The Guide

In boot camp they have something called “Intensive Training” or IT. I have spoken a little about it before in previous posts but I never had much of it happen to me until I became the guide. On a particular day maybe two weeks into boot camp, maybe around my birthday which is October 28^th, the drill instructors had us sit behind our footlockers to fill out a questionnaire.

Marine being IT'ed
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ImRURFiQ-I)

Footlockers are what we kept most of our possessions in. They are about 4 feet long, 18 inches high, and 18 inches wide. We also had wall lockers for our dress uniforms but for the most part, all we had was stuffed away inside our foot lockers. They doubled as a table so we could sit Indian style behind them and clean our rifles, write letters, fill out questionnaires, or just sit on them to shine our boots. Who knew you could do so much with just a foot locker. From the beginning the Marines taught us to do amazing things with so little. This is just one more reason the Corps is the greatest fighting force on the planet save American special forces units. 

The questinaire they had us fill out was basically a quiz on the way our minds worked when it came to leadership. I filled out the questionnaire honestly, not suspecting it would lead to a leadership role. I don’t remember what the questions were and I do not remember my answers but after we were done we sat at attention and waited for them to collect them. 

Within 20 or 30 minutes I was told to report to the “quarterdeck” which was at the front of the squad bay and adject the the DI’s quarters. I was asked if I wanted to be the guide and not wanting to show any fear I said, "Yes sir." They gave me the guidon, or platoon flag, fired the other guide, switched racks and set me to it. Of course I was clueless on what I was supposed to do. To tell you the truth I was scared to death. I had only been there two weeks and had not really made many friends so no one respected me and to tell you the truth I had been raised by parents who were both push overs so I had inherited that. I grew up learning to be a push over.

Being soft and weak willed did not fit well with being a leader in the greatest fighting force in the world. When I was my fun, rambunctious self I was a fantastic leader and people looked up to me. I had proved that running for student body president and during my senior year as student body president. However, as I had learned with my principle in high school, when the pressure was on and I felt like I had to conform to a certain mold my leadership skills turned to disaster. This is exactly what happened when I became the guide. My go getter, high energy, motivated personality disappeared and I became anything but an effective guide.

The first week was pretty mellow. The guide before me had been ruthlessly hounded by the DI's, but it seemed like they had all but forgotten about me the first week. I was not sure what was going on but was grateful that things were going relatively smooth in this life altering environment. However, it was like the flick of a switch when week one ended that they unleashed hell on me. I mean they beat the living hell out of me figuratively speaking. I could not do one thing right and honestly I don't think I did do many things right. I was trying too hard to do it the way they wanted me to instead of letting my natural leadership abilities manifest themselves. 

I was a very loud, energetic and motivated kid and I think that would have been the case as a guide had it not been for the shots. Whether it was the broken back giving me headaches or the multitude of shots that made me sick the migraine headache I had the entire time I was the guide literally prevented me from doing much in the way of sounding off or motivation let alone leading. To say the least, it was the hardest two week of my life up to that point. 

We had initial drill four weeks into boot camp and two weeks into my guide billet. The platoon, under my watch, got last place. Our drill instructors were furious and most of all furious with me. They took the whole platoon to the "sand pit" and IT'ed us. The sand pit was the worst place to be IT'ed because of the sand. We were IT'ed for a while until we were soaking wet from the sweat and covered in sand. After they had their fun with us they trashed me and my squad leaders some more and then fired me. 

This video is on initial drill
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYa-Vs98eRU)

I remember feeling a relief of stress when I went back to what Marines call General Population or GP but also a sense of disappointment that I had not done a better job. I felt both grateful and sad. The good thing was that through my exposure as as a guide I did manage to earn some respect and make some friends. We were now 4 weeks into it and everyone knew my name and knew who I was. Just by surviving the guide billet for that long I had gained respect from both drill instructors and recruits. The rest of boot camp would be easy comparatively speaking. 

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