Fire Watch

In the Marine Corps there is always someone awake watching for trouble. In Afghanistan we always had 5 Marines awake at all times to protect our platoon ready to kill if threatened, but when war is not the case there is usually 2 Marines awake for every unit. I will get into Afghanistan in maybe a year or two when I get to that point in my career. In boot camp it was per platoon, in the fleet it was 2 per company, and in the field it was 2 per company usually.

In boot camp we always had two recruits awake at all times. One would be posted at each entrance of the the squad bay. Each recruit on fire watch had three foot lockers stacked so they could double as a table we could stand behind. We were not allowed to sit while on fire watch. The only activities we were allowed was reading from our Marine "knowledge," shine our boots, or work on uniforms. We were not supposed to write letters but I did it all the time. Some DI's did not care and we were all willing to take that risk because letters were the only connection we had to the outside world and we cherished them.

Every 30 minutes one of the fire watch recruits would do a "round" or do a check around the squad bay to ensure no one was committing suicide, stealing someone else's stuff, trying to run away, or whatever else could happen. We even did laundry for the other recruits.

It seemed like there was at least one recruit a day who screwed up enough to deserve two fire watches in one night. To make it worse they would make this recruit have the second fire watch and the second to last fire watch so that they would get a lot of broken sleep. By the rules the lights had to be off for 8 hours a night at boot camp. However, they made us drink so much water, I would wake up 3 or 4 times to pee, and punished us enough with double fire watch that there was plenty of sleep deprivation to go around.

When a recruit gets caught off guard.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBtHUDMsXs

My favorite was when a drill instructor would come "on deck" through one of the "hatches," or doors, requiring the fire watch to announce that someone of authority had entered the room.

"Good evening sir. Drill instructor Sergeant Jones on deck," a recruit might say. If we said it like that all would be well for the most part and the drill instructor would go to the drill instructor quarters and let the fire watch be. Often times though, the hatch would swing open by surprise and this would catch us off guard and twist our tongues.

"Good afternoon sir. Sergeant Jones reporting as ordered" may be the address. As the result of a screw up like this the drill instructor might start yelling at the recruit to get it correct. Of course this would make most recruits stutter and they would suck even more at showing the proper respect. The yelling match back and forth would wake up the other 86 recruits trying to sleep leading to even more sleep neglect and a guarantee that falling asleep during classes was sure.

This is a video when a fire watch improperly reports.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcKzvbKYPg

The worst thing you could do was to say nothing when a Marine stepped on deck. Remember that we were not Marines until we graduated. Until then we were the maggots of the earth or recruits.

This Marine gets obliterated by not acknowledging his Captain when he enters the squad bay.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJoeGvn6MAY

Even though having fire watch was hard on sleep I appreciated the solitude when I had fire watch anywhere between 0000 hours, or midnight, and 0300 because it was usually dead quiet and I could experience some solitude. The other 21 hours of the day was filed with either limited sleep or continuous chaos. Although I enjoyed some of the chaos, it's continuous assault made me appreciate some quiet when I got it.

One thing about the Marine Corps, for me at least, was that it made me appreciate life so much more. So much in fact that I miss it often because of the humility it automatically instilled in my life. When I joined up again in 2007 I had a wife and two daughters and it truly made me appreciate life. I will write about my family in a few years, but even for a single 19 year old kid it still provided plenty of solemn experiences.

Fire watch was not the most comfortable experience and after being the guide, and now that I was well known as a result of that position, I was awarded quite often with the privilege. I could not stay out of the spot light. The good news was that after 4 weeks in, and being fired from my billet, my headache was gone and it supercharged me to turn on the Troy I knew I was. I was a motivated stud who could make people laugh, make them pumped, and I was not afraid to make even the Drill Instructors lose their bearings and laugh.

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