MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO - Gunnery Sgt. Luis Atkins inspects Tuba High School student Nicole Curley. Noticing dirt on her rifle, Atkins made sure to explain the importance of a properly cleaned weapon.Photo by: Lance Cpl. Dorian Gardner
Posted on 05/13/2006 10:23:13 PM PDT by SandRat
MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (May 12, 2006) -- Depot Marines judged Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps students who displayed their military precision and bearing at the sixth annual “Golden Bear’s National Drill Meet” April 29 in Pomona, Calif.
Marines from the depot and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., as well as airmen, seamen and soldiers came together during the competition to observe and judge proper execution over the event’s 16 drill areas. The stations included armed and unarmed drill, regulation, exhibition, color guard, four-person armed drill, four-person sabers and novice categories.
The drill competition hosted 52 schools from around the nation, said Raul Duran, event coordinator. According to Duran, 12 schools dropped from the competition because of scheduling conflicts, and a few schools already added their names to the list for next year’s competition.
Duran said he takes occasions like this very seriously because the students put a lot of hard work into the drill meet.
“Events like this are important because there are not too many activities teaching the ethical values that we try to instill in our young men and women,” said Duran.
The morning of the meet, drill instructors arrived early and sat in on a brief explanation of the competition. Duran set guidelines and boundaries in order to keep the experience enjoyable for the kids.
Spread throughout the competition, Marines stood alone and teamed with other service members to judge different categories.
Gunnery Sgt. Luis Atkins was the first Marine many of the JROTC participants met. At 8 a.m., the kids got a motivating wake-up call when the M Company chief drill instructor displayed his extreme volume and ability to execute a proper inspection.
The competition also brought family members and recruiters. With static displays like Army vehicles and a Marine Corps obstacle course, recruiters took advantage by handing out cards and attracting new applicants.
Antoine McNair attended the competition for the first time this year and loved the military presence.
McNair said he is tired of living the “so-called” disobedient life where everybody thinks he doesn’t listen to anything.
“I took a year off from basketball just to learn how to drill,” said the 6-foot, 3-inch underclassman.
His favorite parts of the competition were exhibition and inspection. The inspection gained his favor because of the drill instructors’ intensity, but exhibition captured him because it brought together so many unique routines. McNair said he was curious to see who would be declared the best.
With more schools coming out for 2007’s drill competition, rifle routines and uniforms are already being prepared.
MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO - Gunnery Sgt. Luis Atkins inspects Tuba High School student Nicole Curley. Noticing dirt on her rifle, Atkins made sure to explain the importance of a properly cleaned weapon."Your military left, you inbred, over-chromisoned excuses for vertebrates!"
You see how the curb on cursing brings the creativity out of modern D.I.s?
Private, get your goat-smellin' @ss in formation!
"MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO - Gunnery Sgt. Luis Atkins inspects Tuba High School student Nicole Curley. Noticing dirt on her rifle, Atkins made sure to explain the importance of a properly cleaned weapon."
Ah, yes. Good old Gunny Luis. He explained the same
thing to some in my son's graduating corps a couple of
years ago at MCRD, San Diego. Hasn't lost his touch.
I'm pretty sure a lot of guys survived in Iraq because of his explanations.
(I have not served. My tagline honors my son and my cousin.)
courtesy of SFC Fischer, Ft. Jackson, SC, circa 1968. Thanks Drill Fischer!.
LOL! I was (undeservedly) honored to learn that my Nam-era Drill Instructors successfully petitioned that my catch-up period be drastically shortened after pneumonia forced me into the hospital. Seems they thought keeping the other grunts awake with the hacking - instead of asking for treatment - was somehow admirable.
Looking back I think determination sometimes overwhelms sanity. Ironically, their recommendation found me four years later with the choice of reenlisting with mandatory DI school or leaving. They dangled Officers Training School if I spent the next four years freaking out youngsters but I just didn't have the innate streak that that requires.
So don't regret not serving if circumstances led otherwise. I saw supposedly bad-ass physical specimens cry and urinate themselves when the stress overwhelmed them while the plainest salt-of-the-earths performed superhuman feats. It really is the size of the fight in the dog.
May the Lord watch over your son and cousin. The media is remiss in not covering our troops as they should...if you need a hero they're there every day in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"You are not even human f**king beings. You are nothing more than unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian s**t..."
Gunny Hartman, Full Metal Jacket
Good evening and the very best to you and yours.
Semper Fi
Tommie
These responses all bring a sly, wry smile to my face.
To survive bootcamp is to let all the screaming in one ear, bounce around for 12 weeks, latch on to all the new info and then let the bad pop out the other ear 30 seconds after graduation ceremony.
With the previous in mind, discipline is so lacking in our society today that this JROTC competition must have been Outstanding!!
Semper Fi
The funniest one I heard was directed against a private in my platoon: "Private Weaver, you march like a God-d@mn fag"!
Sempre Fi....LOL brings back fond memories
The funniest that I remember from early 1970 is "private Hale, make me smile". Private Hale received a packet of pictures from his fiance -- very naked pictures -- to remind him of what he was coming home to. Anyone who went to boot camp during that time remembers that pictures were screened on the spot and EVERYONE got to share them. After we had all seen his fiance (15 pictures), the DI picked 3 or 4 and told Hale to put them in his wallet. He told Hale that at any time if he called out "private Hale, make me smile" that Hale had better be front and center and displaying those pictures.
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