Meet Your Drill Instructors

So, you signed the paperwork and are getting ready to ship off to Marine Corps Boot Camp?  Maybe you are going to MCRD Parris Island, or maybe it will be MCRD San Diego?  It really does not matter because when your little feet end up standing on those little yellow footprints, you will be really close to meeting a Marine just like the ones you see above.  What you see in the photograph above are Drill Instructors.

The relationship with your Drill Instructor will be unlike any relationship you have ever had and unlike any relationship you will ever have.  A Drill Instructor is the Marine that will mold you from a civilian and transform you into a Marine.  The Drill Instructor is the icon that right now has no personal face, but a day after you begin boot camp, that face will be forever etched into your memory.  No matter how many years pass in your life, the face of your Drill Instructor will be a timeless fixation in your mind’s eye.

The bond between a recruit and a Drill Instructor is one that is very difficult to explain to a civilian.  That bond is one that is forged through the sweat and effort of trying to graduate from Marine Corps recruit training.  The role of the Drill Instructor is one that ultimately is the guardian to the gate of entry for those requesting to join the ranks of all the Marines that have come before.  A person must remember that to a Marine, this is the most sacred and hallowed ground.  Grounds that were tread by the likes of those that are nameless to the public, civilian population today.  The job of the Drill Instructor is to ensure that the new recruits are worthy to wear the same insignia that Marines like John Basilone (Manila John), Oscar P. Horton or Eugene A. Oberegon earned.  A United States Marine Corps Drill Instructor is the one to enforce the ultra high standards of entry of The Marine Corps.

When you first step off the bus at a recruit depot and are “asked” to stand on the yellow footprints, you are greeted by a Drill Instructor, but those are not the ones that will push you through the training cycles.  These Marines are the ones that work in Receiving Battalion and get all of the civilians processed to be accepted by the actual Drill Instructors that will complete the training.  The receiving portion of a recruit’s time at a recruit depot will depend on how many have come before they arrived.  Once the needed number of recruits arrive and are processed in a battalion, they are handed off to the actual Drill instructors responsible for the day to day training schedule.  That is when the real training, the hard core training begins.

My first memory of boot camp, after the officers handed my platoon over to the Drill Instructors, was the entire platoon standing at full attention for about three hours.  The Drill Instructors walked up and down, back and forth and pounced on any recruit that moved or looked anywhere but straight ahead.  It was like going from zero to recruit in seconds.  The impact of not being able to even move my eyes without permission, was a major change in personal reality.

Click here to reveal what Drill Instructors are trained to do

The interesting thing about the relationship that is forged between recruit and Drill Instructor is that despite all of the emotions that bubble to the surface, hatred is never present for those that earn the priviledge of wearing the Marine uniform as a warrior.  Despite the hours, days and months of the constant screaming and stress, when you meet your Drill Instructor later on in the FMF, (Fleet Marine Force) you only want to shake their hand and buy them a drink.  Once you have graduated and earned the title of united States Marine, your respect for what that Drill Instructor accomplished has made you nothing but grateful.

There is a certain technique that all Drill Instructors use to stress out the recruits.  The techniques and training strategy used is not some random idea that each Instructor individually devises.  The way things are done in Marine Boot Camp are what has been learned down through the years.  The art of recruit training is one that has been handed down through the decades and that art has been taught to the Drill Instructors.  Somewhere along the way that “art” is absorbed by the recruits when they learn the meaning of Honor, tradition and Semper Fi.  Somewhere along the way that raw civilian is transformed from a civilian puke into a Marine that is ready and willing to move onto further training.  The specialized training that follows boot camp only happens after you get past your Drill Instructor.

Marines do not fight and die merely for their country, they also do it for the Marine that stands next to them.  They bleed for the Marine that is over the next ridge.  The Marine pilot flies into danger because that is a Marine calling for help.  The Marine cook has the ability to pick up a weapon and is trained enough to shoot straight, because the enemy is near and all Marines are warriors.  The Marine that is nearby could have been trained in any job, but first and foremost they have been trained as a Marine, and that training was accomplished in Marine Corps basic training.  That basic recruit training was accomplished and completed and guided by none-other than a Drill Instructor.

Do not expect your Drill Instructor to be your friend.  Do not expect your Drill Instructor to be your enemy.  Do not expect your Drill Instructor to be anything but the guardian to the gate of The United States Marine Corps.  They are more than willing to help you become and earn the title of Marine, but they are even more than willing to send you home packing as a failure.  Expect nothing more from your Drill Instructor other than someone placed in your path to ensure that if you enter the FMF, that you earned the right and privilege to be there.

Click Here to meet your Drill Instructors NOW!

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