WESTMINSTER, Colo. - Towards the beginning of 2014 DeShano was visited by Lauren Buxton, from Westminster, CO, who was interested in joining the Marines. According to DeShano the average kid interviewed at his office is disqualified mentally, physically or morally but Buxton was not the average applicant.
“She had a boisterous personality, a lot of confidence and was obviously a very smart girl,” said Deshano. “She did not sign up on the spot but after addressing a few questions and concerns she ultimately decided the Marine Corps was a good fit ... she wanted to be the best.”
At the time Buxton was attending school, working in retail and eventually decided that she wanted to do something different with her life. Her brother was a Marine, which is where the idea to join initially manifested.
“I knew that it was going to be an interesting decision that would challenge me mentally and physically, but I was either going to go big or go home,” said Buxton.
Shipping to boot camp in May, Buxton began the path towards becoming a United States Marine.
During boot leave, which is given to new Marines after Boot Camp, Buxton was able to sit down with me and give a first-hand account of her experiences in boot camp. Buxton finished as the top female recruit in her platoon and took home the title of platoon Honor Graduate. Her first-hand account gives insight into the first few days of Boot Camp and the monotony of ever day Recruit life.
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I arrived in South Carolina on the very last plane of the day. After exiting, I could immediately feel the hot, wet air, which was one last reminder that I wasn’t home. I imagine we arrived somewhere around 12:30 a.m. but I really have no recollection of exact time, which was obviously their intent. I got to sit on the bus next to another poolee from the RSS (Recruiting Sub-Station), we were on the buddy program.
We were told not to look through the windows. I did anyway and I saw that we were coming up to the gates at Parris Island; I started freaking out because I knew this was it. We get there, the drill instructor comes onto the bus just like the movies, they tell us to get off the bus. We were all terrified and screaming “Aye Sir, Aye Sir, Aye Sir.”
Then we quickly started lining up on the footprints. I wanted to be in the middle somewhere among the footprints so they couldn’t see me, but I ended up in the very front corner of the formation.
After that they quickly moved us to receiving. The whole time they were screaming at us and giving instructions really fast. I didn’t understand what they were saying most of the time, but If I didn’t understand something, I would just look around and see what everyone else was doing. They gave us this huge premade bag and then made us go through everything one-by-one. They gave us a lot more than I expected. Shower shoes, razors, deodorant and a whole lot of other stuff but they definitely weren’t nice about it.
For the first few days you don’t sleep at all. On top of being miserable, there were huge thunderstorms going on, so I was wet the whole time. Our socks were wet and muddy, it was hot and muggy, and we were wearing these ponchos that made sure you stayed that way.
The hardest part about the first few days was simply just not knowing what was next. One of the largest shocks was finding out that our receiving Drill Instructor was only with us for the first couple days. She randomly told us that we’d be leaving to meet her sisters. No one told me this was going to happen and I definitely wasn’t told that there would be three of them. I always imagined that I would be able to hide from one Drill Instructor in a squad bay of 60 girls, so my original plan was quickly foiled.
Once you receive your Drill Instructors and begin phase one, there is more or less a schedule. So you at least have an idea of what will be happening. I was in a platoon of about 60 girls. The Squad Leaders and Guides would put together the schedule for whoever was going to be on fire watch, patrolling the squad bay after lights out. The shifts were an hour long during first phase and 2 hours long during second and third.
When I became squad leader I really just tried to motivate other recruits as opposed to yelling at people like a mini Drill Instructor. I think that is one huge mistake that a lot of squad leaders made. It’s not our job to yell at other recruits because we were no better. We were told by the Drill Instructors to be aggressive.
The most interesting thing I got to do was the repel tower. I’ve always been afraid of heights, but after doing it once I couldn’t wait to do it again. The most comforting part of boot camp is chow.
You live chow to chow and Sunday to Sunday. A lot of the conversation I had with other recruits seemed to always surround chow. The food was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I imagined I was going to be fed slop, so it was a nice surprise. I went to the male chow hall few times and I have to say, their food was better. The female’s chow hall is based off a 1600 calorie a day diet, but the guy’s food was greasy and delicious.
When you finally get to third phase, the recruits are a little more experienced and the Drill Instructors are a little more relaxed and it feels pretty good. People know what phase you’re in based off the way your uniform is worn. So you feel pretty cool walking around, especially when younger recruits walk by.
Towards the end of boot camp I found out that I was going to be the honor grad. I didn’t really take charge often and I wasn’t the loudest or fastest and I didn’t shoot expert. It helped that I was well rounded, tested well, I didn’t have any negative paper work and I think that I was a better leader than a lot of the other squad leaders. I always just went for my personal best and that is all I was really worried about.
Now that I’m done with boot camp I’ll be going to MCT (Marine Combat Training) and then MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school. I originally wanted a ground troop MOS but I’m hoping that legal services will give me some good experience that will translate well into the civilian world. There are a lot of options but my biggest goal right now is to become a sergeant within my first four years.
| Date Taken: |
08.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: |
08.15.2014 17:00 |
| Story ID: |
139506 |
| Location: |
WESTMINSTER, COLORADO, US |
| Hometown: |
WESTMINSTER, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: |
1,029 |
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