Military March

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

Today’s topic is from my husband Andy. Since our main subject topic for March 2012 is Things That Go Marching Andy wanted to relate his experience from his United States Navy Boot Camp days from 1972.

Andy joined the United States Navy on March 6, 1972, and shipped off from Oakland to San Diego, where he was literally locked up on a secure facility called Naval Recruit Depot, San Diego. I say locked up because, although Military installations are designed with fences and barbed wire to keep people out of the facility, the Recruit side (the Boot Camp), had fences and barbed wire designed to keep the Recruits in the facility.

He relates the indignities suffered at the hands of Drill Instructors. They include sleep deprivation, slapping, punching, a kick in the butt, verbal insults, and having to use the restroom in the Barracks while the toilet stalls had no doors for privacy. Andy says the worst indignity he had to endure was being required to march for no reason at all.

Boot Camp serves one primary purpose which is to take men and women, from various walks of life, from different parts of the country, from different ethnic groups, and different economic status, from different education levels, and get them to work as a team. You are not going to get 30 to 50 people to get along and work as a team unless you get them all on common ground first and then build them up from there. Once that is accomplished the Drill Instructor can build them up as a team. When they are brought down to that common level there are no longer rich and poor, old and young, college graduates and high school graduates, everyone is the same at that point.

The perceived marching for no reason really does have a purpose. Although marching periods are sometimes used by Drill Instructors to punish a Boot Camp Company for making mistakes the main purpose is to keep the Recruits working on team building during times when other activities may not be scheduled.

Of course I agree with my husband on one issue he brought up concerning these Boot Camp marches. He still questions, even 40 years after attending Boot Camp, why they placed a backpack on him which weighed 30 to 40 pounds and had him carry a rifle which had the barrel stuffed with lead to make it heavy. The reason is simply to get all the Recruits on the same level and to teach them teamwork and endurance!

So did all this Boot Camp training work on my husband? Of course it did! He is a team player, he has the endurance to get the job done, and he learned to not to give up when the going gets tough.