Special event leaves future recruits with better understanding of marine Corp
As U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Neil Reck strode confidently to the front of the American Legion Post 51 hall in Uniontown, the eyes of nervous people followed his every step. Suddenly, he began screaming out instructions for the Marine Corps recruits in the audience to come forward and stand at attention when he called their name.
“Smith,” he said.
Robert Smith Jr. of Trafford jumped up and ran toward the front of the room. He didn’t get far from his seat before the drill instructor had a problem with his actions.
“Say ‘Aye, sir’ when I address you.”
Smith yelled, “Aye sir,” but Reck now had a problem with the volume of Smith’s voice.
“Louder, louder, louder. You had better get a clue, boy,” Reck said. “Curl your fingers. Don’t look at me. Did I say you could look at me?”
Smith tried his hardest to conform to Reck’s demands, but as he attempted to stand at attention properly, the drill instructor continued to find fault with his actions.
Smith’s mother, who was sitting beside him when his name was called, missed her son’s first encounter with a drill instructor.
“My heart broke as soon as they called his name,” said Marie Smith. “I immediately broke out into tears and ran to the bathroom, because I couldn’t stand to watch it.”
Her son, who has wanted to join the Marine Corps since he was 4 years old, leaves for boot camp at Paris Island, S.C., in June.
“I would enjoy this much more if there wasn’t so much turmoil in the world,” she said. “These kids don’t realize the danger they are putting themselves into.”
Her son is enlisted in the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program and will depart for training after graduating from high school.
Smith’s encounter was part of an event hosted by the Monroeville, Three Rivers and Uniontown Marine Corps recruiting substations and was designed to provide recruits their first experience with a Marine Corps drill instructor. It also allowed the local recruits and their families to understand more about what type of training a potential Marine receives in boot camp.
After dismissing the recruits back to their seats, Reck shed his stern drill instructor personality to have a more relaxed conversation with the parents and recruits about Marine Corps training. “What you just saw is the initial shock your son or daughter will receive when they enter training,” he said.
But, Reck was quick to assure the parents in the crowd that their children would be well taken care of. Reck said that while the recruits are in training, it is his responsibility, as drill instructor, to play the role of mother, father, big brother and big sister.
“My job is to teach these recruits to love the corps and the country. I guarantee your son or daughter will be well taken care of,” he said.
Donned in earrings, Don Camp of Connellsville, who also was called to stand at attention for the drill instructor, said Reck intimidated him.
“I thought he was going to make me take my earrings out right there,” said Camp, a guitarist and skateboarding enthusiast. He added that he anticipates his Marine Corps training will be one of the greatest thrills of his life.
Sgt. Maj. Scott Carter, the senior enlisted officer for the Pittsburgh recruiting station, said this initial encounter with the drill instructor is very important in the recruits’ preparation for training. “No matter how much talking the recruiters do, nothing has the impact of observing how the drill instructor performs his duty and seeing the drill instructor in their face,” Carter said.
Carter said it is equally important for the parents to see the personable side of the drill instructor and realize that he is demonstrating Marine leadership and performing his duty to transform the recruits from civilians to Marines.
The Delayed Entry Program gives recruits the opportunity to begin preparing for basic training while they are still in high school, and Carter said most Marine recruits come through the program. The program also gives the recruiters an opportunity to monitor the recruits’ high school grades, physical fitness and mental preparation for their entrance to boot camp.
Carter said that the recruits’ performance Wednesday in front of the drill instructor was typical for their first encounter.
“Of course, they are never going to act as fast or respond in a loud enough fashion, but each time we hold an event like this there is a recruit who has shown an attitude, which is real life. They are still learning the procedures of the Marine Corps,” he said.
Carter reminded the recruits on hand that joining the Delayed Entry Program already puts them on Marine Corps time. He warned them that they constantly must prepare themselves physically, mentally and morally for their service.
“Never forget that there is something different about the Marine Corps,” Carter said. “Those slogans you hear, ‘The few, the proud…’ those are all true. I thank you for your commitment.”
The U.S. troop deployments to the Middle East and fear of a possible war with Iraq were a large topic of conversation among the parents in the crowd.
Adele Wood of Washington said she cries every time she thinks about her son leaving to join the Marines.
“With everything going on in the world, I think it is inevitable that we will go to war,” she said. “But, I raised him to be disciplined and respectful. I think he will do well in the Marines.”
Carter said parents usually are more concerned about the prospect of a military conflict than the recruits: “Mom and dad need to be supportive of their children’s decision. The parents that are agreeing to sit down and talk with the Marine recruiters are the real patriots.”
He reminded parents and recruits that “the Marine Corps doesn’t put anyone in a situation that they don’t have the training to handle.”
The Pittsburgh recruiting station, composed of the Uniontown substation and nine others in the region, shipped 574 recruits to Marine Corps training in 2002. The station has 320 recruits signed up for the Delayed Entry Program who will depart for training this year.
“We expect more before the high schools let out in June,” Carter said. “High school seniors are a bigger target for us. Maybe school didn’t work out for them or they are not happy with the job they have.”
Carter said the Marine Corps offers recruits intangible benefits – “self-discipline, pride of belonging, self-direction, honor, courage and commitment” – as well as tangible benefits such as travel, educational benefits and salary. Also, Marines now receive 100 percent tuition assistance for education while on active duty.
Carter said that the Marines ask recruits what is important to them and try to assign them positions in the Marines that will best fit their interests.
“We feel that the young men and women who are qualified to join the Marines have good qualities already,” he said. “The recruits already possess many of the qualities the Marine Corps instills in a soldier, but we are really going to bring those qualities out.”