How I Ended Up in the Marine Corps
Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to join the military. I’d play war with my friends, and as we got a little older into our childhood, the way we played war changed. We went from pointing plastic guns and arguing over who got who first and shooting each other with water guns to pretty much playing guerilla warfare.
We would buy illegal fireworks and use them in battles against kids from other streets. Sometimes they’d chase us while trying to launch bottle rockets from their bikes at us (which worked great until one of the kids from another neighborhood blew up his front tire and rim when a bottle rocket, he was trying to fire at me fell after he lit it and had it get caught in his wire spokes). Eventually we won the war when one group of kids saw we were stacked with Roman Candles, and they backed down. Other fun activities that honed our unconventional warfare skills were going to our friend’s house that lived on the corner and making mudballs to throw at passing cars. Hit and run tactics were learned and used when we made the mistake of throwing and hitting a passing LASD cruiser, and the deputies took note stopped and backed up to see if they could see where the mudball came from. We all laid as flat and low as possible without moving while they scanned the area and drove off after failing to find us.
As I reached Junior High and High School more of my cohorts and coconspirators moved away until I was the last one around. I filled the void and lack of kids around my age with books and action movies that made me want to serve in the military even more than I did as a kid. I read a lot of books on military history, biographies, and novels. The 80’s were the peak action movie era with many being pro military and anti-Soviet themed.
The summer before I started high school, my parents decided to take my sister and me on our final end of summer vacation trip to San Diego. At the end of July of 1991. On the way down my dad made a wrong turn on interstate 5 and ended up driving to the entry gate that every Marine Recruit sees before they set foot on the “Yellow Footprints”. He joked about leaving me behind and we went back onto the freeway and made it to our hotel. I was glued to the news because it was right around that time that Iraq invaded Kuwait and I had a feeling that this time it was going to be “different” from other military actions like Grenada, the bombing of Libya in 86, and Panama in 89.
As I started high school, I had to consider the future. My plan was to join the military and serve and either make it a career or go to school. I figured 13 years of school was enough for anyone to want to try something new and gain some experience.
My Junior year, I was invited to attend a program in Washington DC to introduce top students to careers in the military and defense. I met a soldier named Colonel Orr who we were told was a gave us a variety of topics including a non-sequitur : “Why on earth did God create Brussel sprouts”, which I impressed him after our discussions by comparing it to weapons proliferation that at first moms only threatened kids with Brussel sprouts but eventually one did serve them up and after that they became common. He wanted to discuss the subject further, but we had to move on to a static display set up by the 20th Special Forces Group from Maryland. I took some pictures with a few different weapons made friends with a few Green Berets and made everyone on the bus wait and impressed them that a kid from Southern California could take the cold as it was beginning to snow.
My senior year began in the Fall of 1993 and by that time I had already enlisted in the Navy as an Intelligence Specialist, and the condition of my enlistment was that I had to apply to a college. I had no desire to pursue college, but my mom made it a condition of me being able to enlist. My mom also conspired to sign me up for the SAT without telling me. One Saturday after going to sleep around 4AM, I was woken up at 7AM by her and told I needed to get dressed to go take my SATs. I told her I didn’t sign up for them but then she confessed to signing me up. I took the test without much preparation or rest and still received a score of 1590 which was when the SAT maxed at 1600. I had already taken the ASVAB in high school and scored in the 89th percentile which made it possible for me to choose nearly any job in the Navy.
The only school I applied for was the US Naval Academy, figuring I wouldn’t get in. I initially began applying for West Point but didn’t have much interest in the Army since I already spent most of my time in school in water. The other schools that kept sending me applications and information on their schools where Tennessee (Rocky Top!), and Northwestern. After filling out the application including taking a picture in a suit and tie (which was posted on the last post Nobody To Blame But Me). I then had to apply for a nomination to my Congressman Esteban Torres, and if I made it through the initial screening pass a physical, and an interview with a Naval Officer.
I made the initial selection and received my physical at March Air Force Base and passed everything except for the vision which only meant I wasn’t going to be a pilot. I also met with a panel at the local office of my congressman, and successfully received his nomination for the Naval Academy. I was informed shortly afterward that I was accepted to the Naval Academy Preparatory School.
Going to the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS) was probably the worst decision I ever allowed myself to be talked into. It wasn’t what I wanted but my mom, my recruiter and others all thought they knew better than I did because silver or gold on your collar is better than being enlisted. I lasted until the very end of the year where I was told I was disqualified from moving forward to the Academy. A blessing and a curse in the years that followed, but I returned to California on 05MAY1995 which was around the time I flew from Boston to NYC and the pilot decided to do a figure 8 around the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty.
