told us to get off His bus. We were all moving at a pretty quick pace I thought. Once again I was wrong. The first Man and 3 others are all screaming, pushing, pulling, slapping and daring you to move out of turn. You have arrived to the Infamous Yellow Footprints.


You don't know it yet but this is how you will be standing, marching and running for the next three months...and incidently the rest of your Marine Corps Career. There really is a method to the madness

From there you spend the next...4 hours or so in a line. A TIGHT LINE. You are literally touching the Marine in front of and behind you. There is a Drill Instructor constantly running up and down the halls yelling "Heel to Toe" and othe more obscene things. You get your hair raped from your head. These three men are BUTCHERS! You then wait and wait and so on until you get some sort of paperwork filled out. Don't really remember and I bet Jared won't either.

From there you go to a receiving barracks. You think once again that you are finally getting some sleep. You are once again wrong. You have been given a bag with everything you will need. The Senior Receiving Drill Instructor takes you step by step of this next part. You Dump everything out. Not neat, not nice just dump it out. As he calls things off you start putting them in your brand new Sea Bag.

After all this nonsense he finally takes you outside and tells you to get in formation. You, of course, are lost. So he firmly but politely teaches you. Cover to the front, Align to the right. 40 Inches back to chest. You are already facing the way you want to go and he says step it out. We are just walking...like little kids. He takes us to morning chow and a new day has begun.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are boring days. You spend hours trying to stay awake while you sit in a formation. Try sitting Indian style for seven hours at a time without being able to talk. Try staying awake I dare ya. Your back goes numb, your legs go numb, other farts go numb. It sucks. And what are you waiting for. The Gauntlet. A series of six or seven shots in various locations. The worst are the two in the buttocks. You hear Recruits yelping as you get closer to the rear shots. You turn around, drop trousers and wait. You then get a tiny little pinprick shot. YOu start to think that wasn't so bad when you get the other one. It is called the Peanut Butter shot by most recruits 'cause that's what it felt like.

Your hiney hurts...BAD. But now you have to go somewhere else and sit. There are about 5 other things you have to do before you start training. They all take hours and you spend it all on your sore behind.

But it's no so bad. The sleep is good at night, your "Drill Instructors" really aren't that mean. You start to think that this will be an easy 3 months. No problem. You will be wrong again.

Now a Marine Physical Fitness Test, PFT is Pull-ups, Crunches and a 3 mile rune. The Initial Strength test is the same just a 1.5 mile run. This is what recruits run on thursday. It just lets you know where you are. !.5 Killed me I remember it because I hadn't run over a Mile since I was a Freshman. 8 Pull-ups out of 20 and some weak number of crunches out of 100.

I remember getting a little scarred when our receiving D.I muttered under his breath that we would learn some respect when we made him mad one night. He didn't do anything to us. I thought it was a joke.

That night we had to take a Urine sample test. We had been told about it all day so most of us went right away. The ones who didn't...Well this is were I learned what Projectile Vomiting is. If you couldn't pee the Receiving D.I. mad you drink water. You literally held the water bowl(canteen) at a 90 degree with the floor and guzzled until nothing was left. If you still couldn't go you drank another...and so on and so forth. I then say a recruit vomit nothing but water...lots of it. We would see this a lot over the next three months.

You know something is happening tomorrow but you can't imagine.

You wake up, go to morning chow, back to Receiving were you are then marched to your new squadbay.
You then meet you 3 or 4 Drill Instructors and your Senior Drill Instructor. The D.I.s repeat the D.I. creed and you think that is it. After all these men are dress in very nice outfits. Not Cammies like us. When the Series Chief D.I. says "Drill Instructors take charge of these recruits and make them Marines" ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.


They get right in your face. They spit, they scream, they hit, they yell. They run you into the head, into the shower turn on the showers, back of the squadbay, tear your racks apart throw your belongings everywhere. It is horrific

This is the first of many times you will doubt yourself. It is the worst day of your life so far. It is known to recruits simply as Black Friday. When you get further and further in training you start to make fun of the poor guys who just got picked up, who you know will face the same monster in just a few short days.

Sunday will be bad also. You will have shelled up so far in the last two days that when you get to church and are told to relax...you break down and cry at least a little. Every week that I saw the week 1 recruits...never did I see one with dry eyes.

Most never cried again out of emotion, maybe out of sheer pain. You get REAL tough REAL fast. There is no going back now. Who's stupid Idea was this? All you got to do is hang on to this mean ride for 12 more weeks and you will become something amazing.

The Few, The Proud, The Marines

Here we go

After very little sleep in the past two days, two sacrament meetings, saying goodbye to my friends and family, and a four hour drive, I'm finally on my way. Right now I'm in Butte, Montana at the processing station and this time tomorrow I'll be in San Diego getting my head shaved. Yippee.

Since I won't have any internet access this is the last blog that I'll actually post myself for the next three months, but John has my password and stuff and is going to post updates and letters and stuff while I'm at boot. Mom will get my address in a couple weeks when I'm done with processing and forming and is going to send an email to everyone with my address, so pleeeeaaassssse write, especially around the holidays.

I love you all and can't wait to come home as a United States Marine. Wish me luck.