SAN DIEGO --
Joining the
Marine Corps is a life-changing experience. The transformation is difficult,
and it can become more difficult if one choses to lead while learning.
Lance
Cpl. Grayson S. Osteen, Bravo Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, had a
vision of becoming his company’s honorman and worked relentlessly that vision a
reality.
Osteen
is from Round Rock, Texas, where he lived with his parents, brother and sister
and attended Red Rock High School from 2009 until 2013.
While
in high school, he competed in gymnastics and trained for all six events
including rings, vaults and high bar. By his senior year, Osteen was named the
varsity team captain.
When
deciding what he wanted to do after high school, he looked into the military
but felt as though he wasn’t ready.
“I
knew I wanted to do it,” said Osteen. “I just didn’t feel like mentally and
physically had what it took yet.”
In
2013, following his high school graduation, Osteen worked in the maintenance
and security of an off road trail park and coached gymnastics.
“About
a year after I was working, I felt bored,” said Osteen. “I wanted a challenge,
and I knew I wanted to join the military. I figured that if I were to do it, I
was going to choose the most difficult thing, which was the Marine Corps.”
In
July of 2015, he went to his local Marine Corps recruiting station where he met
with a recruiter and began the enlistment process.
Four
months later, Osteen arrived on the yellow footprints to be a part of Bravo
Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, and found himself doubting if he would
even make it through training.
“Me
and my recruiter would always joke about me being the best at everything and
easily becoming the honorman of my company,” said Osteen. “It was just mentally
tough, and I wasn’t sure what would happen in the next three months. It was
nothing like I thought it would be.”
On
training day five, he was appointed to be a squad leader in his platoon, one of
the leadership position given to selected recruits by their drill instructor.
“I
was a squad leader for about a month and a half,” said Osteen. “ One day, my
drill instructors fired our guide and looked at me and said that I was now the
guide.”
The
guide is the highest leadership position a recruit can achieve while in recruit
training. They are responsible for ensuring their recruits are doing the right
thing and to ensure recruits are completing tasks the drill instructors give
them in a timely manner. Osteen explained that he was nervous at first but knew
it was what he wanted.
“It
was something I had always thought was going to be easy,” said the young
Marine. “Being the guide makes you be watched constantly. Everything boils down
to you. If your platoon messes up or a recruit messes up, it’s your fault, but
that’s what builds you as a leader.”
Toward
the end of training, all of the guides from the company compete for company
honorman, which is the best-performing guide out of the six platoons. The
competition consists of reviews and comparisons of scores throughout training,
as well as a panel to test each recruit’s confidence and Marine Corps
knowledge.
“I
wasn’t the best at everything,” said Osteen. “I worked on my confidence a lot
and I spent hour and hours studying while the rest of the platoon had their
square-away time. I showed them that I was a good leader, and I bettered my
platoon.”
Osteen
won the competition and is graduating as Bravo Company’s honorman.
Following
recruit training, Osteen will report to the School of Infantry at Marine Corps
Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., and then to his military occupational specialty
school to become an aviation electronics technician. He plans on staying in the
Corps as long as possible.
“The
biggest thing I’ve learned throughout recruit training is that even though I’m
not the best at everything, I think I have tried the hardest,” said Osteen.
“Anything is possible if you work hard and be the best you can be.”