Delta Company Crucible

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES

08.27.2021

Story by Lance Cpl. Grace Kindred 

Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego     

The end of recruit training introduces the toughest training evolution the recruits have faced. Recruits have endured 10 weeks of intense training leading up to the final event at Marine Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. The crucible is the final test recruits endure, and following completion they are awarded their Eagle, Globe, and Anchor and earn the title “Marine."
The crucible is a 54 hour culminating event that transforms a recruit to a Marine. The crucible consists of over 45 miles of hiking, five MREs, and eight hours of sleep total. Recruits spend their days hiking through the hills to different events that test their leadership skills, comradely knowledge, physical, mental, and spiritual strength. “The crucible is a challenging event for the recruits. It’s an event that allows them to use all the skills they’ve learned throughout recruit training,” said Staff Sgt. Joshua M. Vance, a drill instructor with Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion. “I’ve been struggling with the mental and physical challenges while getting through these obstacles, and looking to the left and right of me and seeing everybody struggling along with me, and we’re all pushing through it together, keeps me going,” said recruit Caiden Martin, with Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion.
In one event, recruits had to carry a casualty to safety through a simulated combat zone, looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They must maneuver through many obstacles including buildings, animal, and car props to make up a path for recruits to move through, looking for those IEDs. This event, and many others, are there to ensure recruits can identify IEDs, lead a platoon through rough terrain, hold security during movements, and carry a casualty to safety. In another event, recruits had to figure out how to overcome different scenarios in a limited amount of time. There are rules to each scenario, and if a recruit breaks one of those rules, the whole team has to stop what they’re doing and run a lap carrying ammunition cans. The purpose of this event is to give recruits the opportunity to lead their team to success, and to work together as one unit.
“The Basilone Challenge. That was the hardest part,” said Martin. This event consists of ascending a steep hill (Basilone’s Hill) that recruits have to buddy rush, and run up carrying their weapons and ammunition cans. During this time, recruits are running up the hill while speakers play sounds of gunfire and explosions. “We were all over the place and it was just hard getting up,” said Martin. Throughout every event, recruits are exercising and moving around, and they hike with their gear between events, making them more and more exhausted as time goes on. “They definitely struggle with sleep, and they haven’t had to walk this distance with this little amount of sleep and food” said Vance.
Thursday morning, on the last day of the crucible, recruits begin their nine mile hike. The hike led recruits to the Reaper- the final hill. “It was tough. I did not expect that hill to be that long and steep,” said recruit Frankie Garza, a recruit with Delta Company, 1st Recruit training Battalion. Once recruits reached the top of the Reaper, they dropped their packs in formation, and then formed up for their ceremony. These are the last moments of a recruit. Drill instructors walk through their platoons and place the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, in their hands, congratulating their Marines for the first time. “For the last 10 weeks, everything we’ve done, culminated here today,” said Gunnery Sgt. Freddy Torres, a Senior Drill Instructor with Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion. “It’s a feeling that I can’t describe, seeing from where they came from, to where they’re at now.”
Once a recruit is handed his Eagle Globe, and Anchor, he has earned the title “United States Marine.” “It felt like I just accomplished so much more than I ever have,” said Garza. “I just get chills thinking about it and it just made me proud, and God helped me get through it all, and I couldn’t be more proud.” For the drill instructors, it’s just as important. They created the transformation from civilian to Marine, and they have the honor of bestowing the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. “It’s the feeling of what I imagine a father to have to one of his sons,” said Torres. “We’ve gone through a lot the past 10 weeks.”
“I’ve done so much in my life, but going through with these brothers that I have now, it’s a big difference,” said Garza. “I pushed my fellow brothers and they pushed me, and we all got through it together and once we got to that top, I felt the tears come down.”

• Date Taken: 08.27.2021
• Date Posted: 09.06.2021 20:46
• Story ID: 404584
• Location: SAN DIEGO, CA, US