page_title: United States Marine Corps Recruit Training
section_title: Week 10-The Crucible
hierarchical_section_title: United States Marine Corps Recruit Training / Training schedule / Phase 4 / Week 10-The Crucible
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Marine Corps recruits with Papa Company, 4th Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, clear their gas masks during the practical application portion of chemical biological, radiological and nuclear defense (CBRN) training on Parris Island, S.C. June 20, 2017. Training for CBRN defense is an event that teaches recruits how to prevent serious injury in the event of chemical warfare. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Richard Currier/Released) Unit: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island - Combat Camera DVIDS Tags: USMC; recruit; Parris Island; Gas Chamber; Marines; Integrated Training; Combat Endurance Course
context_page_description: United States Marine Corps Recruit Training is a 13-week program "including in & out-processing" of initial training that each recruit must successfully complete in order to serve in the United States Marine Corps.
  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: Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California. The training and standards are identical between the two bases, though the order of some training events differs from east coast to west coast. Male recruits from the 8th, 9th and 12th recruiting districts 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.
context_section_description: The days leading up to the crucible, recruits will complete their second written exam, make travel arrangements to get home after graduation, and endure the Confidence Chamber. Recruits must enter an enclosed building filled with CS gas and perform various movements with their gas mask, including the removal of the gas mask. Recruits who attempt to flee the gas chamber are ordered back in—a failure to comply results in the recruit being dropped.
  
  The Crucible is the final test in recruit training, and represents the culmination of all of the skills and knowledge a Marine should possess. Designed in 1996 to emphasize the importance of teamwork in overcoming adversity, the Crucible is a rigorous 54-hour field training exercise demanding the application of everything a recruit has learned until that point in recruit training and includes a total of 48 miles of marching. It simulates typical combat situations with strenuous testing, hardship and the deprivation of food and sleep. Recruits are given two MREs (a self-contained, individual field ration). The recruits are only allowed six hours of sleep through the entire 54-hour event. Recruits are broken into squad-sized teams (possibly smaller) and placed under the charge of one drill instructor. 
  Throughout the Crucible, recruits are faced with physical and mental challenges that must be accomplished before advancing further. Teamwork is stressed, as the majority of tasks are impossible without it—each group must succeed or fail as a whole. The others will fail unless every recruit passes through together, requiring the team to aid their fellow recruit(s) who struggle in the accomplishment of the given mission. Also stressed are the Corps' core values of "Honor, Courage, and Commitment"—events sometimes present a moral challenge. Many challenge events are named after Marine Medal of Honor recipients or otherwise notable Marines and drill instructors will often take the time to read the citation of the award and hold a guided discussion with the recruits to evaluate their moral development. Drill instructors are also vigilant for those recruits who succeed and fail in leadership positions.
  Some of the challenges encountered during the Crucible are team and individual obstacle courses, day and night assault courses, land navigation courses, individual rushes up steep hills, large-scale martial arts challenges and countless patrols to and from each of these. These challenges are often made even more difficult by the additions of limitations or handicaps, such as the requirement to carry several ammunition drums, not touching portions of an obstacle painted red to indicate simulated booby traps and evacuating team members with simulated wounds.
  On the final day of the Crucible, recruits are awoken and begin their final march (including "The Reaper" a forced march up a steeply inclined hill to the top of Edson's Ridge on the west coast) when they arrive the drill instructors will offer the recruits the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor (EGA) emblem which give them the title Marine. 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 this meal, the new Marines have the opportunity to eat and talk with their Drill Instructors informally for the first time.
  The following days Marines, hand back in their gear and return back to MCRD San Diego.
caption: Recruits experiencing the Confidence Chamber.
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