What I Learned in the USMC - Happy 250th Birthday!

 (This is me, in the center with glasses, at Edson Range, 1977)

     In January of 1977, two classmates (Scott Bingham and Danny Dunn), came to recruit me for  the United States Marine Corps. They wanted me to drop out of college and join. They told me it would be great, and I would learn a lot. I wasn't going to drop out of college so they challenged me to join the USMC Reserves. I liked hiking and camping, and thought, "Why not get paid for it?" After signing the papers I wondered, "What did I just get myself into?" But it was done, and I had to do my duty. I also thought, "Maybe it will be good for me, and I will learn a few things along the way." 

     That June I was standing on the "yellow footprints" at MCRD San Diego with a bunch of other guys from every walk of life. I was a chemistry student, and my bunkmate was practically illiterate. He kept talking about how he wanted to get back to "the crib." One private had just gotten married, he had a new baby, and he was told by a judge to either go to jail or go to the Marine Corps. There were a couple of other college kids like me. One turned out to the son of a senator. One day two MPs came in grabbed one of our guys. Turns out he was wanted for murder. That platoon was a perfect cross-section of American culture, and I met guys that I would have never known apart from the Corps! 

     The physical part was hard but doable. I went in doing three pull-ups and came out doing twenty. The psychological part was the most interesting to me. One by one I watched guys get broken down to tears. If you thought you were someone special going in, you found out sooner or later you weren't. One day they got to me. It had to do with taking a pee, of all things. We really only got to go to the head (bathroom) three times a day, and you had better get your business done then. "Break it off privates" came the command from the drill instructors when they wanted us out of the head. If you didn't, and if you had to use the head during the day, they called it an "emergency head call." You had to stand up and make the sound of a siren while twirling your hand over your head like an emergency light. Humiliation for each one of us was their goal. One day it was my turn to make an emergency head call. But that day there was a DI from the next platoon talking to my DIs. He told me to go, so I bolted for the head, siren and all. Then my DIs called me back and started yelling about only taking orders from them! The other DI was a staff sergeant, and out ranked my DIs. So he started yelling at me to go or else. I bolted again, and again my DIs called me back and were yelling their heads off. This time the visiting DI got in my face and said, "Private, you're a racist (he was African American), and that's why you won't obey my orders!" He was really mad, or pretended to be. I was totally confused. He told me to go, so I bolted one more time. This time my senior DI chased me into the head, slugged me in the stomach (not too hard) and quietly said, "You only take orders from me." For weeks I had stoically taken their harassment thinking they aren't going to get to me. But with tears streaming down my face, I just said, "Yes sir." Then he changed. Very nicely he said, "Use the head, and wipe away those tears before you come back." The humiliation was over, and the building of respect was begun. I watched this process over and over with every private. A few just couldn't take it, and they dropped out. But at the end of those eighty-five days we had been completely transformed - broken and built up to become a team that could really take orders - some of the most difficult orders anyone could imagine. 

     There were no wars when I served, so I have no experience with that. But I do believe that training was good for me. I learned humility and respect. I learned to lean on God and not myself. I prayed a lot during those days and never missed a church service at whatever chapel they had. When I went back to college it was a little different walking around with a regulation haircut. Today when people hear that you served in the military they thank you for your service. I NEVER heard those words until ten or fifteen years ago! But I'm thankful for the things I did learn. I learned as much or more from the Marines as I ever learned in college. Today is the 250th birthday of the Marine Corps - Happy birthday! Once a Marine, Always a Marine!