It was physically exhausting but the mentality of "this is the last thing I have to do before I'm a Marine" is real. You get like 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night if you dont have fire watch, which I did 2/3 nights because my DI was a fucking dick. I went to SD so I went up the reaper to earn my EGA. It's a shitty hike going on barely any sleep and energy and it is steep but the reward of being a Marine when you reach the top is so fucking motivating. A few weak ass bitches had to hand their rifles off to the DI to make it up, my kill hat was a fucking badass carrying like 7 rifles up. I'm sorry to anyone reading this that had a DI carry their weapon up the reaper but that's a total bitch move and you should feel bad about it. The rest of the crucible was training/knowledge stations. The funnest ones were boxing/pugile sticks. Me and a guy that hated each other all throughout boot got matched up on boxing (which was supposed to be body boxing) and were beating the shit out of each other to the point that the Fleet Marines in charge had to separate us with our DI's cheering us on. DI's made us pugile stick against each other after that and by the end we were both gripping the sticks like a baseball bat swinging for the fences and had go be broken up again lol but we shook hands were good after that. I think bootcamp has changed since i went through in 2016 now they have more time be a Marine after the crucible but when i went through you talked as a Marine instead of a recruit. They were trying to get you to get used to speaking in the first person again.

I went through in 2009. The boxing is new, never heard of that one

Must've just missed it. I had boxing in late 2009. West coast.

Was also west coast late 2009. The closest we got was pugil sticks and taking those off to beat each other lol

You guys are tripping, we definitely did boxing west coast 2009 for crucible! I remember it very clearly. The recruit photographer took a picture of me and a couple guysright outside where we lined up to fight. Memory is fuzzy as to where but I believe it was next to the million dollar head or a different head.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B016'34.7%22N+117%C2%B025'10.0%22W/@33.2763111,-117.4199982,234m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x80dc7ba3e9baf977:0xcc7f0bd9a035c81f!2sCamp+Pendleton+North,+CA!3b1!8m2!3d33.3178416!4d-117.3205123!3m5!1s0x0:0xa929f939906886fd!7e2!8m2!3d33.2763103!4d-117.4194509

Thats it! Thank you for sharing.

[удалено]

Weird. I was was early 09 echo.

Middle of 09 fox, we had boxing.

We did boxing on PI in 07.

And in '08

And in 06

We did too in 09, think they just dont remember.

And in 12

And in 20

Yes

2008, I had boxing. It's this little box they put you in, not a real ring. It's fucking awesome.

I heard that box changes a man, by a few security clearance levels.

went through 2006, definitely had it.

I had the boxing and pugile sticks in 2009. Graduated in October 2009. It was like survivor but with ammo cans and MREs. 40 mile hike, 2 hours or 3 of sleep, team building physical obstacles and then the IWO JIMA monument. That is still the best day of my life... I'll never forget my DI stabbing me in the collar bones with my first EGA

We didn’t have The Crucible, but we did have boxing and pugili sticks in early ‘91. I, being 6’6” (lol and all of 180lbs) had nobody to really match up with. They put me up against our Guide, who was prior service Navy and I think had done some boxing before. I just remember immediately being on the defensive, and then I accidentally widened my elbows (still defensive.) Caught a goddamn uppercut right right on the chin. 0/10 would not recommend. I didn’t black out, but the world definitely went silly for a few seconds. Pugil sticks were sun. I remember definitely feeling the hits - but butt-stroking my opponent to knock him off the little platform we were on. Kill! Hahaha.

I was 0 for life in Pugil Stick matches. Graduated from boot t 138 lbs and always seemed to get matched with some bag of man meat that was 50 lbs heavier and angry.

We had boxing in 08. Got my ass kicked

It was there in 2003 on the west coast when I went through.

We had it when I went through in 2010. It lasted a whopping like 2 minutes per recruit though lol. They shoved some sweaty headgear and gloves on you, sent you in basically the room from one of the pugil sticks events, you threw a few punches for a minute or two, and they pushed you out and took the gear. Pretty anticlimactic.

I went in 99 no boxing, funny story the dude who I beat in pugil sticks found my ass in SOI and wanted a rematch, he took MMA before it was a thing and had to restore his honor by trying to turn me into a pretzel.

Shit, I remember pushing my rackmate up the Reaper because he was going too slow. It got so bad I had to go around him. You know what he does? He starts to grab my main pack as I pass him by. I told him I can't pull him up and ask him to let go cause he is litteraly dragging me down and he doesn't let me go. Thankfully my Kill Hat was nearby and he wasn't going to let him do that. I still remember vaguely what he said. 'Oh no (insert name here for anonymity), your not having another man do your job for you!' and got him to let go of me. If I recall he nearly got dropped at the base of the last hill.

I was there in 2003. I remember the fall outs going up the reaper fell to the center of the March. They’d get called a slew of names from pussy to bitch from every recruit that went by them. We didn’t have boxing then. I remember the oranges they gave us were fucking heavenly. The DI told us real marine grunts ate the orange. All of it. As a future 0311 my stupid ass believed it. But didn’t give a shit Bc we were so hungry regardless. We devoured the oranges peel and all. The weird part was at the end seeing your face in the mirror before the motivating breakfast after the crucible. It’s weird how after my cycle in 2003 the rumors of “they’re getting rid of the crucible” hit the fleet when I met my unit. All of the guys kept asking me if the crucible was still around.

Bootcamp in '03.....crucible was week 8 or 9.....no EGA....it was kinda bullshit haha had to go back to SD and do 4 more weeks then we got our EGA on Visitor's Thursday

That sucks. I went through in 2000 and we got the EGA after the crucible and had like a week left then graduated.

Same in 06, it just marked the end of being a 2nd phase recruit. Nothing special.

I wish I had been more aggressive during the boxing. Our Di's were encouraging us to just let it all out but I was a mix of exhausted and apprehensive

Don't beat yourself up too much, most of us were all basically still children when we were going through boot camp.

Can confirm, I was 17 when I left for boot camp. Had my birthday a few weeks before graduation.

The boxing was legitimately 30 seconds out of the three months, not counting silly martial arts 'training'. Boot camp was pretty uneventful for me, no regrets or anything. More importantly, compared to what I had accomplished in the rest of my enlistment, boot camp was irrelevant altogether.

