A Thirteen Week Journey
...ecruiting office in shopping mall near my place of work. It was not long after that that I had finally made a good decision; I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. My life was about to change, as I was on my way to boot camp. Marine Corps boot camp is divided into three phases. These phases are designed to break a person down both mentally and physically and then gradually rebuild them into highly disciplined and confident Marines. Phase one is where the recruits are broken down, phase two is when they learn field training and marksmanship, and phase three focuses on drill, inspection and preparation for entering the fleet. The majority of this phase was spent focusing on classroom studies and physical training. Phase one begins when the bus arrives at the recruit depot. A drill instructor enters the bus and begins to yell at the recruits and issue orders. I remember this night vividly, I kept thinking “what have I got myself into.” We were then spent the next three days receiving are uniforms and many shots (immunizations). Phase two began on another bus. This time it was a bus trip from MCRD San Diego to Camp Pendleton. This would be are home for the following four weeks. The fist two weeks here was spent learning how to accurately fire the M-16 Assault Rifle. The final two weeks of this phase was field training. These two weeks are spent living in tents and eating MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). This period including long hikes up steep hills, obstacle courses, and trip through the gas chamber where we were forced to remove are gas masks. When p...