Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego -- Small unit leadership is one of the main principles in the Marine Corps. Great emphasis is put on leadership during recruit training for recruits to learn and execute on their own, however, it is not an attribute that can easily be taught in the classroom. Recruits will develop it in the toughest of conditions to continue the leadership reputation Marines carry.
Recruits of Company F, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, came together and conquered log drills aboard the depot, Nov. 26.
The purpose of log drills was to put recruits in a physically straining environment while having to utilize teamwork to accomplish the event.
“This event is good for physical training, but the main aspect is that log drills instill the concept of a team, to move as one unit as they carry the heavy log,” said Sgt. Aubrey B. Childree, drill instructor, Platoon 2131. “This is the early stages of teaching teamwork so this event will help them learn to not focus on themselves.”
During the log drill event, groups of eight recruits each carried one heavy log around a half-mile dirt track. Recruits stopped at every corner of the track to execute various exercises including log squats, curls, side benders, and lifts.
Recruits started the event by forming a school circle around one of the log pickup/drop-off stations to be taught the proper ways to execute all areas of the event including the carries and exercises. Afterward, recruits were lined up from tallest to shortest in order to ensure that no one recruit carried more or less weight since the log rested on their shoulders the majority of the event.
Recruits then picked up the log and stood by for the whistle to blow, signaling all the groups around the track to begin their trek to their first exercise station. In order to successfully transport the log, recruits needed to utilize coordinated cadence, “left, right, left, right,” to keep their feet synchronized and not step on one another. This would ensure the smoothest way to get the log from station to station. However, it was up to one recruit to stand out and become the leader for that group. As it turned out, it wasn’t as easy of a task for the recruits.
“They had a hard time figuring out to let just one recruit lead them,” said Aubrey, an Ozark, Ala. native. “As the event went on they got tired and started arguing with each other more.”
The sheer weight of the log posed great challenges for the recruits. They had to figure out how to push through and not fail their group.
“The log got heavy after a while,” said Recruit Matthew J. Oliver. “We all had to have great discipline to stay in the proper position and carry our own weight.”
During recruit training, recruit are taught the significance and importance of teamwork. Team focused events like the log drills, helped instill the urgency of good teamwork and how important it is.
“Everything in the Marine Corps is a team, even individual jobs,” said Oliver, a Littleton, Colo. native. “Those individual jobs are worked on within a unit for mission accomplishment. When one slips others have to pick it up.”
Setting the logs back down at their station, recruits of Co. F struggled, but made it through the event as one unit. They would come away from the event with a new understanding of the importance of teamwork and small unit leadership.
“You learn to work together, put pride aside, and let one person lead,” said Childree. “Out in combat your team will need to push through extreme fatigue and rise above that mental challenge to stay as one. It could be the difference between life and death.”