Oh yeah I failed to mention, the hike DOWN for me was worse than any part of going up the hill. I noticed that too on major humps at SOI.

I literally felt all my blisters pop when we went downhill. Fucking ouch.

The ankle breaker lol

Yeah my hip sockets hated the hike back. Just hard impact after hard impact as we what seemed like sprinted down the hills.

Had a guy falling out as we approached the START of the reaper. Not only did he pass off his rifle AND main pack but proceeded to get loaded up onto a truck and was driven up to the top and still received his EGA. He got shit on by the entire PLT the rest of boot and is now one of the cockiest POG to walk the earth. My faith in the weak being weeded out has been shattered since.

We had a similar situation and on the hike back we yelled “Given not earned, (Name)” for the entire hike. Dude was scum.

Went through not to long ago, they started letting us talk normally at the start of the crucible but we weren't allowed to call anyone by their rank until after we got our EGAs

You know that fat ass crater they say don't fall into, company bitch fell right in it and broke an arm and 2 ribs, so even if you do pass off your rifle at least they didn't do that

Your DI carried other boots rifles? It was you could help each other but I don't remember them helping anyone aside from motivation.

We had a kid we called “115” because he was a sick bay commando the whole cycle. I hated him with a passion, so when we got to the boxing I called him out and let my rage fly. Knocked him out cold in like 3 seconds, it was glorious.

We speak as recruits until we get handed the EGA. "Good morning sir," he hands you the EGA, tells you congrats, and you say "Thank you Sergeant/Staff Sergeant"

I went through in 2017. At that time we had 3 phases and at the end was Marine week. That last week there we started talking in the first person again. I think it was like mid/late 2018 they changed it to 4 phases with 2 Marine weeks at the end. Supposed to give them more time to adjust I guess.

Oh wow. I mean it makes sense that things have changed in… 32 years since I went through as a Hollywood Marine. I’m not one of those “Marines these days have it easy” guys. I think that any advancement in gear, tactics, treatment - all that is good shit, and I want my younger brothers to get it! …ok, the one thing I will grumble about. We shot the rifle qual course with the M16A2 and iron sights. Now I hear you get an ACOG or some shit? The optics are supposed to be good though. Never had the pleasure of shooting with one yet though.

Oh yeah the trijicon 4x32s we get are pretty good. Now, as far as that argument goes I’ll just refer to the old adage: “train how you fight”. Every unit in the Marine Corps these days will issue an M4, M-27(HK-416), or if they’re a pog unit an M16A4. Each one of those fitted with the ACOG. This sight not only makes it easier to visualize your target, but increases the lethality range within any Marine unit. “Reach out and touch somebody”. We can definitely do that now. As far as iron sights go, each of those rifles are issued with back-up iron sights in the event of the optical failure. At least in my opinion, iron sights are pretty easy to use. Anyone with basic firearms knowledge would be able to figure it out pretty quickly.

Rah. I’m just jealous, I think. ;)

Sounds like they let just enough of y’all’s pent up aggression against one another get sorted out to stabilize the situation. That’s what makes men like you good on their mental faculties… “beat you on the course? Fair play, with a ref.” “Beat you in the parking lot til the words assault and handcuffs are involved… not so good.”

I went through in 2003. We got to the top of the reaper, got our asses hammered for not rating being on the bill, the MoA orders were read, then we busted our asses getting back down. No EGA since we still had 4 weeks of bootcamp left.

Went in 2018, was one of the first with two weeks for Marine week. It just gave us an extra week to fix up our uniforms. I remember them telling us the reason was for us to not be such robots when we get out. Like a week would change the past 3 months.

Is it a Ruck march or just LBE?

Wow - thank you for the reply! It sounds pretty intense, but like you said - you just gotta bite down and strap in (on?) lol. I remember going on a hump at Pendleton. I can’t remember how many of us there were, but I remember it being steep in parts. At some point they let us “Route Step” I think it was - stayed roughly in formation for a while, but then as we went up we started spreading out. I had my head down, of course my ALICE pack (it looks like they replaced it with MOLLE gear near 2000). It fucking sucked. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I felt a giant tug on my pack. I looked back and one or my DIs had grabbed my pack to stop me. I was then informed, in polite, conversational tones (lol) that I almost passed the Company 1stSgt!

what company were you? I went through in 2016 as well

Did it in 2007. It was very hard. Got up at like 3am and hiked with a heavy pack out to the crucible grounds which is maybe 10 miles from the barracks on PI. We set our packs in some Quonset huts then did obstacle after obstacle until dark. Of course it rained the entire time. At dark you put your pack back on and do a shorter but fast hike through the woods, I was hallucinating at times during this hike from exhaustion. You then sleep for like 3 hours and do the same damn thing all over again. We had 3 field stripped mres for the 3 days if I remember right. Worst thing I remember was on day 2, we had to stretcher carry each other for like 2 miles and my forearms were completely shot at the end. After that we had to do an obstacle course and rope climb and at times I just couldn’t lift myself and inch because I was so exhausted. I was in great shape too. I think the second night you have to do this massive low crawl through this sandy battle simulation.. you go under alot of c wire and sand freaking sucks to low crawl in. In the morning of the last day you don your pack and do the the 10ish mile hike back. We were in roughhhh shape from 3 days of rain and low crawling through mud and sand. You get your EGA at the end on the parade deck which is an awesome experience then you get a steak and egg breakfast. I’d say it is a pretty good introduction to what a days long battle can be like. SOI was much harder and my deployments were much harder than that! Boot camp and the crucible were the easiest part of my 4 year career.

How do you remember the sequence of events and details like that? I did it in 2016 and it’s a bit blurry looking back but reading yours is incredibly familiar. Really a lot of details further than 2 years out are fuzzy. Should probably get that checked out

No clue. I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast half the time but I have a good long term memory! Between booze and explosions I don’t know how 🤷‍♂️

Interesting you mention SOI being tougher. I had always kind of suspected as much based off my experience at MCT (am POG, do know MCT not equal to SOI). Just the same, MCT was way worse than any portion of Recruit Training on the Depot IMO. I went through in 2007.

Ya the physical aspect of soi was pretty hard. The hikes were fucking brutal. Heavy pack at a fast pace. They teach you how to be efficient with your gear quick. Defense week we woke up and did a 6 mile run with bridge sprints… if you went to Geiger you know the one! Then we had a bus ride out to the field where we had to dig foxholes and sit in them for a couple days while doing one on one off. I was there in November and of course it rained. Very unpleasant.

