I was sworn in to the Armed Services on March 1st, 1974. I spent the next 3 months in Parris Island, South Carolina. After our group finished the swearing-in ceremony, we were put on a bus to the airport, and people were talking about which service they joined. When it was my turn, I said, “The Marine Corps,” and they all fell silent. Someone said, “Are you crazy?” I really had no clue what I was in for.
At the airport, I had to take a connecting flight to South Carolina, then a long bus to Parris Island, so we got in very late at night. The drill instructor walks onto the bus, and I can feel the tension in the air. We don’t know exactly what’s coming, but we know it’s not going to be good. Initially, he politely talks to the bus driver, and you have a little hope that it’s not going to be so bad, but then he turns to us, and all hell breaks loose. It’s too difficult to describe the insanity in words, so I included a clip from Full Metal Jacket below, which is one of the most realistic depictions of what boot camp was like in the 70’s. Amidst all the screaming and yelling, we were instructed to get off the bus and onto the yellow footprints outside. Everything was a blur, but I do remember my knees were knocking as I looked down on the yellow footprints. We probably didn’t get to bed until 2 am, and we woke up to a garbage can flying down the squad bay at 5 am. Breakfast had scrambled eggs with eggshells, and I began to wonder how I would survive.
However, like many things, the mind and body find a way to adjust. We received shots in our rear end from a needle so large it looked like it was from a cartoon. Recruits were fainting all over the room from the shot. Soon after that, all the overweight recruits disappeared. I found out later that they went to the fat body platoon, where you are on an extreme diet and intense exercise for 2 weeks. When a guy I met the first few days saw me, he said, “Hey Rosini.” I had no idea who he was. He lost so much weight in 2 weeks that he was unrecognizable.
The verbal abuse hurled at recruits was as harsh as the physical training: “Recruit, why did your parents let you live? Why didn’t they kill you when you were born?” “This recruit got a 50 on his GT score; a carrot has more brains than him.”
I learned several things in boot camp. One is that, when things look bleak, there is always a chance of success. The other is that you can handle much more stress than you think. There were many moments when I did not think I was going to make it through, but I did, and it taught me an important lesson to see things through in life despite the difficulty. Not everything will succeed, but some things might, and you’ll never know unless you try. This leads to the next important lesson. When you do fail, move on to the next challenge. Don’t let failure define you, but use it as a teaching moment. Fortune favors the bold.
The day I graduated and could do something on my own, I walked into the PX, and a woman behind the counter said, “Can I help you?” At first, I thought she was talking to someone else, but there was no one behind me. It took some time to realize I was out of boot camp and back to humanity.
Full Metal Jacket:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-GT_0eWP0
