MCRD San Diego -- Almost every Monday and Tuesday night, receiving drill instructors welcome new recruits with a culture shock.
The evening of June 11 was no exception as the new platoons of Company E were bused aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
“Get on my yellow footprints, move faster,” drill instructors scream.
Only a few hours prior to stepping off the bus that shipped them from San Diego International Airport, the recruits were playing games, laughing and eating food. Unaware of how much their lives were about to change.
“Their faces are scared and nervous,” said Staff Sgt. Justin Hansen, chief drill instructor, Receiving Company, Support Battalion. “They shake a lot of the time. Their recruiters can brief them all they want but they don’t (understand) until they’re in the environment, coming off the bus.”
After the receiving drill instructors meet the new recruits on the bus, they teach them how to stand at attention on the yellow footprints. They also explain how they will address any Marine, Sailor or civilian they encounter while aboard the depot, sir and ma’am.
“The new recruits look around, touch their face and do everything we tell them not to do,” said Hansen. “It really makes you angry but we tell ourselves they’re still civilians. They’re fresh off the streets.”
After the yellow footprints recruits are read the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Informing each recruit about the legal aspects they must adhere to by signing their name upon the dotted line to enlist in the Marine Corps.
They quickly start learning the meaning of intensity as they’re yelled at to run into the contraband room. There, they are explained what they are allowed to keep on themselves, which isn’t much more than the clothes on their back. Marine recruits do not have the luxury of cell phones. Any communication they desire to have with the outside world is done through writing letters. This way they can focus on what they came to recruit training to accomplish, becoming a Marine.
Recruits take their “war bags,” filled with basic items they will need while aboard the depot, to the telephones to place their last call home. This ensures their loved ones that they have arrived to recruit training safely. The receiving drill instructors yell at the recruits to hurry up while they are on phones and make sure they only recite the script they are given to say to their families.
Finally each recruit is stripped of their individuality by sitting in the barbershop chair and having their hair shaved off completely. After all of this is completed, the receiving drill instructors can finish out their main goal the next couple days. This is to make sure all of their paperwork from dental to waivers is taken care of before training really starts.
“Our mission is to receive and process the recruits, so by the time Friday’s pick-up comes all of the paperwork is done, and their drill instructors can focus on training them,” said Sgt. Cory Marcus, senior drill instructor, Receiving Company, Support Battalion.
Receiving drill instructors only have recruits for a few days but they are the first out of many stepping-stones recruits must get through to earn the title Marine. These drill instructors work all night until early hours of the morning. Ensuring each recruit is able and ready to train come Friday afternoon, when the recruits are divided into platoons to meet their intense drill instructors that will haunt them for the following 12-weeks of recruit training.