Daria Doering

Daria Doering

Education 252

October 24, 2000

Review / Summary: MAKING THE CORPS by Thomas Ricks

 

Reading this book was a great eye-opener to me, describing as it did a vast side of life that I know nothing about.  I bought the book after reading a review of it a couple of years ago, and being intrigued by the description of how the Marines totally transform failing young men and instills strong values in them.

Up until now, all I’d known about the armed forces was from my father, who was proud to be an Air Force veteran, but at the same time sort of sneered at it.  He talked many times about how he’d cheated death … how the infantry unit with which he went to boot camp was almost completely wiped out at Normandy Beach, and how glad he was that he’d transferred to the Air Force.  Also about a couple of occasions in which he almost died, and about how after surviving 23 bombing missions, he was ready to do anything to get out, when VE-day came.   My parents were definitely not pacifists, yet I never heard my father say a fond word about his military experience.

In contrast, this book was about how the recruits’ lives were transformed by boot camp, and how, as one general said, “I was born there.”  The experience instilled physical conditioning, manners, values and self-discipline.  It inducted them into a huge fraternity of Marines and former Marines who all still seemed to worship the service.

 

Background, training:

• The Marines deal very well with the bottom half of society.  “The Marines … play the role in the American working class that the Ivy League colleges have played for the upper middle class.”   Recruits generally don’t have college degrees; are ¾ white, and ¼ black or Hispanic.  They do have to have high school degrees, but almost half enter the marines under a waiver for having a history of crime, drug use, medical problems or psychological problems.  Most of them are essentially losers.

… They have been living part-time lives – working part time, going to community college part time (and getting failing grades), staying dazed on drugs and alcohol part time.  They are, with a few exceptions, denizens of the bottom half of American economy, or on the way there – poor kids with lousy educations, and a few wealthier ones sliding off the professional tracks their parents had taken.  (p. 30)

• Many of the recruits come from broken homes, with abusive fathers or no fathers.  The drill instructors (DI’s), who yell at recruits about every tiny aspect of their life and bearing during every waking hour during boot camp, become father figures for them.  The DI’s are like idealized versions of Marines, and come to assume Godlike status in recruits’ eyes.  The Marines come to represent a functional family to recruits.
• The Marines are a “ruthless meritocracy,” and for many recruits is the first time in their lives that they’ve been held accountable for anything.

Parris Island is the first place many of them ever encounter absolute and impersonal standards of right and wrong, of success and failure … “When they mess up at home, they don’t get punished, they get ‘explained.’  The parents, the media, want to ‘explain’ everything.  Here, you screw up, we stop you and penalize you immediately, before you forget it” … “A lot of them, if they came from a single-parent household, and their mother’s working, they’ve pretty much had free rein.”  (p. 51)

• The aim of Marine boot camp is not training, as it is for the army, but on behavior and language, on instilling values. Recruits have their old identities stripped away, in a very deliberate way, and are given a new identity as Marines.  It is essentially brainwashing.  Recruits are disoriented, never told what will happen next, and worked to the bone at least 15 hours a day.

Core values and behaviors:

