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| U.S. Marine Cpl. Tavonne Douglas, left, poses with his former senior drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Alvin Bassfield at Jalalabad Airfield, Afghanistan. Douglas, from Harlem, N.Y., is a food service specialist with Headquarters and Service Company of the1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Bassfield, from Crewe, Va., is the company gunnery sergeant for B Company. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joe Lindsay |
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U.S. Marine Corps
Cpl. Tavonne Douglas
Gunnery Sgt. Alvin Bassfield |
| Former Drill Instructor, Recruit Reunite in Afghanistan |
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By Marine Sgt. Joe Lindsay
Task Force Lava Public Affairs |
JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, April 13, 2006 — The expression “It’s a small Corps” took on special meaning for two Marines serving with the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment here.
It took some time, however, for a former drill instructor to realize he was serving with one of his recruits supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
“I was in Kyrgyzstan, preparing for the last leg of our journey before we entered Afghanistan,” said Gunnery Sgt. Alvin Bassfield, company gunnery sergeant for B Company of the 1/3 Marines. “I was on the bus that was transporting us to the flightline for our final flight into Afghanistan, and this corporal gets on and starts staring at me while grinning from ear to ear. He gave the proper greeting of the day, but just kept looking at me. I’m thinking, ‘Do I know this Marine?’ “
“I racked my brain for a while and then things started getting busy, so I kind of forgot about it,” admitted Bassfiled, who served at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., from early 2003 to late 2005.
The experience as seen through the eyes of his former recruit, Cpl. Tavonne Douglas, was a little different.
“I got on the bus, and standing right in front of me was my senior drill instructor from the Island,” recalled Douglas, a native of Harlem, N.Y, now assigned as a food service specialist to Headquarters and Service Company of the 1/3 Marines. “I couldn’t believe it. I think I was half-expecting him to start lighting me up or to send me to ‘The Pit’ or something.”
“The Pit,” as any Marine who has survived Parris Island can attest, is where drill instructors put recruits through what are often called “motivational” physical training sessions.
Douglas, however, kept his realization to himself.
“I never said anything to Gunnery Sgt. Bassfield because on the Island he always was telling us, ‘I’ll remember every one of you, and if I ever catch any one of you out in the fleet … such and such.’ I wanted to see if he’d actually catch on to who I was.” |
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Bassfield, a native of Crewe, Va., turned his attention to his work and “kind of forgot” about the Marine on the bus, he said. “Then one day, about two months into our tour here, a staff NCO came up to me and said, ‘You better start locking on your recruits, Gunny.’
Bassfield called his wife, who combed through the names and photos of his recruit cycles at Parris Island; that’s when he found out Douglas was one of his.
“What threw me off was that he was already a corporal,” Bassfield said. “I wasn’t expecting any of my recruits to be corporals already. If he had been a lance corporal, I think I would have instantly put two and two together. Corporal Douglas is definitely on the fast track.”
Douglas credits his swift advancement to Bassfield’s refusal to designate him as the leader of his recruit platoon.
“My whole goal at Parris Island was to be the guide,” Douglas said, “but Gunny never made me the guide. At the time, I thought it was because he didn’t recognize me as a leader, and I kind of took it personally. Throughout my whole Marine Corps career, my driving force has been to prove him wrong for not making me the guide and to prove to myself that I really am a leader of Marines.”
“I never bore Gunny any ill will about that, though,” Douglas said. “It was more like I just wanted to show him and show myself. Gunny has actually been my inspiration ever since I came in the Corps. I have tried to model myself after the example he set for us in everything I do.”
It’s no surprise that Douglas has been successful, Bassfield said. “I’ve always said good recruits make good Marines. Cpl. Douglas was a good recruit, and now, obviously, he’s turned into a good Marine.
“Actually being in a combat zone with a former recruit is a good feeling,” he added. “It feels like we’ve come full circle.” |
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