Note: I attended boot camp at MCRD San Diego, so these next fews posts might not be a totally accurate representation of what you can expect at MCRD Parris Island.
You will arrive at your respective MCRD late at night on a Marine Corps bus. While on the bus, you will be told by a DI (drill instructor) to plant your face in your lap. They tell you to do this as a way to disorient you, as you will not be able to see the path you took to get from the airport to the recruit depot. Once your bus arrives at the recruit depot, the fun begins. A DI will get on your bus and tell you that you are on-board Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego/Parris Island and you are no longer a civilian. He will then tell you that from now on, you will only speak when spoken to by a Marine or Sailor (US Navy personnel). You will address every Marine, Sailor, and civilian on the recruit depot as "sir" or "ma'am". You are no longer allowed to use pronouns such as "I", "we", "they", or "us". From that point until you become a Marine, you will use the phrases "this recruit" when referring to yourself, "these recruits" when referring to multiple recruits you are a part of, and "those recruits" when referring to a group of recruits that you are not a part of. Also, if you are asked a yes or no question, you will respond with "yes, sir/ma'am", or "no, sir/ma'am". If you are given a command, you will respond with "aye, aye, sir/ma'am" (on MCRD Parris Island, they say "aye, sir/ma'am"). This DI will then tell you to get off the bus as fast as you can without running and/or hurting each other.
This is the type of bus you will arrive on.
Once you're off the bus, you will be instantly greeted by many drill instructors telling you to stand on the yellow footprints that you hear so much about. These footprints put you in formation for the first time and symbolize the beginning of your transformation from civilian to Marine. The drill instructors will have a little bit of fun with you before reading you a few articles from the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). These are pretty much the laws the United States military lives by and you will memorize many articles from the UCMJ while in boot camp. Once these articles are read to you, you will be taken inside the contraband room to dispose of all the stuff you will no longer need for the next three months.
The yellow footprints on MCRD San Diego.
Once inside the contraband room, you will be greeted by another set of drill instructors. These DIs will guide you through the process of getting rid of the unneeded crap you probably brought with you. Now, I should probably explain that you do not need to bring much stuff with you. All you really need to bring is a wallet with about $20 cash in it, a form of acceptable photo ID, your social security card (you'll want to memorize your social security number, by the way), and a religious book. I wouldn't suggest bringing religious material with you, as it is readily available for you on the depot. That's really all you need to bring. DO NOT bring a cell phone or any other electronics, food, condoms, or any stupid stuff like that. If the DIs see you brought any of that stuff, you will just get unwanted extra attention from them. If you do bring a cell phone or any other electronics, the Marine Corps will take them from you while in this room and have them sent home on your dollar. While in this room, listen extremely carefully to what the DIs say (do that for all of boot camp, actually). They give you very specific instructions for what to do with your stuff and you need to do things exactly as they say. Also while in this room, you will be issued your war bag (or ditty bag, as they call it on the east coast), which is just a MARPAT (Marine Corps Pattern [the camouflage we wear]) duffel bag, a money/valuables bag, and a laundry bag with some other gear inside of it. From here, it's on to get your first Marine Corps haircut.
A view from inside the contraband room.
If you are a male, you will get your head shaved. No ifs ands or buts about it. If you have a scar or mole or anything on the top of your head that tends to bleed a lot, I would highly suggest pointing it out to the barber, as they will cut it off. The barber probably will cut your head, so suck it up. If you are a female and your hair is longer than regulation (I don't know regulations, so you'll have to ask a female Marine about those), it will be cut. You will also be given the opportunity to have your hair cut short, if you want.
The "barber shop" in the admin building on MCRD San Diego.
After getting your haircut, you will move on to the telephone room. If this room, you will call home for the final time for about 2.5 months (you might get a very short call home later in boot camp). You are required to call someone and read a scripted message to them. You are not allowed to say anything other than what is on the page you're reading from and you will have a DI standing right behind you, so don't deviate from the script unless you want some special attention. Also, this call will come at about midnight, so don't expect anyone to actually pick up the phone. I've heard from some of my Marine friends that some of them never got to do this call home, so don't be too sad if you don't get it. From the telephone room, you will move onto another room to get your first uniform issue.
