Photo By Lance Cpl. Francisco Abundes | Recruits from India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, work together at a...... read more read more
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PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. - They were briefed on their mission. An area was contaminated and they had to sterilize it. But a patch of the contagion stood between them and those who needed to be saved. They had two ropes, their rifles and a wooden beam to get the decontaminate to those in need.
Recruits of India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, exercised their problem-solving skills April 5 at the Leadership Reaction Stations during the Crucible.
The stations are a part of Event 2 at the Crucible and follow the recruits’ body sparring and pugil stick bouts.
“Here, they’re learning leadership skills,” said Sgt. Timothy Davis, the leader of the event, Field Training Unit at Page Field. “They’re learning how to take charge of things.”
Eleven obstacles make up the Leadership Reaction Stations, each challenge differing from the other. The stations are based on past military missions that had to be accomplished, he said.
Recruits are grouped during the Crucible. At the stations, those teams are split in two and the recruits compete against their opposing team to see who can complete the obstacle first. The losing team has to carry the winning team around the perimeter of the obstacles. If neither team accomplishes their mission, they both carry each other.
Recruits often overthink the mission and make it harder for themselves.
Davis said recruits focus on the menial things too much, which often leads to their demise.
“When they’re worn down and tired, they’re going to start bickering,” Davis said, a 26-year-old native of Vidalia, Ga.
Although recruits are not penalized by the drill instructors for arguing amongst themselves, Davis said they punish themselves. If they argue, they will not get the mission accomplished and end up fireman-carrying each other.
When the recruits get debriefed after failing a mission, the drill instructors will tell them what they did wrong. Often, it is arguing.
“You were bickering too much,” Davis said. “You can’t complete a mission is you’re just fighting the whole time.”
Pfc. Cameron Taylor, Platoon 3026, said each recruit had a different idea. When everyone threw their ideas out, it hindered them. Everyone wanted to do it their own way.
“It turns into yelling at each other, instead of talking to one another,” the 19-year-old native of Nashville, said.
Pvt. Raymond Smith IV, Platoon 3029, said the recruits in his team quickly got to work trying to accomplish the mission instead of taking time to plan it perfectly.
In the end, this was the reason they failed.
“We have to think more, put our heads together and work harder, because every one person’s idea can be an addition on to someone else's and makes it easier in the end,” Taylor said.
Today, they graduate as Marines, and will carry the leadership lessons and skills they learned here with them throughout their careers.
| Date Taken: | 04.12.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.12.2012 13:02 |
| Story ID: | 86648 |
| Location: | PARRIS ISLAND, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 175 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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