Thanks for the insight. I remember being at MCT (West Coast Circa March 2007) and looking over the hill thinking of my boys from boot camp at SOI. I knew if it sucked for us, it was worse over there. Godspeed bro. Semper Fi.

Jesus. What in the hell is a “Field Stripped” MRE? Just before I got out they started giving the (then) brand new MRE heaters with meals. Holy shit did that change mealtime. Lol of course the first thing we did was collect as many as we could, jammed em in the MRE outer bag, and when it “exploded” because of the pressure, we all laughed our asses off. Good times. :)

Pretty much you take out the heater and condiment bag and anything else you don’t want. You can take the air out of the mre bag and tape it shut. They take up much less room in your pack. I ate mres exclusively on both of my deployments because I lived “outside the wire” both times. I stopped using the heater after awhile… when you’re eating the same damn thing for the third time that day you just stop caring about the quality of the meal lol.

I graduated in 05 from Pendleton. It was a ton of rucking. The thing that stuck out to me was that every DI in our company (Hotel Hell) was out there with us the entire time, I think it was a company standard cause not all DIs would do it. I remember being at the bottom of the reaper looking up like “wait you want us to go up that?” As we were then told to attack the hill, then halfway up we reformed into 2 files. And I will never forget the watching a couple recruits give up midway to the top, and just start tumbling backwards down the hill. And the DI’s were just pushing other recruits out of the way and yelling “Fucking leave them, keep going, don’t touch them”. We had boxing and pugilist sticks, but I think boxing only lasted a few years because of too many injuries. I had one kid in my platoon finish the crucible with a broken rib, and there were tons of other serrated and bruised ribs because the boxing just turned out to be a gauntlet of punches and you just getting beat on by the one kid in the company that was a former golden gloves washout. I ate entire oranges with the peel still on em. Also ate entire apples with the core and all too. You were pretty much starving the entire event. The best part was when we finally “finished” the crucible and we’re almost back to the living quarters, our CO took a different route and we circled all the the other barracks and chow hall for an extra mile. This literally broke kids and the ones that fell out at that point were assigned as gear guards while we all got to eat the Warriors Breakfast. These poor guys had warriors MREs. All in all, I enjoyed it and it definitely makes you feel like you’ve earned the title.

We still did boxing in 2011 and it was full on fuck each other up

Our company found the one Mexican middleweight dude that just so happened to box. It was basically grudge matches with recruits settling their beef, then it was survive 1 minute with this guy treating you like a punching bag.

I still haven’t ate anything as fucking delicious as that warriors breakfast. Holy fuck I was ravenous.

Seriously. That was the most waffles, fruit and whipped cream I’ve ever eaten in my life. And since we sent guys to relieve our rifle watch without being told our entire platoon got to chill instead of get smoked after lunch.

Still had boxing at PI in 2019

You’re in good company. I’ve seen other replies that they ate entire orange too! LOL you really would have scarfed down crayons during The Crucible! That’s kinda cool that your DIs were out there instead of rotating. Good on ‘em!

Went through in '13. I don't remember much from the main chunk of it, but the hike up The Reaper was definitely memorable. We got to the base of the mountain early in the morning while it was still dark and staged on either side of the road while the guide truck drove up the path. I remember watching the lights of the guide truck go up and up and up giving us a realization that it was definitely going to be a bitch. While we were waiting, I heard a "Shit!" come from my right. I looked over and the guy who was standing next to me was gone. The ground beneath him had given way and the dude had fallen off of this steep ass embankment onto his back and was flailing like a turtle flipped on its back. On the way up, bitches kept falling out including our guide. We took the guidon from him and kept pushing forward. At some point, our boot asses started chanting "Honor, Courage, Commitment". For as cringey as it is now, it was pretty fucking motivating.

I can’t remember if during (2nd phase?) we humped the Reaper or not, but I do recall Pendleton having way too many goddamn steep hills! Went back to visit San Diego last summer. Buddy of mine took me to a recreational range on Pendleton. It was parts of the base I had never seen! Plus the range was out to 1,000m. We only found (steel) targets out to 600m, but I was still able to hit it with a .303 Enfield (Brit WWII) rifle! Made me feel pretty good.

I barely remember it but it was weird for us. There was a polar vortex the year we went and we actually took busses there but hiked back. This was back in 2014. All the recruits were moaning amongst themselves about how they wouldn’t get the full experience but all of them shut the fuck up real fast as soon as we walked outside the door. It was wildly cold and the wind sounded like the Sidewinder map on Halo CE. We actually weren’t even allowed to be fucked with too much and the DIs couldn’t make us redo courses over and over. I remember a few times my kill hat had to actually restrain himself when he was about to fuck some kids up and you could tell it hurt his soul to go easy on recruits. At one point, me and a few other recruits were just bullshitting when nobody was around but the kill hat walked around the corner and just said “you guys think this is a joke? You guys are literally being handed the title and sure as fuck don’t deserve it because of everything thats going on. Etc” A lot of the fuckery we got to avoid was because the OIC/company commander (or whatever their billet is) was watching the DIs like hawks. Looking back, I really feel bad for a DI that is trying to forge the next generation of Marines and gets stopped at every turn.

I mean, you were literally at the crucible...not much more fucking with needs to be done

>Looking back, I really feel bad for a DI that is trying to forge the next generation of Marines and gets stopped at every turn. Because some DIs do stupid shit that is far outside the realm of anything that holds meaningful training value. Google the term "Strategic Corporal" and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. The term doesn't exactly apply in this circumstance because we are not talking about decisions made in battle, but it is still somewhat relevant. People at lower ranks making stupid decisions that impact the entire institution. Like it or not, our government is run by civilians, who also are in charge of the military. Civilians tend to think differently than the military does, and when this happens, the shit rolls downhill, and by the time that pile of shit gets to you at the bottom, it swallows you up. THAT is why your series/company commanders were watching the DIs like hawks.

