United States Marine Corps Recruit Training
Upon passing an audition and satisfying security and physical fitness requirements, they are granted the rank of Staff Sergeant and assigned exclusively to the band for a four-year enlistment.
[2] In 1911, Commandant William P. Biddle standardized a mandatory two-month recruit training schedule (including drill, physical exercise, personal combat and intensive marksmanship qualification with the M1903 Springfield rifle) and set up four depots at Philadelphia, Norfolk, Puget Sound and Mare Island.
With the September 1939 Nazi German invasion of Poland, Congress authorized an increase in manpower in preparation for a possible entry of the United States into World War II and the Marine Corps recruit training syllabus was halved to four weeks to accommodate the influx of personnel.
[1] The Ribbon Creek incident in 1956 led to considerable scrutiny and reform in recruit training, such as an additional layer of command oversight.
In Helmet for My Pillow, his World War II memoir, journalist Robert Leckie writes of Marine Corps Recruit Training: It is a process of surrender.
In preparation to sleep, recruits may hydrate, pray together for five minutes, ensure footlockers and rifles are locked and often recite the Rifleman's Creed or Marines' Hymn before lights-out.
The senior drill instructor of each platoon will select recruits to billets of responsibility, to mimic command and staff positions of a Marine unit.
As one magazine describes it:[6][T]he Marine boot still steps from the recruit train with 74 other victims in his platoon to face crushing defeat at the hands of a merciless staff-sergeant drill instructor and his two assistants.
For eight weeks, the DI attacks his blundering confusion with rigid discipline and a blistering barrage of vocal abuse until the boot is bullied and battered into a Marine.
In his World War II memoir With the Old Breed, Eugene Sledge describes Corporal Doherty, his DI, as having: [T]he coldest, meanest green [eyes] I ever saw.
He writes:[7] [W]e didn't realize or appreciate the fact that the discipline we were learning in responding to orders under stress often would mean the difference later in combat—between success or failure, even living or dying ... By the end of eight grueling weeks, it had become apparent that Corporal Doherty and the other DIs had done their jobs well.
This platoon may include recruits who have failed to adapt to the conditions of the Marine Corps' boot camp or have refused to continue training.
While each company will be at a different point in the training cycle at a given time and thus not able to compete directly, graduates and drill instructors foster an atmosphere of friendly rivalry.
Recruits arrive at the depot late at night[24] and are received by a drill instructor, who acquaints them with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which they are now subject.
The Marine Corps has a strict zero tolerance policy on drugs, and recruits that are found to have any in their possession will be prosecuted under the UCMJ and discharged immediately.
The DIs physically, psychologically and mentally harass the recruits, including yelling at maximum volume and intimidation, to elicit immediate compliance to instructions.
To aid in this development, drill movements are worked into other parts of daily life to help increase the platoon's synchronization and muscle memory—this same technique is used with other non-drill activities as well.
Swim week consists of four days of water survival qualifications exercises followed by MCMAP and pugil sticks, the first physical fitness test and an additional obstacle course.
The following exercises are completed in order to meet the Combat Water Survival qualifications:[30] Recruits will continue building physically throughout this week, by performing log drills and strength and endurance courses.
They spend nearly the entire week mastering these firing positions, learning to use the rifle combat optic (RCO) and being able to adjust to additional challenges such as weather.
Friday of that week is qualification day, where recruits must qualify with a minimum score in order to earn a marksmanship badge and continue training.
Immediately after this, Marines hike back down The Reaper and are then offered the "Warrior's Breakfast", where they are permitted to eat as much as they like, even of previously forbidden foods, such as ice cream.
During the last night, some platoons allow the new Marines to host a show, where they perform skits regarding humorous moments during training, especially of their drill instructors.
The next morning, the new Marines form for their graduation ceremony, march across the parade deck, have their guidons retired, and are dismissed from recruit training by their senior drill instructors.
After a review of the evidence and numerous high-profile Marines providing strong and positive testimony to McKeon's character, the Secretary of the Navy later reduced the sentence to three months in the brig, reduction to private with no discharge and no fine.
On 3 January 1976, Private Henry W. Hiscock was shot through the hand by a round from an M16 rifle fired by Sergeant Robert F. Henson from fifty yards away.
Later reports indicated that prior to firing the second round, Hiscock had been told by other drill instructors that Henson was seriously intending to kill him and that he had best "say goodbye" to his platoon.
[48][49] Private Lynn E. McClure died in March 1976 after being beaten during a mock bayonet drill at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, leading to accusations of boot camp brutality.
Captain Christian Pappas, the lead prosecutor in the case, argued that Glass slapped, beat and ridiculed nearly all 40 recruits in his platoon for two months, showing a "complete disregard and contempt" for rules that ban such maltreatment.
[53] In November 2017, Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Felix was convicted of multiple counts of abusing recruits, as well as violation of a lawful general order, dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, and drunk and disorderly conduct.
