Black Friday. These two words make most women very happy every fall. The great sales that are run in conjunction with this particular day, which falls after Thanksgiving, have mobs of shoppers out and about as early as 12:01 a.m. in order to compete with other shoppers for the items that they desire. Now, if you mention these two words to a person serving or who has once served in the Marines they will most likely cringe. Black Friday is the term used to describe training day number 1 in Marine Corps recruit training. This is truly a dark day for every recruit on the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot. Before I explain this day I must back up and explain the first week of recruit training. I will explain it from my perspective specifically as I assume everyone’s is fairly similar. A group of kids, myself included, were driven by buses from all over Indiana to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) in Indianapolis where we were all processed for our trip to the recruit training depot in San Diego, California. This process was mainly just obtaining the paperwork for the trip. We received our flight itineraries, boarding passes, tickets and food vouchers that we were given so that we could buy one final meal at the airport in San Diego before being picked up and taken to the depot. Upon landing we were all very excited about finally arriving and were getting extremely excited about how the next few months were going to turn out. We ended up eating and then were waiting in the USO lobby meeting the people that we would be living with for the next 3 months. It seemed like just as soon as we began to relax these individuals that seemed 10 feet tall at the time walked in and began very kindly explaining just how everything needed to be done in order to get onto the buses and to the depot. So we all casually loaded what few things we were actually allowed to bring with us and then boarded the buses. Now this is where our lives were turned upside down. A drill instructor boarded each bus and as soon as the door shut behind them they began yelling things that I do not even feel comfortable typing with my three year old in the room even though he can’t read. We were ordered to put our heads between our knees and we were literally piled on top of one another. They drove us around like this for around 3 and a half hours, and we only knew this because they had not yet ripped our watches off and thrown them away which would happen soon enough. If you have even been to San Diego you know that the airport is no further than 5 minutes from the depot so the mental sodomy had already begun without us knowing it. Upon our arrival at the depot it was now sometime around 8 p.m. and we were again instructed to stand on the famous “Yellow Footprints.” While standing there some highly decorated Marine came out and actually did give us a kind and motivating speech in regards to how our lives were getting ready to change and that we had definitely made the right decision regardless of what we may think in the next few months. As soon as he left it was once again on like Donkey Kong. They took us into a room and forced us to put everything that we had brought except for our clothes into a little box which they for some reason angrily rifled through while throwing items of ours into the trash at random. Next we were given the most dangerous haircuts of our lives. Three Italian mobsters cut the heads of over 150 frightened young men in what seemed like 5 minutes. Some of the guys’ heads were literally bleeding and we were all worried about what would be next. After this we filled out paperwork, received shots, and were given the items necessary for our survival of the next week. We were not allowed to sleep for the first seventy-two hours and were nearly murdered when we dozed off while waiting for the next life-threatening situation. After this we were dumped off on the person that we thought was our drill instructor. We were surprised at how nice he was compared to the individuals that had been screaming at us ever since we had boarded the buses. Over the course of the first week he made sure that we obtained all of the items necessary for survival of the next three months. We also took drug tests and weeded individuals out for a variety of different reasons.
This is where the term Black Friday was first mentioned. Our current drill instructor informed us, on our first Friday morning at the depot, that he would be taking us to our actual drill instructors right after breakfast. He took us into a squadbay, which is where we would live for the duration of recruit training, and lined us all up and had us sit on the floor to wait for our drill instructors to come out and receive us. He snuck out the back door and then the door to the duty hut opened and three of the scariest men that I have ever seen walked out and stood directly in front of us at the position of attention. They stood like this without speaking for a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity. Finally, our senior drill instructor Staff Sergeant Jesse Everson introduced himself and his two possibly rapid subordinates Staff Sergeants Chris Hambaugh and Grant Settle. After the introduction our senior drill instructor went home and as soon as he was gone I think I blacked out for the next three days. They literally flew around the squadbay while showing us where to put everything through the very skillful usage of the f-word and nothing else. Somehow while only using the f-word, I may be slightly exaggerating but only slightly, they got all of us situated in our bunks and had all of our possessions placed into our foot lockers which is where we kept everything. Then they made us pick them up, turn them upside down, dump everything on the floor and then run around the squadbay while spraying our “filthy nasty bodies with liquid soap and some awful cologne. Then we cleaned everything up, did it again and then cleaned it up over and over again for the next few days. 15 minutes into Black Friday we had completely lost track of time and were occasionally given literally 20 seconds to eat when they would take us to the chowhall. We could eat as long as we wanted, within reason, until someone in our squad would look up at the drill instructors. Now we were all aware of this rule but completely unable to follow it. I am not sure what time we were actually allowed to go to sleep on Black Friday but I do remember about five minutes after getting into our racks Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Settle began whispering things into my ear that were I to repeat through any medium I am certain that God would strike me down immediately.
