MAKING MARINES PART 1
Channel: THE DIABLO DOG
Date: 2018-07-12

All enlisted individuals entering the Marine Corps, regardless of eventual active or reserve duty status, will undergo recruit training at one of the two Marine Corps Recruit Depots (MCRD): Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California. Male recruits from the 8th, 9th and 12th recruiting districts (areas west of the Mississippi River except Louisiana and including parts of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan) are sent to MCRD San Diego. All recruits from the 1st, 4th and 6th recruiting districts and all female recruits are sent to Parris Island. Those desiring to become officers attend training at Officer Candidates School at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

Boot camp is a twelve-week cycle of training, beginning with a receiving phase of in-processing or "forming",followed by three numbered phases. Each phase includes intensive education and training on various topics essential for military life. Each phase consists of a predetermined number of training days, these are counted in the training matrix as "T1", "T2", up to "T70" which is Graduation Day

Receiving Phase:
The first activity of a new recruit is to stand in his or her first formation, marked by these yellow footprints
The initial period of Marine Corps Boot Camp is called the Receiving Phase, which begins as the new recruits are on the bus en route to their recruit Depot. They are "greeted" by a drill instructor, who acquaints them with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which they are now subject. Disembarking from the bus, they line up on rows of yellow footprints painted on the concrete which is their first formation and learn how to stand at attention.

The recruits are given the opportunity to phone their next of kin and inform them of the recruit's safe arrival, then are searched for contraband. They are issued utility and physical training uniforms and toiletries. From here, the males receive their first military haircut, where they are left essentially bald. Females are instructed in the authorized hairstyling, which allows hair to be short enough to not touch the collar or in a bun.

The remainder of receiving involves completing paperwork, issuing an M16A4 service rifle, receiving vaccines and medical tests and storing civilian belongings under the eye of drill instructors set aside specifically for receiving. This takes approximately three days, usually without the opportunity to sleep, and ends with the Initial Strength Test (IST). The IST is a shortened form of the PFT to assess if a recruit is physically fit enough to begin training. To pass, a male recruit must complete at least two pull-ups, 35 crunches in two minutes and run 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in 13:30 minutes or less. The female recruits must hold a “flexed arm hang” (hanging on a bar with their arms bent) for at least 12 seconds, complete 45 crunches in two minutes and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes and 30 seconds or less.

From this point, recruits experience "Black Friday", where they meet their permanent Drill Instructors. They also meet their Company Commander, usually a captain, who orders their Drill Instructors to train them to become Marines and has them recite the Drill Instructor's Creed. At this point recruit training truly begins. Recruits are familiarized with incentive training as one of the consequences of disobedience or failure to perform to a Drill Instructor's expectations. The Drill Instructors physically, psychologically and mentally harass the recruits, including yelling at maximum volume and intimidation, to simulate stress of the battlefield and elicit immediate compliance to instructions. The remainder of receiving is made as confusing and disorienting for the recruits as possible to help distance the recruits from civilian habits and to prepare them for Marine Corps discipline.

It is at this point that a recruit must come to terms with the decision he or she has made and develop the true determination needed to make it through the process of becoming a United States Marine. The final "moment of truth" is offered to those who have been dishonest about their eligibility, such as drug use, judicial convictions or other disqualifying conditions.