# 99018. Rite of Passage: Making Basic Training Tougher

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By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Note to visitors: This is part of a three-story series. Here's the 
full Web version, or visit the DoD home page, www.defenselink.mil.

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- Make basic training tougher. This is the 
challenge given to the military services by Defense Secretary 
William S. Cohen. 

But what does "tough" mean? Is it just physical toughness or does 
mental toughness also come into play? What about military skills 
and the ability to operate in a tough, unforgiving combat 
environment? At what point in basic training do recruits finally 
prove they are tough, that they are ready, that they belong?

All the services struggle with these questions. The answers they 
have come up with in their basic training programs reflect their 
service-unique roles and missions. All, however, agree that basic 
training is more than a physical challenge: It is a journey that 
young civilian men and women take to become soldiers, sailors, 
airmen and Marines. It is a rite of passage.

For the Army and Marines, the essence of this passage from one 
world to another comes into razor-sharp focus in a final gut-check 
field exercise that each of their recruits must face and overcome. 
The Marines call this last challenge the "Crucible; for the Army, 
it is "Victory Forge." In military terms, these trials of 
toughness are simply referred to as culminating events.

To see these culminating events, the Press Service visited the 
Marines at Parris Island and the Army at Fort Jackson, S.C. The 
installations are little more than 100 miles apart -- Fort Jackson 
in the upcountry scrub pine, Parris Island on the coast -- but 
each service brings its distinct mission and ethos to these rites 
of passage. These service distinctions are overshadowed, however, 
by what the "Crucible" and "Victory Forge" have in common. They 
are tough. Real tough.

The Crucible

"We have two missions in the Marine Corps -- to win battles and 
make Marines," said Col. Bob Hayes, assistant deputy chief of 
staff for operations and training at the recruit depot here. "The 
Crucible is one piece of that effort."

The Crucible emphasizes trainee teamwork under stress. "Recruits 
get eight hours of sleep during the entire 54-hour exercise," said 
Sgt. Roger Summers, a Delta Company drill instructor in the 1st 
Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island. "They get two-and-a-
half MREs and they are responsible for rationing out the food to 
themselves. Then we put them through tough physical activities 
like road marches and night infiltration courses. They march about 
40 miles in those 54 hours."

It isn't long before the recruits are tired and hungry, Summers 
said, but as they keep going they realize they can call on 
reserves they never knew they had.

"Some of these recruits do things they never thought they could 
do," he said. "Some of them come from middle-class homes where 
everything has been handed to them. Others come from poorer homes 
where nothing was ever expected of them. If they finish the 
Crucible, they have accomplished something."

One recruit put it best. "I am going to finish this," he said. 
"And when I do, it will be the most positive thing I have done in 
my life." Delta Company begins the Crucible at 3 a.m. with a six-
mile road march from their barracks to Page Airfield, the Crucible 
site.

Once there, recruits -- and that's the only thing the drill 
instructors call the trainees -- place their gear in huts and 
prepare for the first of four four-hour events.

Each event has a number of "warrior stations" that the team of 
recruits must work together to overcome or solve. Each station is 
named for a Marine hero and the drill instructor has a recruit 
read a brief explanation of how the hero's actions exemplify the 
Corps and its values.

"I choose a different leader for each station. That way, all the 
recruits understand what it's like to be the leader and what they 
have to do to be a follower," Summers said. "For some of them, 
they want to run everything. They can't admit that a recruit who 
may not have been the sharpest in previous training has a good 
idea. Sometimes it's the quiet one who has the idea and no one 
will listen.

"You see the team learn as they go along," he continued. "At the 
beginning, they just charge ahead without a plan and without 
asking if anyone has an idea. By the end of the Crucible you see 
them working together better, getting advice from all team members 
and solving more of the problems."

One warrior station, for example, is built around an enemy-mined 
rope bridge that the recruits must cross with their gear and 
ammunition boxes. They have only a couple of short ropes and their 
personal gear to solve the problem. At another event, recruits run 
into firing positions and engage pop-up targets with 10 rounds in 
two magazines. Recruit teams battle each other with pugil sticks 
in yet another event.

The recruits grab food and water when they can. After the first 
two events comes a five-mile night march. "The night march was the 
toughest thing we've done here," said 18-year-old Pfc. Josh 
Lunceford of Charleston, W.Va. "The whole company went on it and 
whoever led it set a real fast pace. You couldn't see very well 
and people were tripping over stuff, and everyone was tired."