After Black Friday recruit training became fun for me. Some of the recruits took a little more time to adapt to the situation and lifestyle and some recruits never actually became acclimated. For the next four weeks our time was split nearly 50/50 between classes and physical training including close order drill or marching. I had no idea that we would be spending so much time in the classroom. We took classes relating to everything under the sun. I also never realized how important the history of the Marine Corps is to Marines. To Marines past, present and future the history of their Marine Corps is just as important as the knowledge required to properly utilize their weapons in a wartime situation. We learned everything from how the Marine Corps was founded in a bar called the Tun Tavern on November 10, 1775 from the most recent Medal of Honor recipients. We also learned everything required to properly wear our uniforms. It seems as though this would not require a large amount of instruction but it certainly does. Every mead, ribbon and rank insignia has to be placed in the correct spot most times within an eighth of an inch or a person higher ranking will have a great time “explaining” your errors to you. One process that we received nearly constant instruction and practice on was weapons maintenance. We cleaned our rifles more than a person with obsessive compulsive disorder cleans their hands. They were immaculate at all times. While we cleaned them one recruit would stand in front of the squadbay and have us repeat random tidbits of Marine Corps history in order to memorize it for our written examination.
Weeks five through eight consisted of our rifle training and instruction relating to various field exercises. For these learning exercises we were sent to Camp Pendleton. We were loaded like sardines into buses for our trip. We were all pretty excited as this was the first time we were allowed to leave the depot in five weeks. My bus was supervised by Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Settle and we were forced to keep our heads between our knees because we did not rate to look at freedom. He informed us that if we did in fact look up he would put a bullet through the eye ball that he saw first. The weeks spent at Camp Pendleton were pretty exciting. Me were finally able to fire the weapons that we had been carrying around for five weeks. One night during firing week were did some firing at night and we were given some tracers rounds to put into our magazines and fire downrange. When we started using the tracer rounds it looked like some kind of Star Wars firefight because they light up their trajectory through the release of some chemical. Another exciting thing that we did was our night wartime exercise. They set up a course with concertina wire or barbed wire and various other obstacles that we had to get through. We had to low-crawl through water and climb over large objects all while the drill instructors were throwing rocks at us and calling it sniper fire. They also played noises of wartime situations over the speaker system to make it seem more real. Fake mines were blowing up all around us and it was pretty intense. Even though we knew it was fake it seemed incredibly real. Starting the day we arrived there we also began training for “The Crucible” even though we did not exactly know it. We began going on short hikes and learning various skills and processes that are necessary for survival when going on hikes in combat zones.
Also during our time at Camp Pendleton we did our marksmanship training on the M16 A-2 service rifles that we had been carrying around the entire time that we had been in training. It was pretty exciting as I had never done much shooting before joining the Marines. The Crucible was the pinnacle of recruit training. It was the beginning of our fourth and last week at Camp Pendleton. We spent the entire day cleaning the squadbay and general areas. Towards the end of the day we were given additional items that we would need on during the Crucible. We packed our packs and were given our “hooches” or tents that we would be sleeping in for the next few days. Before taking off on our initial hike that would take us to the starting point we had to put up and take down our hooches I think around 20 or thirty times as a nice little game for the drill instructors to watch and laugh as they screamed at us. Once we actually arrived at the starting point for the Crucible the drill instructors actually lightened up a little bit and explained in detail how the next few days were going to go and gave us all of the information that we needed in order to accomplish our goal. Once we started the Crucible we were on our own as far as deciding when to eat and when to fill up our canteens. It almost felt like freedom after all of the micromanaging of our lives that we had been dealing with so far. During the Crucible we would hike through the mountains and it was beautiful. The weather was amazing and we were all pretty well conditioned for the hiking. Every four or five miles we would stop at a Medal of Honor station. The drill instructors would read the citation to us and then explain sort of everything that happened in the situations. Once they explained it to us we had to break off into five man groups and try to reenact the situations. These were pretty tough as the things that past service members have done in order to be awards the nation’s highest honor were pretty remarkable. On the final day of the Crucible we were all pretty much exhausted. We had to hike up the Reaper which is the steepest hill that I have ever seen. In order to get warmed up for it we went on a ten mile hike and were given time to eat any food that we had left. We had eaten so little and done so much that when I ate the orange that they gave me I literally immediately felt rejuvenated. I don’t actually know how high this hill was but I know that with our 70 pound pack on our backs we literally had to lean forward while hiking in order to not fall backwards. Since this marked the end of being in the field and the Crucible quite a few of us got into a small group with the senior drill instructor and sprinted up this enormous hill. It was amazingly rewarding to accomplish this feat. For once the drill instructors treated us with some dignity and respect. Immediately afterwards to stretched out and showered up and were inspected my corpsman for and wounds or damages to our bodies. After this came one of the greatest things ever…….the Warrior’s Breakfast! We were allowed to eat with the drill instructors and those of us that sprinted up the Reaper were allowed to eat with the senior drill instructor which for some reason was pretty exciting. I ate my weight in cinnamon toast crunch. Afterwards about half of our squad threw up all of the food that they had just eaten due to the fact that our stomachs had shrunk and they overate. It was hilarious. At this breakfast our senior drill instructor informed us that over the course of the last 2 and a half days we had hiked 54 miles and had only eaten 2 and a half MREs during the whole thing. I never would have thought that I would be capable of doing that much in that brief of a time period. It made us all feel pretty good to think about what we had done.
