Day 4, I woke up stiff and sore from relentless PT punishment – endless push-ups and burpees. I was barely out of my rack when the Drill Instructor came in and performed the morning trash-can alarm. Much screaming and yelling to roust the laggards out of their racks. Dress, make our racks, form-up on the platoon street. PT punishment for a half a dozen recruits late to formation. A pattern was emerging. One recruit in the platoon screws up and the whole platoon gets punished. One recruit does not perform up to PT punishment standards, and the whole platoon is doubly punished. I very quickly began to resent the shit-birds.

Marched to chow, extra punishment for the laggards whose trays were still half full of food. Head Detail as the sun was coming up.

Marched to classroom. The entire platoon in one classroom taught by a highly decorated senior NCO. The Drill Instructors did not mess with you in class but they were merciless on those recruits who fell asleep. Then it was instant PT for that recruit.

We so rarely sat quietly that sleepiness was almost overwhelming. The subject of this class was Marine Corps history. Starting with the founding of the Marine Corps November 10, 1775, for the purpose of ship-to-ship fighting.  What followed were highlights of the Marine Corps’s glorious history including some of the iconic battles in the Pacific during World War 2.   have to say, by the end of the lecture, I was pretty pumped up. Flashbacks of black and white John Wayne movies went across my mind’s eye during the lecture. I was reminded why I was so motivated to become a Marine.

Following class, we were marched back to our platoon where we changed into shorts and sweat shirts. Then Sergeant Schmidt ran us over to an area near the obstacle courses. We discovered that we were going to be tested to establish our physical fitness baseline. We would each perform a series of tests one by one. Our performance of each exercise was strictly monitored and counted with the exact results recorded.

I was shocked how poorly I scored when there was no leeway given for sloppy form. Only those reps performed with the high standards of the Marine Corps form were counted. For example, only 12 of my 20-some push-ups counted.  Rigidly straight back. All the way up and all the way down until your chest touched the hand of the recruit counting your reps. Full range of motion. I only scored 6 pull-ups. A surprising number of recruits couldn’t even score one pull-up. There were no gimmes in the Marine Corps. You had to earn every single rep.

The results of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, Burpees, and the 300-yard run was pretty deflating for all but the few recruits who arrived in bootcamp in great shape. Jerry Anderson scored high. As did one recruit who, it turned out, had been a junior national water ski champion.

Following fitness testing, we were marched to our platoon area, changed into our regular utilities, and marched to chow. Following noon chow, we were marched back to our platoon area where we picked up our M14’s. Then Gunnery Sergeant Barker marched the platoon to the Grinder. The Grinder is so huge that there was plenty of room for all the other recruit platoons in their various stages of bootcamp.

We settled into the more precise, the more deliberate style of our Senior Drill Instructor when he was teaching us the exact drill movements with our M14’s both while marching and at attention. Gunnery Sergeant Barker proceeded methodically first demonstrating the move, then walking us through it, then refining and correcting. It was surprising how exhausting it was to concentrate that hard for a couple of hours your own individual movements plus physically harmonizing with 64 other recruits. At first the movements with our M14 felt strange and awkward. By the end of that day’s close order drill session, we only felt a little more comfortable with the marching and rifle drill movements. It was a relief to be marched back to our platoon area where we stowed our M14 rifles.

We were then run over to the obstacle course area. There were 3 different obstacle or “O” courses as they were called. We started with O-course 1. After the tight concentration of close order marching and rifle drills, it felt good to run, climb over things, crawl under things and leap or swing across water obstacles. Despite my stiffness and soreness from hours of demanding physical exercise every day, I discovered I really enjoyed and excelled at the obstacle course. Being 6 feet 2 inches tall with long arms and legs, and reasonably strong, my body was naturally suited for obstacle courses, it turned out. I was one of the fastest recruits through the course. For me, running the obstacle course was actually fun. For me, running any of the 3 O-course was one of the things I most enjoyed in my 13 weeks of bootcamp. The obstacle courses brought out the competitive side of me. I wanted to be the fastest, the best.

With the sun setting in glorious colors over the Pacific Ocean, we were run to evening chow. For me, who has always had a fast metabolism and a huge appetite, cleaning my tray of the massive amount of food was starting to get easier.

Marched back to our platoon area, we changed into shorts, sweat shirts and shower shoes and grabbed our shaving kit. Shave, shower and brush our teeth. Back to our platoon area. Got dressed, grabbed our bucket and our letter writing kit and reported to the classroom. Sergeant Schmidt reviewed our day for us and gave us time to write letters.

Lights out, my rack, though too short for me, felt good. For me, it was the first satisfying day. The O-course made a big difference.

I hope you are making your quality health deposits of your 2 JDD shakes every day: breakfast and post-workout to kick-start your recovery and building a quality body and a robust immune system. Quality deposits are money in the bank. Build a quality net-worth of high-quality protein and high-quality supplements like Super Omega-3 fish oil to prevent inflammation and enrich your brain with DHA.

As always, I wish you and your family the very best of health,
Joe