Marine Corps News Room

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/arlingtonheights/news/g5-marines-030107-s1.article

March 1, 2007
Story by MATT KIEFER Staff Writer

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Recruit Ricardo Ruiz lies prone to the ground, silently peering down the sight of the M-16 A2 service rifle clutched to his shoulder. He takes a breath and, exhaling, slowly squeezes his finger over the trigger until he hears the click of the hammer striking the empty chamber.

He repeats the process with a quiet solemnity not often found on a military base, where Marines bark cadence calls in formation, battle with pugil sticks and run bayonets through dummies, chanting "Kill, kill, kill 'em all!"

Rifle training, while a more placid and focused activity, is nonetheless one of the most important exercises a Marine undertakes during boot camp. Regardless of occupational specialty, all Marines -- the cooks, the mechanics, the infantrymen -- are riflemen on call in the combat zone.

Marine Corps boot camp in sunny San Diego is a combination of intense physical challenges and skill training, the purpose of which is to prepare troops for the high-pressure situations they will face in the battlefield. "Train like you fight," as the saying goes.

This is where recruits as young as 17 are trained for war.

'Because it's war'
Suburban Chicago residents enlist in the Marine Corps for a wide range of reasons. For the most part, they are motivated by a sense of patriotism, intensified by the ongoing war in Iraq. Some recruits gravitate to the Marines because they lacked a general sense of direction in their lives. Many say it was a complex mix of both those reasons that inspired their decisions to enlist.

Ruiz, a 20-year-old from Palatine, has never fired a weapon in his life. Prior to arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on Jan. 3, he had been working as a sales associate at Office Max and attending classes at Harper College. He graduated from Palatine High School in 2005.

"I wanted to do something with my life," he explains.

His brother had joined the Marine Corps before him, so Ruiz decided one day to walk into a Mount Prospect recruiters office and enlist.

Joel Findlay, 20, of Barrington, knew he wanted to join the military since he was a student at Barrington High School.

"I enlisted because it's war," he said between rifle exercises.

Findlay, Ruiz and every other recruit must spend a week on the "snapping circles" at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California, where platoons sit in semi-circles as they familiarize themselves with the M-16 A2.

A few miles down the road, recruits are working in teams as they climb wooden obstacles, rescue dummy casualties and practice tactical procedures as part of The Crucible, a grueling 54-hour exercise during which time they march at least 40 miles, rest only eight hours and eat less than three meals.

Rifle training and The Crucible are among a series of requirements recruits must fulfill during the 13-week program that produces basically trained Marines.

Saving lives
Eric Lyons had a budding career in education before he decided to enlist at the age of 30. Lyons, of Arlington Heights, was a special education assistant at Buffalo Grove High School for three years, also serving as an assistant coach on the school's cross-country and tennis teams as well as the district swim team. He had graduated from Purdue University with a degree in physical education and health.

"Still, there was just something missing, and that was this," Lyons says. "It's something that I've always wanted to do."

Lyons is training in crash, fire and rescue. He hopes to use his physical education background to learn lifesaving skills and someday become an emergency medical technician.

Reasons for enlisting aren't always clear, at least to friends and family members. Algonquin resident Karen Brodsky says her 18-year-old son, Robert, announced his enlistment after he had already made up his mind and met with recruiters. She and her husband, Andre, were "the most shocked parents in the world" at the time.

"One day he was walking out the door and he said, 'I'm going to get the physical' and we said, 'What?'" she recalls. "It may have been in the back of his mind but he never verbalized it. It was his own decision. He felt he had to do it."

Sitting in front of the parade deck before his graduation ceremony, Brodsky adds, "We're very proud of him."

'Stuck in a rut'
Igor Makarov, a 27-year-old Skokie resident, found himself "stuck in a rut" before he joined the Marines. In the years after graduating Niles West High School, he got a job as an electrician but never moved out of his parents' house. He spent a lot of his free time playing PlayStation video games.

"I had a good job, enough money to smoke weed, do whatever I wanted," he says. "But I realized, next thing I know I'll be 30, still sitting in my parents' basement."

Becoming a Marine was a transformational process for Makarov, who after infantry school will train in aviation logistics. Basic training, he says, "is 80 percent mental."

"You learn how to say, 'no' to yourself," he says.

Deploying within 18 months
Basic training and infantry school provide most of the combat instruction for Marines before they ship out overseas. According to the Marine Corps' deployment schedules, the majority of today's recruits will be in Iraq within a year to 18 months of their basic training.

After his first month in basic training, 19-year-old Matthew McCormak of Schaumburg has found that the training will pay off in the field.

"It's hard, but you have to keep the mentality that everything you do here is for a reason," says McCormak, who graduated from Conant High School last year. "They definitely get you prepared to be in a combat situation and get stressed out."

By his seventh day of boot camp, Schaumburg resident Kyle Conforti says he is looking forward to fighting overseas. Conforti is 18 and signed up during his senior year at Streamwood High School. He chose the Marine Corps because his uncle had served in it.

"I want to be the best of the best," Conforti said between pugil stick bouts at the recruit depot.

Supposed to be stressful
Eighteen-year-old Jak Grueneberg, who enlisted during his junior year at Elk Grove High School, says he was physically prepared heading into basic training but the stress proved to be more challenging than he expected. Drill instructors are in his face from the moment the Elk Grove Village resident steps off the bus until the end of his 13-week training when he receives his eagle, globe and anchor and is called a Marine for the first time.

"Boot camp teaches you how to handle stress and how to deal with that stress," says Grueneberg, who was bestowed the honorary title of platoon guide during training camp. He hopes to train in force reconnaissance and become a career Marine.

Findlay believes the stress is a vital part of the training that will ultimately prepare him for live combat.

"I love it here," he says. "I was told coming in here that it would be difficult. It has been difficult. I believe that is what this is for -- breaking you down physically to the point where you rebuild yourself and you can deal with anything that gets in the way."

"If it wasn't stressful, it wouldn't be right. It's supposed to be stressful."

'Time to make a change'
Justin Blancas started boot camp two months after his son was born. A 19-year-old Prospect High School graduate, Blancas needed a job and decided that it was "time to make a change" in his life. He's helping support his family back home in Mount Prospect with the $15,600 salary he earns the first year of his enlistment.

Blancas didn't join only for the job, though. He says he wants to fight overseas.

"I would like to go to Iraq," he said. "That way I can serve my country and make my son proud. My family thinks I'm nuts but I want to do it to give back to this country that has given my family so much."

Regardless of the reason for enlisting, Lyons says every recruit thinks about how they will handle combat situations.

"It's definitely in the back of your mind," he says.

Ruiz is keenly aware of the expectations. Before ever firing his first live round, he knew he wanted to be in infantry. Back home, he thought about what it would be like to go through basic training and fight in Iraq.

"I should be well-enough trained to handle all the pressure," he says. "This is what I expected. Nothing has changed."