A recruit with November Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, jumps off the tower during basic swim qualification aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. Jan. 13, 2021. The tower is used to simulate aborting a ship at sea and is followed by a 25 meter swim. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samuel C. Fletcher)
Col. Ricardo Player, commanding officer of Task Force Commitment, welcomes poolees to Jacksonville. Before arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, poolees spend two weeks in quarantine in Jacksonville as a precautionary measure against COVID-19. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Lance Cpl. Godfrey Ampong)
Gunnery Sgt. Lamar S. McNeal-Smith grew up an athlete. He played football and soccer his first two years in high school and wrestled his junior and senior year before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps in 2007.
Gunnery Sgt. Matthew Dike is the advance curriculum instructor at Drill Instructor School on Marine Corps Recruit Depot S.C., He was born in Las Vegas, Nev. on Oct. 19, 1985 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps on June 4, 2004.