• Unselfishness.  The main value they try to instill is that of caring for the group.  Recruits are not allowed to say “I” or “me,” ever.  They have to refer to themselves as “this recruit.”  Many of the exercises they go through are designed to force them to rely upon each other; to experience the fact that they can’t survive without helping each other.
• Anonymity.  This is the goal, and is seen as a great good.  Marines in the mid-range of their class who do so well that they never attract negative attention are highly esteemed.  The group comes before the self.
• “Honor.  Courage.  Commitment.  Kill, kill.  Marine Corps!”  Recruits chant this every time they sit down for a class or mail call.  Courage, honor and commitment come before the self.
• “D.I.S.C.I.P.L.I.N.E.  Discipline, Sir.  Discipline is the instant willing obedience to all orders, respect for authority, self-reliance, and teamwork, sir.  Stop, sir.”  They chant this before every meal, and when slacking.
• Everything must be done quickly and loudly.  The words for quick are “snap and pop.”  Recruits are never moving fast enough.
• Manners are emphasized, and prescribed in detail.  For example, recruits must say, “By your leave, Sir” when walking behind an officer, and shout, “Good Afternoon, Sir” when passing civilians.
• Testing oneself.  “You’ve got to test yourself every day.  If you don’t test yourself, that day is wasted.”  (DI slogan).
• Excellence.  Marines are constantly urged to make a habit of excellence.  They are also known as the best among the armed services.
• Pain and sacrifice are good; pleasure is suspect.  “Pain is good; extreme pain is extremely good.”  (sign in latrine)  “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”  (slogan of DI).
• No excuses.  The only acceptable answer when questioned or corrected is, “No excuses, sir.”
• Brotherhood and trust.  Marines refer to themselves constantly as “a band of brothers,” and that seems to be the greatest draw for many of them.  They come to trust each other, an element usually missing from their former lives, because they are held accountable.
• Marines are taught both to be compassionate and to be killers.  “We want a warrior who thinks, like those down in Somalia that held babies one day and had to kill the next day, and knew the difference between the two.”  (p. 103)
• “Good violence” is high praise.  There’s an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, and training with pugil sticks, which represent bayonets.  They put a lot of stock on recruits’ “fighting spirit,” and this counts a great deal toward who will be made squad leaders.  DI’s complain that many of this generation of boys have never hit anyone or been hit; the only fighting they’ve done is with Nintendo.  (Attittudes in a bit of a contrast with our p.c. pacifist society?)
• Unfairness.  The group in punished for the misdeeds of individual members, as representative of what often happens in war.  It also propels the group to pressure individuals to succeed.
• All of this is in direct contrast to our self-gratification, “me first,” “what’s in it for me?” society.  Recruits develop a disdain for civilian life, which they refer to with words such as “nasty,” “undisciplined,” and “selfish.”  After boot camp, on leave, they can’t stand to hang out with many of their loser friends any more, and generally manage to forego drugs.
• There was a reference to the “classic military values” of unity, self-discipline, sacrifice, and placing the interests of the group over those of the individual.
• Every platoon has three DI’s; one is in the “heavy hat” role, another in a more fatherly role.
• Written notes are kept on recruits’ performance, daily.

 

Culture of Marines

• The Marines are different from the other branches of the armed services.  They are smaller, more selective, and pride themselves on being the best.  They are more open with reporters and civilians, due to an emphasis on public relations, due to the many attempts to phase them out of existence.
• The Marines have dealt successfully with abuse of recruits, racism and drugs.  Recruits are told that if they feel they are being abused, they are required to report it to certain officers.  Officers are reminded continually about former abuses of recruits, how it damaged the Marines, and the need for this to not happen.
• The Marines are constantly remaking themselves, in their effort to survive.  They are more openly self-critical than the other branches of the services.

They had an extreme low point in the ‘70’s, after the Vietnam War.  They initiated changes including a) changing regulations to make it easier to discharge troublesome Marines and discharging 4,000 “losers,” b) recruiting only those with high school degrees, c) boot camp became less initiation and more training, and d) additional levels of supervision at boot camp were put into place to prevent abuses.

In the ’80’s, General Al Gray took over.  He made it his mission to reinvigorate the “warrior culture” in the marines, and he is still revered.  He instituted the “Every Marine a rifleman” policy, and every recruit now receives 160 hours of “Basic Warrior Training” which includes hand-to-hand combat training, shooting, and training in every weapon used by the infantry, including machine guns and grenade launchers.

In the ‘90’s, training has been changed again in response to the perception that society has crumbled so completely that the Marines have to work even harder to instill values in recruits.  The result of much brainstorming was “the crucible,” a multi-day training event designed to be so tough that recruits cannot get through it without working together and thinking.

• Frugality – Marines use only 6% of the Dept. of Defense budget, have spartan facilities, and pride themselves on their frugality.
• Unchangingness  The Marines seem like an oddity among American culture, yet they argue that it is the culture that has changed, not the Marines.  They are known for their unchangingness.  They emphasize formal manners more than the other branches of the armed forces, yet they argue that they have simply preserved civilities abandoned by the rest of society, such as being polite and respecting one’s elders.
• Obsession with detail …
• Love of confrontation … DI’s always seem angry, never remotely pleased …
• Responsibility among lowest members.  Marines are less stratified than other branches of the armed services, and work to instill responsibility, pride and good judgment in the lowest ranks.

 

Marines and society:

This book has extensive and fascinating analyses of the relationship between the military and the rest of society. The author, who is the son of a professor and I’m sure an “intellectual elite” himself (whom he criticizes at length), presents an admirably well-rounded view of the relationship between the military and society.