Our final four and a half weeks of boot camp went by pretty quickly. Once we arrived back at the recruit depot our worlds were turned upside down. Our senior drill instructor decided to take a couple of days off and went home. Our two remaining drill instructors decided that we were treated too kindly at the breakfast and decided to have a tornado go through our squadbay. We all got settled back into our foot lockers and racks when the drill instructors decided we were moving too slowly and needed a reality check. They informed us through many different mind games and physical training that we had not yet accomplished anything and that most of us still wouldn’t make it to graduation. At this point any of the recruits with half of a brain realized what they were doing and that these were just mind games that we needed to get through in order to acquire the title that we all so desperately wanted; United States Marine. The only thing that we really had left were Final Drill. Final drill was the competition amongst the different squads in our company to see which squad was the best at close order drill. Close order drill or marching was one of the staples throughout recruit training. We practiced nearly every single day as a way to teach us camaraderie, instant willingness and obedience to order and just the marching in general. Close order drill is something that would remain distantly important throughout the career of a Marine. Every academy that a Marine attends throughout his or her career involves showing a level of competence in close order drill. During the last four and a half weeks every time that Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Hambaugh was in charge of us he would have us setup the “mini-grinder.” Close order drill is what Staff Sergeant Hambaugh did. He was a phenomenal instructor in this area. The mini-grinder consisted of pushing all of our racks to one side of the squadbay in order to drill inside “Hambaugh’s House.” The reason for this was that there were no witnesses in Hambaugh’s house. He would have us train extremely hard and had us do some pretty ridiculous and painful things, but when we were done with the mini-grinder we had learned quite a bit and had come together more than we were prior to doing it. Other than training for final drill all that we really did was train for our final physical fitness test and go through class regarding what life in the fleet would be like and useful tips that we would need in order to be successful throughout our Marine Corps Careers. In the end our squad, Platoon 3066, finished second amongst the six squads that competed in the final drill competition. After we had completed every aspect of recruit training all that was left was a motivational run in the morning before graduation that was referred to as “Visitor’s Thursday.” Visitor’s Thursday was the first time that we were allowed to see our families since the day we arrived on the depot. We woke up early as usual and went to the clothing store in order to purchase new physical training gear so that we looked our best for the run. We did a warm up work out and then headed to the north end of the parade deck. We were all lined up in our respective squads and were surrounded by our families even though we weren’t allowed to look at them. Once we completed our run we went and showered and then went to the parade deck in order to find our family members. It was pretty exciting to see everyone that made the trip to San Diego in order to watch me graduate. We went and ate at the A & W Root Beer stand on board the depot as we were not allowed to leave. We spent the entire day together and it was great to see the people that I had not seen in nearly 13 weeks. The next morning we woke up and dusted off the uniforms that we had saved for graduation day and had never worn. We went out to the parade deck and lined up in our squads and then marched around the parade deck in order to show off for our company commander and our families. Once that was completed we lined up and our drill instructors gave us the eagle, globe and anchor emblems to affix to our covers, or hats, that signified that we were now United States Marines. It was an incredible feeling. Within seconds of our being released to our families someone jumped on me from out of nowhere and I had no idea who it was. Once I finally looked up I realized that it was my best friend Robert. I had no idea that he was going to make the trip and it was a big surprise. I then introduced my parents to my drill instructors and then got the heck off of the depot as soon as I could. It felt great to finally leave those gates and be free!!!!!
About the Author:
Brandon Parkison, age 25, served in the United States Marine Corps from 2004 to 2008. Among the bases at which he was stationed were the MCAS in Cherry Point, North Carolina, and the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. Parkison served as a paralegal in the Marine Corps, most recently in the rank of a corporal. Prior to that, he was an OIF from September 2005 to March 2006. Parkison grew up in St. Joe, Indiana, where he currently resides with his wife, Johna-Marie, and their son, Blake Allen. He works full time as warehouse manager for Korte Does It All while pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University- Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).
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