MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan – Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 Marines wives took on the challenge of a simulated recruit training experience here Sept. 14, 2012, as part of Jane Wayne Day.
Spouses endured a few hours of Marine Corps boot camp through various scenarios Marines undergo various times throughout their careers . The spouses got a taste of possibly everyone’s fondest memory from boot camp: incentive training, with every minute of the experience spent under the watchful eye of Marines taking on the mentoring roles of the infamous senior drill instructor and his kill hat.
“Today we have the 2012 Jane Wayne Day,” said Staff Sgt. Michael A. Rucker, MWSS-171 Headquarters Company communications maintenance chief. “We took the spouses through the gas chamber, we gave them a taste of the CFT and physical fitness test and now we are showing them some Kung-Fu MCMAP training. We are trying to give them a taste of what their husbands have to do from boot camp on to day-to-day stuff.”
The faces of the spouses differed from the average recruit at Parris Island or San Diego. Whereas a recruit tends to hate life and is not afforded the privilege to look anywhere but forward, the spouses ' faces were never without a smile ... in the beginning of the day. For the first event on their list, the spouses made their way to the gas chamber.
“My least favorite part of the day would have to be the gas chamber,” said Stephanie K. Mifflin, Jane Wayne participant and wife of Master Sgt. Christopher J. Mifflin, engineer company with MWSS-171. “It felt like my skin was on fire and I think I’m still covered in it because my eyes keep burning.”
Once all the spouses had successfully made their way through the gas chamber, it was on to the CFT course.
“I’m really enjoying myself. It’s a good chance for the spouses to bond and we get a chance to see what our husbands do on a daily basis,” said Mifflin. “My favorite part was the physical aspects of this and finding out more about what boot camp would be like with a drill instructor screaming in your face.”
The role of a military spouse is a demanding one, fraught with frequent relocations and other things civilian families do not normally deal with. Jane Wayne Day allows the spouses a small glimpse of what it is their significant other has chosen as their career .
Subscribe