Among the points made:

• Americans have always distrusted a professional military …
• Intellectuals and upper classes tend to be against the military.
• Throughout most of history, the military has been like a cross-section of the society it defends, since there has been a draft.  Now that the army has been all-volunteer for over 20 years, the vast majority of enlistees are “from the bottom half of society.”  The author thinks this is a dangerous trend, and that the draft in some form should be reinstated; possibly the German model, in which young men perform 18 months of military service or two years of alternative service.
• 30 years ago, 2/3 of the members of congress had military experience.  Today, 2/3 do not.

 

I ended up thinking:

1)    I wish we could send our sons to military school, which I would if a) there were one around and b) I didn’t feel that I would be responsible for instilling a love for the military in them (which they seem to have been born with – they are boys) that might ultimately get them killed, and didn’t have an almost morbid fear of them being killed in a war.

2)    I had never thought about what a class issue the military is.  I don’t know a single person who went to Vietnam, except through my husband, who is nine years older than me and from a working class background.  I started thinking about the role of obedience … how essentially lower class kids are sent into the military to learn to be obedient and build their character in that manner, but the parents of more affluent kids have an aversion to the military.  When you look into programs for “wayward teens,” they mostly seem to be of the “Outward Bound,” survival type these days.  They are dealing with survival issues, but it’s pitting oneself against the elements and one’s own fear; not an enemy.  I also started thinking about the Catholic Church, and its emphasis on obedience, and its tending to be an institution for the lower classes.

So more successful people don’t necessarily want their kids to be obedient, and don’t want them getting killed.  However, I personally feel that there is little that is more offensive than disobedient, disrespectful children.  (Not that my own aren’t this way, though they’re better than they were.)

3)    I’ll notice world conflicts more.  This book kept referring to the history of the Marines, and Somalia, Haiti, the Gulf War and so on.  It’s embarrassing that although I was an adult and read the paper during those periods, those events made no impression on me.  I can’t remember what decade they were in or what happened.  Now I’m sure I’ll notice anything that involves Marines.

4)    My own experience at the psychological-spiritual community I lived at for ten years actually reminds me a lot of boot camp – the lack of control over one’ life, manual labor, brainwashing, group living, etc.  It had a huge effect one me in many ways, that will never go away.  The idealism, assistance and commitment of that group (especially my mother, who ran it) is the energy that everything I do springs from.  And the “monastic habits” will never leave me, at least some of them.  I also tend to refer to my childrearing methods these days as “boot camp parenting.”

5)    That the male bonding experience of war is not simply about fear of getting killed (which is all I heard about from my father), but about discipline and other virtues gained.

6)    I re-analyzed my father, and got more insight into what makes him tick, or not tick.

7)    This book made me think about the changes in American society.  When I was quite young, my favorite TV show was called “McKeever and the Colonel.”  I barely remember it, except that I thought the little boy star was cute, but it must have been about military school.  While I was growing up, military school was considered an option for misbehaving kids.  Nowadays, snobs and the politically correct have railed so hard and long against the military that military schools are looked down upon by most of society, and some colleges have stopped ROTC programs because of the gays in the military issue.

8)    Unfairness.  I noticed that the two men who seemed to be particularly and unfairly punished by the DI’s (and accepted it with a good attitude) somehow came out ahead at the end.  One graduated as a private first class, with only four out of 63 gaining that distinction.  The other received a very cushie assignment, guarding a U.S. military installation in London, surrounded by pubs and girlfriends, and was euphoric.  The book noted that he “learned at Parris Island that he is a man who must try harder than other men – and he does.”

9)    It’s interesting that the one sacrifice society seems able to deal with is the ultimate sacrifice of being killed in war.  Or maybe not even that any more …

10) The Marines literally pushes people beyond where they thought they could go, which helps them immensely.  “We will give every effort to train you, even after some of you have given up on yourselves.”

11) The book noted that the further away from their hometowns the Marines were stationed, the more content they seemed to be.  How can all of this be applied to kids who are not removed from their environment at all?

 

Aspects of Marine boot camp that could be adapted to homes & schools:

• “No excuses, Ma’am / Sir”
• Punishment exercises
• Inspection of person, room, etc.
• Group is punished for misdeeds of one
• Study in every spare moment
• Emphasis on history
• Drill
• Confrontation
• Manners – holding door for ladies, “Good morning, Sir”
• Quick & loud – snap & pop
• Removal of “I,” emphasis on helping group
• Stress on health & physical fitness