The telephone room on MCRD Parris Island.
Your first uniform issue will consist of boot socks, running socks, web belts, skivvy shirts (the shirts you wear under your camouflage uniforms), skivvies (white brief underwear), eight-point covers (the hats you wear while in the camouflage uniforms), camouflage trousers (cammies, for short), a sweatsuit, and assorted toiletries. You will then be told to change our of your civilian clothes and into your first Marine uniform. Yes, you will be getting naked in front of about forty other dudes or chicks, so you better not be too bashful. You're going to look pretty stupid in this first uniform, since you have no idea how to properly wear it (that's the whole point). From here, you'll move on to another room where you'll be issued a sea bag (a giant, olive drab duffel bag) full of all sorts of goodies that you'll need while in boot camp. Finally, your first day of boot camp is over and you move into your home for the next few days - the receive barracks. Notice I didn't say you were going to sleep. No, sleep doesn't come until the next night.
The receiving barracks are absolutely disgusting. They almost never get cleaned and are only inhabited by a bunch of nasty fresh recruits. There are about five toilets for about 120 recruits to share, and about two rolls of toilet paper among all of you. You will be introduced to your receiving drill instructor during your first visit to these barracks. Your receiving drill instructor is a drill instructor that will be with you for the next few days until you pick up with your actual training company and meet your permanent drill instructors.
Over the next few days, you are going to be doing a lot of standing in line, waiting for many different things. You have to sign what seems like thousands of pages of paperwork, take a visit to dental to get your fangs checked out, and go to medical multiple times. While at medical, you will get a whole battery of different tests, such as vision, hearing, and others. Also, you will be getting a ton of shots. You will be started on a few different series of inoculations, including the infamous "peanut butter" shot, which is a penicillin injection that you get in your left ass cheek. Yes, it hurts very badly. Some of these shots have a pretty good chance of making you sick and they will leave you extremely sore (I couldn't lift my arms past my shoulders after all these shots). You will also have your blood drawn. If you're afraid of needles, you will need to get over that fear very quickly. I passed out during all the shots and blood drawing, so make sure you keep up with your hydration. Everyone will be given a vision test at this point in boot camp and if they think you need to wear glasses, you will be issued them. From now on, you will refer to glasses as "portholes". I was issued glasses, but I did not wear them, as I can see just fine without them. If you need glasses, you must wear these glasses they prescribe you.
At some point during your first few days of boot camp, you will be issued new running shoes. After you're issued these shoes, you will box up all the civilian clothes and the shoes you wore to boot camp. You will not get this box back until the end of boot camp. Also during this time, you will take a pee test. If you fail this test, you will be kicked out of the Marine Corps, so don't do anything stupid.
While in receiving, your receiving DI will teach some basic stuff that you'll need to know as a recruit, so pay very close attention.
Late in receiving, you will get your second uniform issue. This issue consists of the boots you wear with your cammies (combat and jungle boots) and camouflage blouses (the "shirt" part of your cammies). Yes, you will refer to these as blouses, same as pants are trousers. It's at this point you are finally allowed to wear your camouflage blouses, albeit buttoned all the way to the top, which looks extremely stupid.
You will also eat at the chow hall a few times during receiving. It's here that you will learn the proper procedure to eating during boot camp. I'm not even going to try and explain it here, because it varies so much between companies, but the basics are pretty simple: no looking around while eating, feet together at a 45 degree angle (get used to that one), and no eating while a DI is talking to you.
One of the most important things you'll learn during receiving is the basics of fire watch. I'll cover this more in the next post.
On the last day of receiving, you will run your IST. If you fail this IST, you will be dropped back in training and put in the PCP (Physical Conditioning Platoon) until you can pass it. This test shouldn't be too bad, except for the lack of sleep and sore body from the inoculations you've been receiving. Only one guy from receiving company of about 300 recruits failed, so you really shouldn't be too worried about this IST. When you do pass the IST, you are now deemed ready for training. After four grueling days in receiving, you will not start your real training. It's time for Black Friday!
