Marine recruiting program takes educators to school

The Corps' ability to attract men and women has led to the recruiting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak: the Marines' nine-plus-year run of making its personnel enlistment quota, unofficially known as "The Streak."

The next closest service is the Navy, which has made its recruiting numbers for three years.

Part of the Corps' success arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego last month when educators from Redding, Folsom, Shasta and other towns within Maj. David Sosa's recruiting district in Northern California arrived for a four-day, expenses-paid visit to observe the metamorphosis from a civilian to a Marine.

Typically, 70 to 80 educators a month from the Western United States visit the MCRD and Camp Pendleton to watch the making of a Marine. The program started in the 1980s when educators paid their own way. The Marine Corps recognized the value of the program and began funding it in 1997.

The Marines say the workshops are a way to promote "an open and honest relationship with the educators" that is "really about product knowledge," said Master Sgt. Michael Pinon-Larkin, a Marines spokesman.

But the Marines also know that a teacher or guidance counselor can be an ally when high school students are planning their futures, and Sosa describes the workshop attendees as "educational influencers."

A spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., said that depot also funds an educators' workshop, but he did not have the figures at hand.

"We are making the (recruiting) numbers, but we are just making them," said Sosa, a Bronze Star recipient during the Iraq war.

"So this program is as important now as it's ever been," Sosa said. "For the most part, the educators leave here impressed."

While some services struggle to meet recruiting goals, or in the case of the Army National Guard fall short, the allure of Marine Corps tradition and training is holding steady.

The Marines enlisted 36,794 recruits last fiscal year, the Defense Department says, topping its goal by 21. A little more than half of those recruits came from the Western recruiting region and trained at the MCRD. There are about 177,000 Marines in the Corps.

The Army recruited 77,000 enlistees, 587 above its goal, but had to dip into its pool of applicants for next year.

The educators' first taste of Marine life mirrors that of a typical recruit. Their bus stops on the tarmac and drill instructors greet them with voices that clearly tell them what to do and when to do it – in this case following yellow footprints painted on the cement.

Col. Mark Callihan, commanding officer of the Recruit Training Regiment, described the transformation from civilian to Marine like this: "It's like when you've first come into the world. You get bald and naked real fast."

The fact that more than 190 Marines have died in Iraq and more than 2,005 have been wounded since March isn't brought up by the Marines during briefings and question-and-answer sessions.

"I don't know if we address that," Pinon-Larkin said. "The focus of our brief is the transition process the individual goes through and the tangible and intangible benefits"

"This program answers the question: What do they do at Marine recruit training?" Pinon-Larkin said.

"I can't say that any of (the educators) have brought up any moral concerns about the war," said Lt. Col. Steven Suddreth, deputy assistant chief of staff for Marine recruiting in the Western United States.

"We want skeptics. We want folks who might not see the Marine Corps as equally viable to a kid as going to college. We want them to see the quality of the recruits we have. We try to put the educators with these kids one-on-one."

The Marines talk about imparting intangibles of confidence and honor and integrity and physical fitness in their charges.

Then the group is taken to pugil-stick fights – think of helmeted men fighting with cotton swabs big enough to knock you flat – and the MCRD swim qualifications.

For educators like Shawn Anstine, 37, an assistant principal from Foothills High School in Palo Cedro, it's the way the recruits carry themselves, their demeanor, their discipline, their determination – in other words their "Marine-ness" – that most impresses him.

Anstine thinks of students who might benefit from a stint in the Corps, even if it means going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"When I came here, I wasn't anti-military, but I wasn't gung-ho either," Anstine said. "There are some kids that this would be the best thing for their lives, and there are others who will go to Stanford or Harvard and that will be the best thing in their lives."

"From what I can see, this is a very valid option for a lot kids and people who want to better themselves who don't have the finances," Anstine said.

"I am definitely for the military," said Margie Komatsu, a guidance counselor at Cordova High School, about 20 miles outside Sacramento. "But now I am much better informed about the training and can speak to (students) from what I saw."

When asked about advocating military service in the face of mounting casualties, Anstine said the loss of any life, especially a young person's life, is always a tragedy, but that dying in the service of one's country at least gives the loss meaning.

"How many people do we lose on the California freeways? That is equally as sad," he said.

Komatsu counsels high school seniors about their plans, and most of them know "that they will most likely go to war" if they join the military.

Col. Suddreth said parents and educators are asking more questions today than they were a few years ago. But, he said, it hasn't seemed to hurt recruiting.

"They are not being detractors, but they are definitely having more involvement," said Suddreth, whose region signs about 18,500 recruits, or a little more than half of the Corps' yearly recruits.

