I

LIGHTS, LIGHTS, LIGHTS! echoed its way in to my head as I found myself waking, where was I? As the brightness of the whole scene subsided I remembered where I was Marine Corps Boot Camp the same place Id been for the past two weeks, it still didnt feel quite real yet. I quickly hurried out of bed to stand at the painted line in front of my rack, I could look down the row of recruits and see Drill Instructors running between racks screaming obscenities at the slower moving recruits. I found myself asking the same question as the day before what was I doing here. It came back to me as it had many times again the whole process of it all, the paperwork, the long training sessions to get myself in shape, the medical examinations to see if I even qualified to be in the Military yet alone the Marines with their higher standards. The day had yet to begin and I was asking myself these questions it was going to be a long one I knew that we had been told the day prior that we would be completing the obstacle course something the once upon a time I would have looked forward to doing but with how my Drill Instructors were I could expect them to make absolutely hellish. First we had to have breakfast and morning PT. At any given time at boot camp we had at least 2 Drill Instructors around us at all times and for most events we would be lumped together with the rest of the other 5 Platoons in our Company breakfast was no different. Instead of something like a school cafeteria we would be lined up perfectly at attention outside the chow hall, inside the building it was quiet recruits would walk up be given the food the desired and sit back down and immediately eat it as fast as possible because at most you were given 5-7 minutes to eat as much as you could. Afterwards youd be hurried out just as quickly as you came in, from there we would head back to the Squad Bay and change in to our PT clothes. The amount of time given to us to complete the task of changing was usually in the span of only a few minutes, speed was constant and a way of life for us on the Island. Once we were all back outside in formation we divided our four squads in to two columns and began running at fast pace while our Drill Instructor screamed at the slower recruits to keep up. This was no movie we didnt sing songs while ran, instead we cursed at ourselves for ever signing the contract that sent us here. This was real and there wasnt always a happy ending for all of us and that wasnt fully know to us yet. After what seemed like ages our platoon arrived to the O-course where we jogged around the obstacles at a slower pace until the other platoons arrived. Once we are all there we were put in a large group called a school circle and the Drill Instructors began to demonstrate how to navigate the obstacles, they each effortlessly cleared all of the obstacles. It became our turn to navigate the course, 8 at a time we went in a race with each other, each obstacle presented challenges that we didnt see from how easily the instructors performed the movements through the obstacles. All around me there was yelling from Drill Instructors at the recruits from their platoons to outperform those who were not. Each obstacle left me more winded and tired then I had expected until I found myself at the end with only one more left to clear, it was a 60ft rope I had to climb at the top was a bell Id have to ring.

This was the only event where you had to wait until the other recruits caught up so they could watch us race up the rope. Once the last recruit arrived the Drill Instructor monitoring the event shouted GO! all 8 of us each climbed our rope as fast as possible. I found myself at the tope first so I grabbed the handle to the bell and rung it as hard as possible while shouting STAFF SARGEANT PELOQUIN, PLATOON 3080! This was my platoon sergeant and platoon number. As I began my descent down the rope a recruit who was reaching for the bell fell past me to the ground some 50 feet below us with a sickening snap. All of the recruits in the immediate area around the one who fell were quickly hurried away as the Corpsman who was monitoring the event rushed to the scene. This was the first but not the last time at boot camp we would witness a recruit become seriously injured in this case when he fell he broke both of his legs and an ankle and would go on to never even finish boot camp after being stuck there for a total of 5 months when boot camp itself is only 3 months long.

II

After three grueling days of marching, shooting, and navigating many obstacles and challenges we found ourselves less than a block from our starting point, even though we had covered probably over a hundred miles. The feeling of standing there on that parade deck next to the Iwo Jima memorial was in itself entirely emotional and fully surreal after nearly three months of boot camp we had passed our final test The Crucible. The name itself brings to mind an object that is heated to melt metal and then pour it in to a new shape, a name entirely fitting for what we just had gone through. We started off our journey to become Marines with 62 recruits on graduation day there would be only 38, nearly half of us had fallen in one way or another to illness injury and even to one death. Some of us became to injured to carryon in the final hours of the Crucible others took their injuries directly from those who would train us, but one thing was certain our title as US Marines did not come easy to any us and it was merely just the beginning. We stood at attention as a cool breeze blew over us it being still the morning colors played for the morning and we held our salutes high knowing what would come next, when the last note finished playing and we lowered our salutes our Battalion Commander came out and read us the oath of enlistment we had taken 3 months previous and just as we had then we raised our right hand and recited it back. When we had finished with that our Drill Instructor came and shook our hands individually and placed an Eagle Globe and Anchor in to it, if nothing else in life we had truly earned that piece of metal, we had bleed, sweat, and cried over this Emblem of Service. Many had tears streaming down their faces as the ceremony progressed but not in a sad pitiful way but in a dignified manor fitting of Men. When the last recruit had been given their emblem our commander turned to us and called us by our new title Marines! which pushed out any feelings of doubt or tiredness wed had before.

From there we were lead away from the parade deck and monument to the chow hall were unlike the past we were given as much time to eat as we desired. We were being given a feast of eggs prepared in any way we wanted, French toast, sausage gravy and more. It was called the Warriors Breakfast and it was well earned and needed as over the past 3 days we had been given 2 meals to eat as we saw fit which left us with a real hunger. This mountain top moment as it felt to me was beyond indescribable Id never felt that way in my short 19 years of life but for the time it was one of my most powerfully uplifting experiences being called a Marine after so much suffering.

III

The familiar xylophone ringtone on my iPhone went off telling me it was 545am I had a few minutes to stretch and wake up before I needed to be outside at 615 to begin our physical fitness test or PFT. Once outside I saw all the familiar faces of my fellow Marines we were still hazy from drinking the night before which is not the smartest idea when you have to go for a time based 3 mile run the next morning but hey its how we did things there. Our staff sergeant arrived, looked at his watch and led us in a mass down the short hill to the pull up bar where we took turns performing as many as possible while he and our sergeants keep count and watched our form. Seventeen pull-ups later I felt pretty good about myself even though max was 20 I hadnt practiced any in months and was proud I hadnt lost much strength in my laziness. From there we went to the basketball court to perform crunches, it was a saying in the Marines that if you didnt get 100 you didnt have any friends, so roughly 100 crunches later we all found ourselves with a significantly better score. The final portion of this yearly test had come the 3 mile timed run, we had a distinct advantage there in the hills outside of Seattle WA our course was positioned to be fully downhill in only one direction allowing for much faster times than would be possible normally. So we began I found myself at a nice pace making good time passing the 1 mile mark at 6:45 which put me on track for an impressive 20:15 if I could keep it up compared to my last years 23:10 after spraining my ankle in training. My 2 mile time was even better than expected I was at 12:55 I was really making time, I found myself doing the math in my head with this pace id finish in roughly 19 minutes which would give me more than enough points to be promoted faster than any of my peers. Then it happened, I couldnt see it coming in the least but I shouldnt have been so distracted in my head because at that time I stepped off the edge of the path and right into a deep hole as my foot went down I continued to move forward until I felt the snap and tear as my foot shot 180 degrees to the side as my ankle rolled inward, the pain nearly made me black out I was certain it was broken yet it was far worse. I found myself hobbling into the finish at 25 minute mark. I received a few looks and was told by my squad leader to go to medical and have my foot inspected.