The Crucible

Thursday we had the chance to see Recruits make their way through one section of The Crucible. The men were crawling on their stomachs across a bridge, a wall and through tunnels. All of this in the woods with loud speakers blaring the noise of guns, screams and bombs going off. After that, it was still crawling, but in sand under barbed-wire. With the camera I'd zoom in for closeups and the video looks like it could be a scene from Afghanistan or Iraq.

Sgt. John Jackson and I went out on the field and were standing right beside and sometimes I was laying on the ground with the fireteams (four man groups) as they went through the course. You don't get use to the guns and screams, but I was able to keep working. But every time a "bomb" blast would play I jumped. The first time it was a jump, camera jerk and scream. Every time I jerked the camera, it was an involuntary reaction. The Recruits don't flinch.

They stay focused on their mission and on their team. I just got to see 15 minutes of their 54 hour capstone experience.

To quote the USMC, "For 54 straight hours, recruits’ endurance, teamwork and skills will be pushed to the limit. Through perseverance and courage, they will finish as platoons and earn the title Marine." Once they finish this training, the Recruits march to the emblem ceremony and become Marines. Each receives their eagle, globe, anchor the Marine Corps emblem.

As the hours marched on in our experience, you could really see the teachers/educators become tired, but they'd never say that. After seeing a little glimpse into the life for a military member, in our case the Marine Corps, it is kinda silly to ever say you're tired.

Really puts life in perspective. I think for the teachers/educators too. Every day they are impacting the future by leading, teaching and mentoring kids. By the teachers experiencing this career path it really helps them mentor a teen who is thinking about the military. Or possibly suggest a military path for a student who they see as a leader with drive, intelligence and focus. A student that might no realize their qualities are Marine-material.

Afterwards the teachers run through their own crucible. Teamwork challenges and some physical obstacles. I even got in the ring with the pugil stick training, it is kinda like that one American Gladiator event where you hit somebody with a stick padded on both ends. The person holding the other stick was a Marine... so basically it was me hitting him as hard and as fast as I could and him making one move and it was over. Regardless it was a rush and Major Rory Quinn told me that I was aggressive, so I got a compliment out of it too.

Jamie Johnson, my roommate who teaches at Harrison, ruled the course. All the teachers were cheering each other on and there was even a little rivalry between the "Louisville" group and the "Detroit" group. Cincinnati falls under the Louisville recruiting station along with Kentucky so that was my group.

The Marines did a great job of making a team out of total strangers for a week, imagine what the bond is like when you are really in the Corps?