"I'm not going to tell parents that their children won't be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, because under the current operations tempo, they probably will."

"If we sell anything, we sell intangibles. We sell being part of something as opposed to getting money for college. We want a kid to be a Marine because he wants to be one of us. Are are we going to change? No. We have a very good product."

The Marine Corps turns 229 this Wednesday, November 10.

God bless the Marines around the globe and their familes.

Establishment of the Marine Corps, 10 November 1775

This resolution of the Continental Congress marked the establishment of what is now the United States Marine Corps.

"Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or inlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required: that they be inlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress: that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalions of American Marines, and that they be considered part of the number which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of."

Source: Journal of the Continental Congress, 10 November 1775, in William Bell Clark, editor, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 972 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966).

Parris Island Instructors Mold Recruits Into Marines
Submitted by: American Forces Press Service
Story Identification #: 200411862712
Story by Mr. Gerry J. Gilmore

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (Nov. 8, 2004) -- Marine recruits headed for Parris know they won't be seeing the Eiffel Tower or experience romantic strolls along the Seine River.

Instead, those young men and women will challenge themselves as never before during 12 weeks of grueling, gut-check Marine training at Parris Island.

Tucked away near the Atlantic coast in southeastern South Carolina, Parris Island is just that: an island surrounded by waterways and marshland. A recruit training facility since 1915, the base used a ferry system to transport troops and supplies until 1929, when a bridge was built to connect it to the mainland.

That history is part of the mystique of the Corps, which celebrates its 229th birthday on Nov. 10. And Marine Corps history and traditions motivate Staff Sgt. Matthew M. James, who at age 30 is one of the 500 or so drill instructors who introduce about 18,000 recruits a year to their new lives at Parris Island. Recruits from west of the Mississippi River go to San Diego for boot camp; those who enlist east of the Mississippi go to Parris Island.

James, a Riverside, Calif., native, joined the Marines at age 17, he said, "to get a new way of life." James quickly learned of the Marines' tradition of teamwork when he first spoke with a recruiter.

James recalled that he'd asked the recruiter what the Marine Corps could do for him. The recruiter, he said, was taken aback, and then asked James what he could do for the Marine Corps.

At that moment, James said, he realized the Marine Corps offered something special. The Marine Corps, he said, "made me realize to be responsible for my actions."

Now, after 13 years in the Corps, James is, in his words, "a maker of Marines" at Parris Island's 2nd Recruit Training Battalion. After having served a year and a half as a drill instructor, he observed that many recruits seem to "need somebody to mentor them, somebody they can look up to as a positive role model."

Becoming a successful Marine, James explained, requires "a deep sense of pride in what you're doing" and "in just being a Marine."

James said drill instructors work up to 120 hours a week teaching recruits marching drills, rifle marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat moves, and myriad other military skills during the 12 weeks of training. The job of teaching recruits, he noted, takes patience and professionalism.

The most difficult challenges of his job occur during the first few weeks of boot camp, James said, when he strives "to get recruits to grab the concept of teamwork" and to convince them "to accept responsibility for their actions."

The payoff for his labors, James pointed out, occurs on graduation day, when he sees his recruits become Marines.

James believes his former charges greatly benefit from their Marine training, even if they just spend a few years in the Corps.

"You're going to come out better," James asserted, "because of the discipline and because of the title of 'Marine' itself."

The Marines are the only armed service that still trains its female recruits separately from the men. At Parris Island, the women are trained at the 4th Recruit Training Battalion.

Sgt. Walquiria Tamm, 26, said she joined the Marines eight and a half years ago "to do something different" with her life. The Paterson, N.J., native said she volunteered for drill instructor duty to have a hand in molding new Marines.

Women are prohibited from serving as infantry, but, Tamm noted, "there are many other ways that females can serve and help the mission of the Marine Corps."

Tamm said some recruits arrive at Parris Island with a positive attitude. Others, she noted, require more work to instill a "passion and love for the Marine Corps."

Injuries are the major cause for recruits not to graduate with their group, Tamm said, noting most injured recruits will recover and graduate later on.

Successful recruits, she observed, exhibit self-discipline and are "committed" to complete the training.

However, not everyone is cut out to become a Marine, Tamm pointed out. Most female recruits who don't complete training because of reasons other than injury "lack maturity" and "aren't ready for the big change" in becoming a Marine.

Tamm said she strives to show recruits "that being a Marine is not only about wearing a uniform, it's about beliefs (and) a way of life."

Simply put, "there's a difference," she asserted, "in being a Marine and being a civilian."

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