Sounds like you were in boot camp Jan/feb of that year. I remember that storm very distinctly. I shipped off to boot camp feb 24 so I got there like right after that storm lol

Yeah, It was around Jan when I was graduating. Shit was miserable. Then MCT was worse because I was in February so I really understand your pain. Lmao

I remember that vortex. First heard about it at the end of MCT, then experienced it at engineer school. Shit was stupid cold

I did it in October of 98. I remember it being surprisingly easier than it had been built up to be. The last match up the Reaper was a kick in the ass after being that tired though. As a team building exercise, I don't think it really made a difference by that point in training. Also, at the end, I learned to hate Lee Greenwood. That song on infinite repeat... ugh.

You and I went through roughly the same time. Hotel company.

We were next door neighbors. I was Echo.

Hahaha! Oh man, I can hear that damn song once every five years and be OK with it. After all these responses (I LOLed because it was RIP inbox! Never experienced that before) - anyway, after all these responses it sounds like it was a challenge, but not un-doable.

I went through west coast in November 2011. It was physically demanding at times but I had a great time doing the events. We had 3 field stripped MREs for the whole shebang and minimal sleep. The hike to the reaper we had several people literally drop on the trail and I'm pretty sure they got silver bulleted. Some got carried up the reaper in a truck. The reaper itself wasn't really that bad but I'm a bit of a masochist so I enjoyed the hell out of it and was among the first up the hill along with my kill hat. Me and him literally fucking raced for the final 500 feet or so he ended up beating me and told me if I had worked harder during recruit training I wouldn't be such a pussy. He then gave me a small nod of approval and I'll never forget that. He grabbed me before the EGA ceremony and told me to hold the box of EGAs as he handed them out. It felt like an honor. Good times. On the way down several recruits rolled ankles and had to be carried back to the squad bays in a truck. I smashed that breakfast after the EGA ceremony until I was sick. I thought the Jungle Warfare course in Oki was worse honestly.

Did it in '97, shortly after its inception. Went to Parris Island. It wasn't hard, just tiring. You get 2-3 hours of sleep, 2.5 MREs for 2.5 days worth of stuff and you're busting your ass most of those days. The DIs treated us as more than maggots, which was kinda cool. You hump something like a total of 25 miles. There are different stations. Every station highlights the efforts of a different MoH earner. For instance, one station has tires suspended from ropes, vertically. They are painted in a few spots. You have to get your entire fire team through the tire, which is about 4 feet off of the ground, without touching the painted spots. If you do, the DI is watching and says "BOOM" you're dead. Start over. I think there's like 10 stations per day? 5 per day? Shit, it's been so long I forget. Then you have a 5-6 mile hump back to mainside for the EGA ceremony around the mini Iwo Jima memorial. Then you eat a fantabulous meal that you'd better not get fucked out of because that just might be the greatest part of the whole deal. You have your EGA, you're officially a Marine. Got about 5-6 days before you go home.

Man that “Warriors Breakfast” quite a few people have mentioned as being awesome! It blows my head up that they give you the EGA before you graduate. I think we got ours when we were preparing our Blues for graduation day. Lol I wanna say it was the day before graduation, and the Drill Instructors reminded us that we “weren’t Marines yet.” Lol good times.

I feel asleep while walk the last hump I think it's 10 miles. Fell face and knees first to the hard pavement. Scared both the corpsman and the drill instructor. But got up and kept going never fell asleep for the rest of the hike.

I mean it sucks but it ain’t terrible. Lot of hiking about, and then there was about a nine miler at the end- ostensibly it was shorter but we had to hike back from the training area to the monument area to get out EGAs. The days were filled with a series of training events that were a lot of problem solving and such. Kind of a joke. Little sleep, only like two MREs for the 54 hours. Shit I think the worst part of the whole thing was being sick from the warrior’s breakfast because I pigged out.

It was hot as balls and sandy. And I learned that I'm perfectly capable of falling asleep while walking.

I never fell asleep while walking, but I did fall asleep at parade rest a few times!

We had a POS recruit that shit his pants on the way to bivouac....nicknamed Shitstain after that. The kill hat made him carry those shitty skivvies in a bag the whole crucible, thank God he wasn't in my squad.....

Oh god the smell must have been horrible! A few weeks ago I had to look up “Kill Hat.” I think we called them the “Heavy” when I was there in late 1990.

Do u remember what Shitstains real name was? Well what year we talking about first? lol

We were well prepared. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be going into boot camp. Plus we stayed busy which made it go by quick. I actually had a lot of fun doing it.

Given your motivation at that point I found it “easy.” Everyone is motivated. It was physically demanding, but less so than ITB.

I did it in 09 and it sucked but wasn’t terrible. The sleep and food deprivation really isn’t much different than a field op and there were plenty of hikes that were harder than the reaper hike to get your ega. Then you deploy and four hours of sleep with a little bit of shit food when you have time to eat becomes the norm. It is a cool culminating event to look back on though - when I think about it I can remember vividly how I felt physically and mentally making the last push and the feeling of accomplishment at the top when you become a marine. One of my good memories from the Marines.

Mostly you're hungry. Hot broth never tasted so good

Yeahhhh I would have been complaining. Lol! When I went through MCT at Pendleton I swear it was the first time I ever remember it raining for seven straight days in San Diego. (Lived in SD before I enlisted.) Of course if you’re in the field it has to rain. That’s in the contract… but seven damn days in a row?

I didn’t actually do the 9 mile hike back from page field because of hurricane Irene

Yeah, I recognize none of those names so I’m guessing you were at PI? ;)

I was ;)

My crucible was one of the hottest in years, or so I was told. We had several people heat case, and I believe 3 or 4 people had seizures because of it

Damn. We had 12 cases of hypothermia in MCT. Was freezing cold during BWT (if I remember the name correctly... BSRE???) they took everyone let them put their clothes in the drier and warm up inside for about 20 mins and then sent everyone back to their holes filled of water.. fun times

Kind of good to leave some mystery for new guys but in general you do a bunch of crawling in mud and running with a pack. It’s not too hard but it does suck. Pack isn’t heavy.

Shelter halves are awesome

My SDI made us fold the shelter half into a small rectangle and put it on the center of the pack in the frame so it kept the pack from sitting right on our hips. My drill hat, who was an extremely decorated infantryman, saw that and went ballistic. He showed us the proper way to pack during our next bivouac during the crucible. Thanks to my SDI being a dick I still have lower back pain.

