T-9 (July 23)

T-9 (July 23)

I received a letter from Jeremiah today.  He has been made a prayer leader in his platoon!  How exciting for him.  He's following in his father's footsteps since Joe was the "religious petty officer" in Navy boot camp many years ago.  Jeremiah says he wants to do his best for his company and his platoon.  He says his time at boot camp is changing him, and he's louder and tougher and his memory is better.  Jeremiah says he misses his family and that the family is his motivation to do his best so he can return to us as soon as possible. My favorite parts of the letter, though, are the beginning and ending.  The beginning because he starts off by telling us he's a prayer leader.  The end because he quotes a scripture: Neverthelss, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things. - Jacob 4:7  He's turning to the Lord during his trials at boot camp.  His father and I are so very pleased.

He definitely is having struggles.  The letter shows that he really misses being home, but he chose to be a warrior so is doing his best.  What a neat young man!  I can't wait to see him in his Marine uniform!

Jeremiah's well on his way.  Only about 70 days to graduation.  But today he had to get through the obstacle course and probably IT otherwise known as InCENTIVE Training of inTENSIVE training according to Lisa Tingle who is part of a support group for parents of recruits that is on Facebook.  She quotes somebody named LazyK-Chen, "Either way it is not something a recruit looks forward to, but no recruit can become a Marine without some IT.  The DIs at MCRD use IT, extreme exercise to get recruits to understand that every command has to be answered without fail, without question.  Out in the field of battle a Marine will need to be able to follow every order in the same regard."

IT is performed with two DIs present.  A recruit or recruits will be taken out to the sand pit where they receive directions by the DIs to perform a series of exercises (push up, drops, pull ups, etc.) in quick succession.  An IT can be given to an individual recruit or to a platoon for failure to follow a DI's directive, for performing poorly during drill, etc.  Since some recruits are writing home saying life sucks, others blaming other recruits in their platoon for punishments the whole platoon is getting, and some wanting to go home, I suspect this type of training has been happening for a while now.

A while back, a Marine mentioned to the support group that there was an ice cream machine in the chow hall, but heaven help any recruit that tried to get some.  Apparently it's a test and the recruits are to bypass the ice cream until the DIs tell them they can have some and not before.  Supposedly platoons are never 'given' ice cream.  I guess if they get it, it's EARNED.

These exercises are definitely given to train recruits to follow each and every order without fail.  Makes sense because Marines depend on each other and another Marine's life could depend on another following an order.  It must be successful since the Marines are some of the best trained warriors in the world.  It's a comfort to know, though, that the DIs take an oath to keep the recruits safe.  I'm sure all the recruits are pushed to their limits, and sometimes what feels like beyond their limits, but they'll probably all feel it's worth it when they complete "The Crucible" in week 11 and EARN the title MARINE.