Preparing For Marine Corps Boot Camp

I know a young man that signed up to become a United States Marine and he was on the delayed entry program.  He signed up months ago and went around telling everyone he was going to become a Marine.  The thing that interested me the most was the fact that he was overweight and he really did not even understand.  He told me that since he was already accepted to attend Boot Camp at Parris Island, he would be fine.  He had about eight months to get ready and I warned him time and again that he needed to get ready for boot camp as if he were leaving tomorrow.  He blew me off and did little to prepare.

We spoke many times and when he gave me his height and weight I keyed it right into my iPhone app. I had told him that his body weight made him obese.  For some odd reason he just blew me off thinking I really did not know what I was talking about.  I listened to be polite and he thought he was fine, as he stepped back showing me he really thought he was not fat, because he did not look that overweight.  I smiled and that was the end of the conversation.  He felt as if he did not have to prepare at all to enter Marine Corps Boot Camp.

As the months clicked past he did nothing to little to get into shape.  He did show up for the recruiter runs and all the ooh rah moments that are organized to keep pooles interested until their reporting in date arrived.  The sad part about it all was that he just blew off the reality that he was overweight and did not realize that the weight to enter the DEP program was not as stringent as the weight a recruit needed to be when they arrived at boot camp.

(Weight Standards: Click Here)

It was not until one early morning that he walked over to me and told me the Gunny told him that he had his date moved up and he was leaving in just a few days, did the reality of his situation sink in.  He approached me stating that he had discovered that the weight to enter the DEP program was not as strict as the weight needed to be upon arrival at boot camp.  If it were not for the sad look on his face, I would have given him a classic “I told you so!”  I was quiet and I said nothing, other than asking him how he was going to prepare for boot camp?

He was really upset because he had learned that when he arrived at boot camp with his current weight, he would have to enter what is referred to as “The Pork Chop Platoon.”  He had this cloud of doom around him that was there simply because he did not prepare for boot camp, and now it was too late.  Some may say the recruiter did him a dis-service, but I really think that by the time a person signs the paper to become a Marine, they need to be old enough to understand that they need to get ready for arriving at Marine Corps Boot Camp.

I do not know what happened to my acquaintance because he shipped out to Parris Island and that was about a week ago.  I kind of felt sorry for him, but I kind of did not.  He may have been old enough to join The Corps, but he was too immature to understand that he needed to prepare for what was about to happen to him.  He did not realize that for him to prepare for Marine Corps Boot Camp he should have cleared his calendar and spent each and every available moment getting himself ready.

He decided to do other things than eat right and exercise and run and stop smoking and pretty much all of the above.  I tried to get him to memorize his General Orders and even printed them out for him and he blew it off. I teased him about if he knew certain facts, but he always gave me a blank stare.  I even offered to give him the answers to many of the questions he would need to prepare for boot camp, and he just turned me down.

If you are going to Marine Corps Boot Camp you already know that it is the most difficult basic training that America has to offer.  If you are getting ready to go you need to study, exercise and all around focus on the fact that you need to prepare for boot camp because….ready or not…..it will soon be time to go.  Do not think that you “will be fine” because if you do not prepare you may end up as just another Marine Corps Boot Camp washout.

>>How To Prepare for Marine Corps Boot Camp<<

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