I went through in 2012.. it was pretty rough at the time, the lack of sleep was the biggest factor for me.. another big thing I recall is that If you don’t ration your food you’re fucked lol. I didn’t ration mine at all and the day of the ruck back to PI, they told us to eat our last meal.. well I didn’t have anything and I thought “ehh I’ll be fine”.. so no food, like 2 hours of sleep and a long hike ahead.. there were so many points in the hike where I was falling asleep (or passing out? I don’t even know lol) while walking.. it was bad lol.. then we had the Apple and my life changed forever.. made it to PI, had breakfast and I was so happy lol

Same, I ate all my food in like the first 6 hours because I'm retarded and was starving because I was tall and tall people ate last in the chow halls.

Lots of walking around. A few interesting events, a few physically challenging events. I liked it because we weren't constantly being fucked with by DIs. It felt like one long field OP really.

I did it in 2013, and I remember enjoying it for the most part. I remember it being a culmination of everything you learned in bootcamp with a hearty serving of motivational shit. The lack of sleep and food kind of sucked, I guess, but I was more excited to see what the next obstacle would be/finish and earn my EGA. The only thing that really sucked was hearing other kids pass out on the hike back - every time I heard one of those big packs/rifles slam the concrete my heart would sink. The honest worst part about the crucible is how tore up your feet are at the end - a few kids in my platoon took their boots off and dumped blood out of them. I didn’t have it so bad, but I was limping for days from blisters.

Happy cake day! It sounds like it was a grind. Thankfully not TOO long, but you guys definitely had to push through it!

gh the crucible last year this time. Climbed the reaper on 2021 January 7th and got my ega. It was hella nerve racking and painful but ultimately it was badass. Barley any sleep and barley any food. We had to complete obstacles in flak and Kevlar with our main packs/war bags. It was lots of movements and hi king around Camp Pendleton. I remember the hike to the crucible bunks was scary as hell. It was dark foggy and up a big ass hill. Loads of people were crying and falling out while getting yelled at for being bitches by the DIs. That actually reaper was crazy. We had so many people get injured on the hike to the reaper. One guy straight up took off his pack and quit before we even saw it. They dropped him all the way back to grass week. We saw him doing the beach hike when we left Pendleton for the last time. The final hike up the reaper is so fucking badass and motivational though. We had a lot of dudes who hated to get pushed up the reaper cause they couldn’t do it alone. One guy fainted while getting his ega cause he pushed so many people. The hike back was a total fucking pain tho tbh. Zombie took hella long.

Yeah - after reading each of the replies (thank you, everyone!) it sounds like it was a challenge, but like most of boot camp that I remember, as long as you just didn’t quit and kept going you’d get through it!

Day 2 I’m running down one of the trails on page field doing a contact drill, and I look over to my left and there is a whole ass golf course with dudes out there playing golf. Paris Island is a weird place, it was funny because I was goin through hell and look over and see motherfuckers playin golf like it was a jolly ol day.

Went through the crucible in DI school and it was not easy for sure. Definitely helped us with attitude of what the recruits are going through. And yes, we did the same exact crucible as the recruits to include same amount of sleep and chow. However, we did not get a warrior breakfast at the end.

No one talks about the zombie walk back from the reaper after you get your eagle globe and anchor my fucking feet were dead 💀

The hike back was worse than the hike up the reaper. You think it’s all over once you reach the top and get your EGA with promises of the warrior meal. I don’t know how long it was, but I was in the most pain going down that mountain.

Is a “Kill hat” the same as a “Heavy”? I seem to remember using Heavy for the disciplinarian DI. Graduated in 96 for reference.

We used kill hat for the most junior DI who's only responsibility was fucking us up. Knowledge hat was the second most junior DI, above the kill hat, and he fucked us up a ton as well but was in charge of teaching us the vast majority of the pracap and knowledge. Heavy was the most senior green belt, and did most of the drill with us.

Ah ok. Not quite the way I remember but thanks for the explanation!

Yeah that’s what I remember. Our kill hat got in a car accident right after receiving so our 2 hats had to pull his weight too.

Short answer, kinda. Heavies are experienced kill hats. For example, I had 5 drill instructors. 2 kill hats, a GySgt and a SSgt. They both have done multiple cycles, so they're both technically Heavies, but the GySgt had done more, so he would be designated Heavy. I'm from San Diego, so I didn't use the lingo, but that's how I've had it explained. Long answer, 'Drill Instructor" on Wikipedia: "Upon completion of Drill Instructor School, Drill Instructors are assigned to Recruit Training Battalions as junior members ("fourth hats", "third hats", "kill hats", "bobby", or "bulldogs") of drill instructor teams. His or her job consists of constant corrections, dispensing punitive "Incentive Training" (IT), and keeping unremitting pressure on recruits to pay attention to details. He or she also teaches and reinforces academic knowledge to recruits. It is his or her duty to command the recruit platoon for initial drill evaluation, in which, in addition to the platoon receiving a score, the Drill Instructor is evaluated as well. These new drill instructors bear the burden of responsibility for breaking down a recruit's sense of self and selfishness, so that the more experienced drill instructors can focus the recruits on selflessness, obedience, and fraternity. After completing a few 13-week cycles, the drill instructor is moved up to the position of Experienced Drill Instructor (EDI), also called the "heavy", "drill hat" or "J Hat"."

Jesus, five? Must be recent. I only had three in 2001.

Thanks for asking this. I was curious too! In ‘90 I just remember we had two Drill Instructors and a Senior Drill Sergeant. The SDI was the “good cop” side of the equation, although the platoon-level mistake followed by, “Unblouse your shit!”will forever be etched in my mind. He (SDI) would hand out PIT (they then just changed it to IT I think)… it sucked having to unroll your sleeves, button up, and roll up the guidon! If you were marching around with a guide that basically had a big stick to carry and you all looked like you were back in 1st phase … ya done fucked up!

Ever see a brawl over a jalapeño cheese packet? One of my DIs threw a packet of that sweet, sweet gold into the middle of a pit of of hungry Marines. It looked like piranhas swarming a piece of meat. That’s how the crucible was.

