Parris Island is one of two Marine Corps boot camps in which recruits spend 3 months (13 weeks) at before becoming United States Marines. It is located in South Carolina, about 9 hours away from where I live. Luckily, my MCJROTC unit got the chance to visit Parris Island for 5 days to get a small taste of what boot camp is like for recruits. I'm making this post to share my experiences and journey.
Our first day consisted of arriving at the barracks in which we stayed at. We were taught how to properly make a rack(bed) by our drill instructor. He then made us grab 2 pieces of linen along with an olive drab green blanket to make our own racks with. If one of our racks had a single wrinkle in the linen, he would make us strip the rack and make it again.
One thing that was unsettling to me were the bathrooms in the barracks. No, not because of the cockroaches, dirty floors, or the fact that everyone had to shower together--but the fact that every single toilet stall had no door. I couldn't get a picture of the stalls but I did find one online that looked very similar to what ours looked like.
Image source: http://www.thejournal.ie/us-marine-boot-camp-1263569-Jan2014/
Lights out in the barracks was at around 8pm. Each of us had be on fire watch during the night because of the lack of females in the barracks. For those of you who don't know what fire watch is, it's basically when 2 people are up in shifts when everyone is asleep for an hour to make sure nothing bad happens during the night.
Lights on was at around 5am. We had about 30 minutes to brush our teeth, get into our MARPAT uniforms and make our buns. We then took our bus to the chow hall. I honestly thought that the food would be disgusting there, but it really wasn't at all. While we were in line, we had to keep our heels together and our head and eyes forward. If our drill instructor caught us talking to each other he would yell at us. Before we sat down with our trays, we had to say the proper greeting of the day. "Good morning ladies, good morning gentlemen" if it was in the morning. While we sat down, our heels were together, and our feet flat on the deck. We couldn't put our forearms, arms, or elbows on the table either. We had to sit up straight, and couldn't lean in over our trays. If we did, the DI said, "Bring the chow to your face, not your face to the chow".
Our second day started off by visiting the famous yellow footprints at receiving. The yellow footprints, to a recruit, are the first step of the transformation from civilian to Marine.
After that, we headed over to the marksmanship building, in which we shot old M16A4s(basic infantry weapon for the Marine Corps) at a projector screen with virtual targets. Recruits have to do this before they head out to the firing range, to ensure they know the proper safety procedures.
Our third day consisted of visiting the gas chamber, rappel tower, and a small obstacle course.
Before we stepped into the gas chamber, a marine gave us a brief rundown of what was going to happen. We were told that we were going to walk into a building with 2 doors that would be open. We then had to form a line and follow each other through the perimeter of the chamber while touching the bulkhead(wall) at all times. As soon as I stepped in, my eyes were forced shut and my nose started running like crazy. The pain was probably worse than having hot sauce splashed into your eyes if you can imagine that. After we exited the chamber, we had to keep our arms lifted horizontally, then walk in a circle in the grass to remove any excess gas on our uniforms.
When recruits train here, they use the gas chamber very differently. They put on gas masks and step into a room in which they release CS gas into. They are then told to remove the masks for a brief period of time and clear the mask of any gas. For us, they used about only 10% of the CS that they use for recruits.
The rappel tower was probably my favorite part of this whole experience.
After that, we headed over to the obstacle course. Looks easy right? Well it's not. Even some of the most physically fit cadets couldn't do a majority of the obstacles.
On the fourth day, we went to the crucible area of Parris Island. Our drill instructor had us run in formation on a path called the Battle of Mariana Islands
Along this path were various obstacles including mud crawls, wall jumps, and rope jumps.
The last major place we visited was the confidence course. The confidence course is basically a variety of obstacles designed to help recruits overcome physical challenges.
Doing all of this in one day was pretty exhausting, so I think you can guess how good I slept that night lol.
Day 5 was of course our last day. Every Friday on Parris Island they hold morning colors which we got to attend. We watched the marine band play and even got to see little Corporal Chesty.
So adorable!!
After that, we got to watch marines graduate and earn the title of United States Marine.
Before they are dismissed by their drill instructors, each company marches in a square around the parade deck close to the bleachers where the audience sits.
I'm honestly so glad that I got to go on this trip and get a little taste of what it's like to be a Marine Corps recruit so I know what to expect when I actually start recruit training.