The recruits hit the rack for four hours of sleep, then begin 
another day and finish the final two events. "On the second day 
they are tired and hungry and it really starts to show," said 
Capt. John H. Rochford, Delta Company commander. "They start 
getting short with one another, but they realize after the first 
day they have to work together to finish. No one gets through the 
Crucible alone."

At the end of the second day, the recruits go through a night 
infiltration course and then hit the rack for another four hours. 
When they get up, they face a nine-mile march and the end of the 
Crucible.

The march begins at 4 a.m. and, at first, is done quietly. 
Recruits limp along, because no one wants to drop out this close 
to the end, Summers said.

As the sun rises, the recruits cross DI Bridge. Once across, the 
drill instructors start Jody calls and the recruits join in. As 
they get closer to the main base, the Jody calls get louder until 
they reach the Parade Deck. The recruits form up around a half-
size replica of the Marine Corps Memorial -- also known as the Iwo 
Jima Memorial. There, a significant transformation takes place.

"We're not just giving them basic training, we're turning them 
into Marines," Rochford said. "There's more to being a Marine than 
knowing how to fire a weapon. There's a whole tradition behind it, 
and we want these recruits to measure up to the men and women who 
went before them."

A color guard raises the flag on the memorial. The chaplain reads 
a prayer specifically written for the finish of the Crucible, and 
the company first sergeant addresses the recruits. Then the drill 
instructors present each of their recruits with the Marine Corps 
insignia -- the eagle, globe and anchor. He shakes their hands and 
calls them "Marine" for the first time. Many accept the honor with 
tears streaming down their faces.

Victory Forge

The Army took the Crucible and changed it in ways to suit their 
needs. At Fort Jackson, Victory Forge was the result. "All Army 
basic training sites have a culminating event like Victory Forge," 
said Army Maj. Gen. John A. Van Alstyne, commander of Fort 
Jackson.

Basic at Jackson once climaxed with a classic field training 
exercise. "I got here in July 1997 and I took a look at the FTX. 
It became clear to me we needed to do a lot of work," he said. 
"The recruits were bused out to a point, there was a short road 
march and then they went into an area and established positions. 
Drill sergeants referred to it as a 'Dig-X.' In other words, they 
did more digging than anything else."

Van Alstyne and his planners visited Parris Island's Crucible. He 
said they changed it to fit their situation. Victory Forge starts 
with a 10-kilometer march out and lasts 72 hours in a tactical 
environment. Though Marine recruits carry weapons during the 
Crucible, their environment is one of training.

The general gathered his brigade and battalion commanders and 
drill sergeants and charged them: Implement Victory Forge and make 
it the high point of basic combat training. The result is a 
combination of team-building events and tactical lanes. "We wanted 
to finish with a night infiltration course and a long road march 
on the way home," Van Alstyne said. The final march started at 12 
kilometers, but now averages 15.

"Soldiers now feel like they are pushed both physically and 
mentally, and they are proud of what they have done," he said. 
Training companies, he added, routinely come out of Victory Forge 
looking like rifle platoons that just finished two days of combat 
operations.

Victory Forge ends at night, and the soldiers gather around a 
forge. Flames spew from the top as the battalion commander puts 
the soldiers' experiences into perspective. He holds up a rod of 
iron and likens it to them when they arrived at Fort Jackson -- 
metal with a lot of potential but unshaped. But then, he says, 
they went through the fires of Victory Forge. And as he speaks, he 
reaches into the forge and pulls out a sword.

Then the drill sergeants go down the line and congratulate the 
soldiers. "When the drill sergeants walk down the line and tell 
[the soldiers] they've 'done good,' many of them break down," Van 
Alstyne said. "They are being told this by someone they really 
respect. It means a lot to them."

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 A recruit delivers a killing blow while running the bayonet course at Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot, S.C. The recruit was in the middle of the Crucible, the 54-hour-long climax of Marine basic training. Lance Cpl. Michael J. Supples, USMC
 Delta Company recruits rumble during pugil stick competitions at Parris Island Marine Recruit Depot, S.C. The competitions are part of the Crucible, the 54-hour-long climax of Marine basic training. Lance Cpl. Michael J. Supples, USMC
 Teamwork gets a soldier over the wall during Victory Forge exercises at Fort Jackson, S.C. The 72-hour tactical exercise climaxes Army basic training at Jackson. Lance Cpl. Michael J. Supples, USMC
 Recruits drag a "wounded" teammate at the infiltration course at Parris Island Marine Recruit Depot, S.C. Lance Cpl. Michael J. Supples, USMC