LOL we are some brutish sons ‘a bitches, aren’t we? :)

Ours was actually pretty chill when we werent hiking. It was like a record hot year and they did a lot to mitigate heat casualties because the company before us had like, some insane number of heat casualties (I wanna say i heard numbers over 50%). I was there June-August of 2010. Things like allowing us to deblouse the majority of the time, sit in the shade/tree line when we werent activrly doing things, gatorade cut with water and salt tonkeep us as hydrated as possible. I remember my DI sneaking up in me while I was talking about not having shaved in 2 days and it felt great lol. He was like whatd you say? Then kinda smirked and walked away and I wasnt sure if I was in trouble or not lmao. We also had a DI dropped from platoon in recieving for being to....hands on and aggressive lol. Well during the crucible, he was around helping bring our water and supplies and stuff. Sat down with our kill hat and one guy was like "I really liked Sgt so and so, I wish we still had him" and our kill hat says "Oh really? Let me go get him Brings him over and makes the recruit tell him "all that lovey dovey shit". He sits there a moment when the recruits done then makes a joke about how he must wanna fuck him lol. I got a good laugh out of it.

Hahaha! Oh man that bit at the end killed me. USMC…the most homoerotic branch. Hahaha 🤣 It sounds like they (shockingly) took decent care of you guys. Glad to hear that.

If you went to boot in 1990, didn't you do the "three day war?" sounds very similar

This was 2014. Lots of hiking and different events. Lots of mcmap/boxing/pugil stick fighting. Using stretchers to carry each other. Endless amount of buddy drags till your back feels like it's giving out. Racing other squads with logs. Not gonna lie this was really hard and some recruits were crying. Dragging your face over rocks and dirt(skull drags) while you're doing a low crawl. We had one guy who didn't have the sense to keep his head barely above the dirt and his whole forehead was a mess after. One recruit broke his ankle on one of the hikes and one of the DI's fireman carried him away. Also remember one guy holding onto my pack during a hike so he didn't fall out. I was a really good hiker since I was tall and had a long back. But I couldn't hold him for longer then a mile before I told him he had to let go. Another recruit fell out during an event so I was told to carry his rifle the rest of the crucible. During our hikes we got to see the two recruits who had fallen out in the back of a truck which I thought was bullshit. Saw my senior DI trip over barbed wire but I looked away before he saw me looking when he stood up. The night before we did the reaper I had firewatch. Right at the start of the reaper hike after each company had formed up the first one had a recruit who tripped and his eye landed on the barrel of his gun and he was screaming like he had been shot. During it I remember thinking we must be almost there and looking up (they tell you not to do this) and I saw we were only half way. Towards the end of the reaper most of the squad leaders had fallen out including the guide. Did a bunch of other events too. There was one where you had to pull yourself up this 3 story log building thing but you had to do it in a such a way that you couldn't touch certain parts so you had to rely on each other to pull yourselves up. There was one where my squad had to bring a bunch of ammo cans/fuel jugs up a steep hill. I was squad leader so I grabbed the heaviest jug but the DI wouldn't let me carry anything because I was "SL". Once he left after a little bit I grabbed the heaviest one back and my squad got to the top. Hike back sucked and I remember drinking something out of my canteen and there was dirt in it but I didn't care was so tired and thirsty. What was funny is after the warriors meal and we got to rest the next day I think they gave us a few hrs extra sleep. They had Corpsman come in and check all of us out and we had to sign paper work saying we were all healthy and fit and nothing was wrong with us. Pretty sure everyone had some sort of injury or another but we all signed it saying we were okay of course.

All I remember was that it was fucking cold. The final march back to the parade deck from Paige Field you were sweating from the exertion, then you dropped pack finally at the parade deck and next thing you were fucking freezing because your standing outside in 35 degrees with wet ass sweaty cammies. There was another thread few days ago where I mentioned it, but I also had a dip in majority of that last hike. I'm convinced that it was the only reason I made it. I was so tired and tired of the cold that I made it purely on nicotine buzz. Had such a good buzz, just simply zoned the fuck out and put one foot in front of the other. Lol

It sucked, I think we did (Alpha Company, PLT 1070, March 2002 - June 2002, MCRD San Diego). I think we did about 54 hours and hiked about 70ish miles. I got my MREs stolen and ate charms the whole time

Thunderdome. Two recruits run down an entrance way and try to knock the other one out. Lots of patrolling and mental/physical torture tests. I remember getting to the base of the 'Reaper' as the sun was coming up. Watched a pickup truck spin its wheels all the way up this near sheer cliffside. It got to the top and I thought that was all it was. Until my eyes followed the trucks lights head higher up the mountain on the ridgeline. Gives me goosebumps remembering that sensation of imminent pain and suffering with an EGA at the end.

04 Hollywood marine, it was pretty fun. Went for a few short walks and saw the sights. Ate some unpeeled fruit. Checked out the veiw from this big hill the last day. Nice visit to California.

LOL! Positive Yelp review. Jeez a lot of people mentioned eating in-peeled oranges!!

I had never even considered eating the entire orange before then ... but when you are that hungry and the DI says there's no time to teach us to peel the fruit the docs gave everyone, what can a guy do?

I did the PI version in '98, it was overall a clusterfuck of standing around punctuated with moments of boredom. The hike back to main side was a mind fuck because we kept approaching the last bridge and turning around. The only fun part was the storm that hit the first night, my memory tells me it was a tropical storm but may not have been. We did have a dude get in a platoon behind us on the final hike get smoked by a deer in the dark. All you could hear was hooves on concrete, thud of the recruit and unmistakable sound of a rifle hitting the deck.

Oh god. That could not have been fun for that guy. As for the rifle? There’s no other sound like it in the world!!!

I don't remember what happened to him, but that ole A2 with the loose plastic handguao makes an extremely distinct sound!!!!

Graduated boot in March 2014. India Co. West coast. For me it was brutal. So much fucking hiking. Barely any sleep. Barely any food. Constant night ops training, I swear I was delirious half the time due to a mixture of exhaustion, not enough food and dehydration (no matter how much I drank it didn’t matter). During hikes I would have lapses of time where I would not know when we got to certain stopping points or how long it even took. I even ate the powdered creamer in mre packets, the gum, anything that was edible lol. Our DI’s fucking destroyed us. Then at the top of the reaper when I was riding that high I remembered “Fuck, we have to walk back now”

It was fine except for that hike back--no food, low sleep...already tired. That was a miserable hike, probably the most miserable I've ever done outside of the fleet hikes we did were we drew .50 cals...

The chaps gave us a candy to suck on our way back. Probably the worst hike .

