MORE ABOUT OUR CORPS!
Marines Make a Corps, Not an "Army Of One".
How many times have you been asked, what is it about you Marines? This may help you explain what we share that is so special and what we have lived that makes us remember. To under-stand, you have to live our experience, share what we have all shared, and feel what we have all felt. It is about Corps values, and honor. It is about character. It is about a shared experience that changed our lives.
The common experience starts with DISORIENTATION. The Corps creates a vacuum in your life; it takes away your hair, clothes, and friends, and fills it with a drill instructor. He says things like get off MY bus, do it NOW, and as you stand asshole to belly-button on the yellow footprints, your identity disappears. The D.I. gives you a short lesson on the UCMJ, and you learn that rights belong to the institution, not to the individual.
You will live in a squad bay and you will march everywhere. He speaks to you in the future imperative -- he says. YOU WILL, and you do! He gives you a new language -- deck, hatch, and head. It is a language that is steeped in a tradition you don't understand yet. He takes away your right to speak in the first person, and he takes away your first name. Your platoon number is what is important now.
Before your first meal you get 20 seconds to stow your gear, and you learn that the
Marines Make a Corps, Not an "Army Of One".
How many times have you been asked, what is it about you Marines? This may help you explain what we share that is so special and what we have lived that makes us remember. To under-stand, you have to live our experience, share what we have all shared, and feel what we have all felt. It is about Corps values, and honor. It is about character. It is about a shared experience that changed our lives.
The common experience starts with DISORIENTATION. The Corps creates a vacuum in your life; it takes away your hair, clothes, and friends, and fills it with a drill instructor. He says things like get off MY bus, do it NOW, and as you stand asshole to belly-button on the yellow footprints, your identity disappears. The D.I. gives you a short lesson on the UCMJ, and you learn that rights belong to the institution, not to the individual.
You will live in a squad bay and you will march everywhere. He speaks to you in the future imperative -- he says. YOU WILL, and you do! He gives you a new language -- deck, hatch, and head. It is a language that is steeped in a tradition you don't understand yet. He takes away your right to speak in the first person, and he takes away your first name. Your platoon number is what is important now.
Before your first meal you get 20 seconds to stow your gear, and you learn that the
only way to get it done within the time limit is to help one another. The TRANSFORMATION begins.
This is the culture of the Group, and its members are anonymous.
Although you don't know it, your drill instructor will become the most important person you will ever meet, and your weeks of boot camp will become the defining cultural experience of your life. For the first time in your life you encounter absolute standards of right and wrong, success and failure. When you screw up, everyone stops, and they penalize you, immediately, so you won't forget.
Disorientation and Transformation are following. by TRAINING.
The rules are simple:
a. Tell the truth; b. Always do your best no matter how trivial the task; c. Choose the difficult right over the easy wrong; d. Don't whine or make excuses; e. Judge others by their actions; and above all, a!
Look out for the group, before you look out for yourself. During your training you are pushed beyond your limits, and you achieve. You learn to make excellence a habit. The common denominator among you and your fellow recruits is pride and accomplishment. Through your training you develop spirit, and you develop self-discipline.
You learn the ingredients of CHARACTER: Integrity, Selflessness, and Moral Courage. And you learn the Corps Values of Honor, Courage, and
Although you don't know it, your drill instructor will become the most important person you will ever meet, and your weeks of boot camp will become the defining cultural experience of your life. For the first time in your life you encounter absolute standards of right and wrong, success and failure. When you screw up, everyone stops, and they penalize you, immediately, so you won't forget.
Disorientation and Transformation are following. by TRAINING.
The rules are simple:
a. Tell the truth; b. Always do your best no matter how trivial the task; c. Choose the difficult right over the easy wrong; d. Don't whine or make excuses; e. Judge others by their actions; and above all, a!
Look out for the group, before you look out for yourself. During your training you are pushed beyond your limits, and you achieve. You learn to make excellence a habit. The common denominator among you and your fellow recruits is pride and accomplishment. Through your training you develop spirit, and you develop self-discipline.
You learn the ingredients of CHARACTER: Integrity, Selflessness, and Moral Courage. And you learn the Corps Values of Honor, Courage, and
Commitment.
These are your roots. The Corps is a rigid code that will stay with you forever. It will define your character, and it will guide you for the rest of your life. This is why there are no EX-Marines.
Once you can appreciate what you are about to become, you learn about those who have gone before you. You study our history, and learn the lessons of countless heroes who acted not for self, but for comrade, Corps, and Country. Marines are about taking care of each other, always have been, al-ways will. It is our culture and it holds us together. As you learn the history, you become part of the tradition. You have a new appreciation of your God, your Country, and your Corps.
One final element completes your training -- you become a rifleman.
The magnitude of what you have accomplished becomes apparent to you at graduation, when, you finally earn your title and are called Marine. What you know then, in your heart, but what you can't put into words, is that there is some-thing very special about this organization that is unlike any other organization you ever have been a part of. What you can't put into words, but what you know in your heart is that the essence of the Marine Corps resides with the lowest in rank. The Marine is the Corps, and the Corps is the Marine. Your uniform says it all. When someone looks at you they don't see the name of your ship, a unit patch, or a branch insignia, what they see is a MARINE. That's all that counts! You are a Marine! It
These are your roots. The Corps is a rigid code that will stay with you forever. It will define your character, and it will guide you for the rest of your life. This is why there are no EX-Marines.
Once you can appreciate what you are about to become, you learn about those who have gone before you. You study our history, and learn the lessons of countless heroes who acted not for self, but for comrade, Corps, and Country. Marines are about taking care of each other, always have been, al-ways will. It is our culture and it holds us together. As you learn the history, you become part of the tradition. You have a new appreciation of your God, your Country, and your Corps.
One final element completes your training -- you become a rifleman.
The magnitude of what you have accomplished becomes apparent to you at graduation, when, you finally earn your title and are called Marine. What you know then, in your heart, but what you can't put into words, is that there is some-thing very special about this organization that is unlike any other organization you ever have been a part of. What you can't put into words, but what you know in your heart is that the essence of the Marine Corps resides with the lowest in rank. The Marine is the Corps, and the Corps is the Marine. Your uniform says it all. When someone looks at you they don't see the name of your ship, a unit patch, or a branch insignia, what they see is a MARINE. That's all that counts! You are a Marine! It