I spent the next year after my return working at a local supermarket where most of the time I was called in on my day off or asked to work late because someone didn’t show, and generally saving the manager’s ass when he made a mistake including one day working a full half day of around 12 hours when everyone called out on a Sunday. One day at work despite having been there a year I went up to the manager’s office and heard him on a phone call discussing promotions and overheard him say to someone that to prevent a potential lawsuit over sex discrimination, they weren’t going to promote any guys for a while despite me having been passed over many times by other less reliable workers because the manager knew he could count on me when things went bad, which meant he was going to keep me as a clerk as long as possible.
My sister and then future brother in law decided to take me to go talk to a recruiter. At first I tried talking to a Navy Recruiter and he seemed unwilling to offer many anything claiming that the only way I could go reserves was to be prior service, he just seemed like an asshole who had a condescending attitude unlike the Senior Chief who was my recruiter and nurtured me and my friends’ bad ideas and attitudes into something constructive as he was a Machinist Mate and would flesh out bad ideas we had, but in the end he recruited around 20 some of us that year to join the Navy.
Next, we went over to see the Marine recruiter. He was an ass; he gave the same spiel about if I could make it and so on. He tried keeping it professional since my sister who just left the Marine Corps, and my future brother in law was an officer so he had to keep it honest. I took the initial screening, provided all my information, and then was scheduled to take the ASVAB. The night before the ASVAB, I worked an 18 hour day. 6 hours from 6PM to midnight (my normal schedule), and another 12 or so hours with the night crew since one of their members was out. I slept about 90 minutes, didn’t eat, and was picked up by a recruiter’s assistant who asked me not to snitch on him when he decided to smoke on the way to MEPS (Military Entry Processing Station) LA for the test. This time the test was electronic. I took the test and waited and waited for the results the Recruiter’s Assistant came in to get me after receiving my scores. Exhausted, and hungry I heard him exclaim “Holy shit!” which led me to ask, “Was it that bad?” He then answered “No, I just have never seen scores this high.” I scored in the 97th percentile and had every job open to me in the Marine Corps.
After going through the options, we went by what jobs had the highest enlistment bonuses, aviation had a $1,000 enlistment bonus, and Data Communications/Electronics Repair had a $3,000 bonus with a 5 year enlistment. I took the 5 year deal which surprised my family since they expected me to go as a reservist.
Of course, my recruiter screwed things up repeatedly by scheduling appointments with my mom and not showing up then claiming Marines don’t apologize. Originally, I was going to leave for recruit training in March of 1997 but on 03DEC1996, my recruiter calls me up and asks if I can leave to recruit training on Thursday 05DEC1996. I agree and let my employer know that I was going to be leaving sooner than expected. My boss tried not to pay my final paycheck but withheld my Christmas bonus because I was not there even though my assistant manager stood up for me in my absence by reminding him of how many times, I had saved his ass in the past.
I went to bootcamp, and when I arrived there were only 3 other recruits that arrived that night, originally, they asked for more recruits because they thought the recruit company was too small. Upon arrive they decided we wouldn’t have time to process in on time and we would join the next company on Monday. The 3 other recruits and I spent the weekend with the MRP (Medical Recovery Platoon where recruits injured in training go to rehab before continuing training). We were told not to interact with any of the other recruits, and not to make fun of anyone as they were trying to recover from injuries and in a lower physical fitness level. Of course, we made friends with a few of the guys including a few that would join us in our platoon the following week.
We graduated on 07MAR1997, and we lived up to the old joke USMC means yoU Suckers Missed Christmas. Then we reported to the School of Infantry on 18MAR1997, graduated on 04APR1997 and went to our different schools. I went to the Marine Corps Communications and Electronics School in 29 Palms and was assigned to A Company for the maintenance school. At the school I was informed that I was not going to receive my bonus after all as my recruiter failed to fill out the proper paperwork for my enlistment which he denied screwing up a year later in Kuwait where I had some measure of revenge upon discovering that when he left recruiting he was sent to 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance and on my trip to Kuwait, he was stuck in the back of an LAV-25 and conducting mock raids and assaults in the back of a tightly packed unventilated vehicle where the inside temp felt like it was over 150 degrees. So even though my feet were cooking in my boots he still had it worse than I did. I guess that was sort of worth $3000 dollars.
I took the long way to becoming a Marine, a most of the time it wasn’t fun being stuck at 29 Palms or on a ship. The thing that made it bearable were the guys that were there with me. These were guys that I spent more time with than I did my own family. We got on each other’s nerves, fought, laughed suffered together. You ask nearly every Marine veteran, and we’ll all say nearly the same thing, “We don’t miss the Marine Corps, we miss the Marines we served with.” You’ll always remember unforgettable moments of frustration, terror, humor from the most unbelievable and awkward situations.
With this being the 247th birthday of the Marine Corps here’s my toast to every single Marine:
“From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli and all points in between we’ve kicked ass so raise your glass, and thank God for having the good sense to become a United States Marine! Happy Birthday Marines.”
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