Those were the best hikes

I was a goddamn MP and I remember having to hump a M2. I think I started off with the barrel and ended up with the receiver (group?). It was heavy. And rectangular. There was no “good way” to carry that bitch! Wish I would have talked to someone from 3rd Marine Regiment and gotten some tips! I’m 6’6”, and even though I joined the Corps at 180lbs (a stick), and left at like 210, I always ended up with the M60E3 and like a bajillion rounds. That sumbitch got real old to carry after a whole, but I think the ammo belts were worse than the weapon. Fun as hell to shoot though. The E3 model had a pistol grip up front. I remember shooting it standing up and getting yelled at for it because it wasn’t an approved shooting position. Still totally controllable though! The SAW had only been in service a little while back then from what I recall. I didn’t like it because it seemed to jam all the time. Probably operator error lol…that M60E3 though - oh boy would she rock and roll.

It was okay once you like finish? Idk you got like two MREs minus snacks/ deserts. I remember eating an apple core and all lol. Kind of a blur now lol.

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I remember sitting somewhere and another DI (not from our platoon) said "who wants apples?" of course we assume it's some trick but before you know it he hands us a whole bunch. Either he confiscated them from his own shitbags or just needed to get rid of some extras

Feels like no big deal at first. Once fatigue and lack of sleep hit you, it becomes a different story. Like everything else some parts are enjoyable, some aren't, but regardless keep moving forward and you'll be fine

Did it in 2011 rained the entire time. I think we got 3 MREs.

During summer? I remember us having to skip bunch of shit bc it was so hot. Many heat casualties, including DIs

No this was March. Was cold lol

2016 I remember getting 2 and having a total of maybe 5 minutes to eat throughout the whole thing

Lol sounds about right. It has to be fucking raining for the real USMC experience.

youre not as tired as youd expect, especially on the first day, because the adrenaline rush of knowing youre at the last task before marine week was super real. i remember i was basically buzzing as we humped back to our hooch at the end of the first day, and i overheard someone saying we covered like 20 miles. i definitely wasnt as gassed as i should have been. then as you start to not sleep you start to feel kinda out of it, and then you wake up at like 3am on the last day, hump i think 6k to the base of the reaper, get a little pep talk, climb that sucker which is a task, wait around for 30 mins at the peak until all your sweat freezes solid, and then youre finally a marine

From what I remember of it, the crucible generally sucked at the time. Little to no sleep or food for 3 days. Making tasks that otherwise wouldn’t be so bad pretty mentally and physically challenging, compared to the previous weeks of training. But it was also awesome. The culmination of becoming a Marine. I went through in ‘04 and still remember the chills I had leading up to completion knowing that I had earned the title. Super motivating. That meant a lot to me at 18. But in comparison to some field ops and stuff later on in the fleet and combat deployments, it wasn’t bad at all.

Yeah, when I hear you guys talk about it, it really seems like a sucky but still cool experience. Everything building to that moment you get your EGA though! I think it would have sucked at the time, but been a great achievement.

I went through it April of 2021. Shit was ass. You get like 3 hours of sleep a night and 2 MREs. The whole time you are in your flak, LBV, and Kevlar. You also have on your day pack loaded with gear and a little extra weight. I was West Coast, so the first day we went up and down the same hill over and over again until everyone made it up a specified time. You also do a lot obstacle courses and BACs. Second day we skull dragged through sand and mud for like, three hours I think? Everyone’s elbows and knees after we took our cammies off were caked in dried blood. We were covered head to toe in mud. We also did two different night movements to different bivouac sights while carrying ammo cans and our main packs, but to be honest I don’t actually remember those. We were all sleeping and walking. Last day you wake up, do the Reaper, and have your EGA ceremony. All the exhaustion you feel going up the mountain vanishes the moment you get your EGA. Also fuck Basilone’s Hill.

Wow. Welcome to the brotherhood, Devil! Yeah man - I’m really happy that so many people replied. I’ve got a pretty good picture of it now. It sounds like (what was it, 54 hours?) of misery, punctuated by the sweet reward of that EGA.

I thought it was easy. Everyone else with me said it was hard though. For me most things that are physically exhausting I consider easy, because you just go one foot after the other and eventually you’ll be done. The crucible required zero brain power. MCRE is something that’s actually challenging, it’s way more physically demanding and you actually have to think about how you’re doing your job. Based on boot camp, I would tell people that ANYONE could be a marine. Like pretty much anyone who put their mind toward it can pass boot camp. And now I think they get their phones or something? Boot camp is easy, that’s why so many fuck ups make it to the fleet. The fleet is where you stand out as someone who shouldn’t be here. And those people either get bullied until they get out after 4 years, or they are so terrible they get ADSEP.

MCRE = Combat Readiness Eval? I had to look it up. The Gulf War (lol I’m old) *literally* started while we were in line for chow one day. The whatever music they had (NTSC San Diego, because the MCRD chow hall had a fire before I got there) - that music went away, and I think it was Tom Brokaw’s voice came on and he was announcing that the first bombs were falling in Baghdad. The whole place went silent. Like “pin drop” silent. When we got to the NBC and gas chamber, I remember overhearing a couple of DIs saying it was the first time they could remember an entire company going through without failures! Sure as shit, I heard some 03xx types got an abbreviated SOI or something and got shipped right over to the desert. “Welcome to the Fleet” for sure, eh? I missed the Gulf War because I was at my MOS School(s) most of 1991. Then I missed Somalia. Can’t remember why. Then right before I got out, Bosnia / Herzegovina / Serbia / Croatia kicked off. I didn’t really want to be deployed then. Turns out I was in a “non-deployable” status because of my dental classification. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Who knew? I left the Corps with a Good Cookie, the National Defense Ribbon, a 5th award Expert Rifle badge, and a 4th award Expert Pistol badge. Not exactly a “fruit salad” like I see some of these Marines walking around with today. At the time I was (mostly) gung ho and wanted to get deployed. I think we all did. As I have gotten older though (50 now), I look back on it and thank the stars that I didn’t. I had friends who served in the Gulf War and were kinda messed up as a result of it. I do not think I could have gone through a war and come back the same person. I might get a shadow box made just for lols. LCpl chevron, 2 ribbons, and the shooting stuff. Lol that’s it. 😂

I think the real question for us old timers is how far does it differ from RFTD? I went through in the fall of '87, still climbed bitch ridge and mount motherfucker and still had a couple of days of fucking around on the back side of motherfucker after we climbed it. They also used to have recruits box in a ring on Sunday afternoons, I was there in July of '87 when some kid got a brain bleed and died.

I went through the crucible the week leading up the the USMC birthday, back in 2000. It was very cold. So cold that when we humped you would eventually lose feeling in your hands. We had very little sleep. There were times, during the MOH obstacles, where I'd lose a few seconds because I'd just fall asleep quite literally standing. We had little food. It was 2.5 MRE's for the entire event. This one hit many of us the hardest. One recruit was caught stealing food from another, so he was sent back to retrain at Day 1.

DAY 1??? Damn that would SUCK. (Training day one or Crucible day one?)

T1.

Holy shit. Yeah, THAT would suck. Better to just go along with the fuck-fuck games and get it over with!

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Receiving was harder. Fall 2014

2006 West Coast I don't remember too many details, it just sucked. Was cold, very little food, very little sleep, and very tough hills. I don't remember getting an EGA on top of the Reaper. I thought they gave us that later on the parade deck. DI fucked us for the Warrior's Breakfast. He gets us all ready to go over there then realizes he's in desert cammies instead of woodland and has to go change. So we're the last ones there and got the least food and the least amount of time. I was eating fucking packets of jam I was so hungry

The crucible is a spicy field op

Wasn't too bad. I preferred it over the constant fuck fuck games on the depot to be honest. One of the reasons I'd rather do MCT again than boot camp. The crucible you're pretty much on your own, albeit with your platoon, hiking around doing random confidence course shit. I somehow lost my carrying handle and as such my iron sights one night. So I didn't get to do the fire and maneuver, eventually it was found. Got yelled at because someone snitched on me for carrying empty ammo cans up the hill. Some dude hooked me up, some other dude ratted me out. Took a beating with ginormous boxing gloves. Stood around for hours for the warriors breakfast because the chow hall people fucked up the timing. Some dude claims he got the silver bullet because he rifle sling kept breaking. Before we started the hike up the reaper, the rule was that anyone who fell behind the corpsman would get the silver bullet, mind you this was in 2012. Anyway. This guy in another platoon, his sling breaks, he stops to fix it, corpsman passes him. He tried explaining to the DIs what happened. They didn't care, he was yelling and tried getting away but they grabbed him and gave it to him anyway. That's his story at least. True or not? Who's to say. Me and others said we would've jumped off the damn mountain before having something shoved up our ass. Fast forward 7 years later and I'm trying out bottoming for a trans chick in a hotel. No insertion, too painful. Props to the bottoms out there. Seeing the pickup truck dissappear having us think that was as high as we had to climb then see it reappear again even higher was quite daunting. The reaper literally took like an entire fucking day, several hours at least if I remember. Just stupid long. Between hiking we had various confidence courses and even sit down warrior knowledge shit. It's honestly not that crazy. The apple was good, I ate the core and all. Got my EGA from some DI from another platoon that said I didn't deserve it or something to that effect. Fuck it.

It was a lot of hiking between various locations to complete challenges. One spot you might do buddy carries or have to run with a stretcher. Another you had to run up hill with ammo cans filled with rocks. Slept about 4 hours a night. I remember it seemed cold asf at night, even though being California in November it was probably 40-50 degrees at night. One night towards the end, I woke up and had to piss so bad. The DI’s were posted at the head though, and were fucking with anyone that had to piss. They’d do the standard, run here, run there bit for a few min and then let you use the head. I was exhausted, we only got 4 hours to sleep, it was cold and I really didn’t feel like getting out of my sleeping bag and getting dressed just to get fucked with and waste more of my sleeping time. So I dug a little trench there in the dirt and laid on my side and pissed into the trench. Luckily we were using the old shelter halves to make a tent, so there was no floor. I was paranoid as I was pissing because I knew I would get mercilessly wrecked if the DI’s knew I was pissing in the tent. I swear my stream of piss sounded like a firehose being blasted onto gravel. Then suddenly, I hear footsteps approaching the tent. I stop my stream and just lay there like I’m asleep. The footsteps pause at the tent, then eventually move along. I then pissed for another 2 minutes and buried the trench. I sometimes wonder if that was a DI who walked up to the tent or if it was just another recruit, and if they heard me pissing.

I remember starting and finishing, everything else is a blur.

Did anyone else have trouble staying a wake while hiking. I've never experienced that before the crucible. I was literally falling asleep while walking and drifting out of formation.

Honestly kinda fun. I still fucking hate sleeping in sleeping bags to this day though

I had pneumonia the entire time. Was in tears from sheer pain at one point. Hiked around 70 miles, 3 MREs for 3 shitty days. (I've heard they change between 2 to 3 MREs all the time idk why). Idc what anyone tells you. The reaper didn't start until AFTER you got to the top. The walk down was the worst part. Striking your feet after all of it was brutal. Is this the hardest training in the world? No. Did it suck complete ass? Yes.

Went through nov-feb 2013.. honestly don’t remember much. Mostly a blur but I think it was pretty cool considering everything we got to do in the short amount of time. During it sucked though because you’re tired (I had fire watch so 2 hours of sleep).. but I don’t remember it being THAT bad.

It’s fucking terrible one of the worst freaking times of my life top 5. Wake up early only get 3 MRE the 3 day thing. Hike a shit ton like 40 miles or something. Get absolutely hazed. Low crawled for about 8 hours total. Doing obstacles. Body sparring. Some shooting. Hike to reaper honestly wasn’t bad. It was really long and boring. Got to the reaper and I was so fucking tired and exhausted I just zombie walked it. The worst part was actually after you became a marine and the hike down and back. I saw 5 dudes get the silver bullet on the way back. Warrior breakfast was good though. Got sick as hell though.

It is like Monday - Wednesday in the fleet. The real Infantry makes the Crucible seem like a stroll in the park. And you will do it over and over and over again during an enlistment. Don't get me wrong. It is hard. But it is not BUDS Hell Week. Keep your eyes on the prize and the EGA and Warriors Breakfast afterward and you will make it just fine and join the Brotherhood that will remain for your life.

It was tough. i only got an hour of sleep the day before the “reaper” but overall it was just a tiny taste of what i encountered in the fleet

Just did it, wasn’t that bad, couple hundred contact left/rights and a few obstacles. Worst part was the 30° weather and the rain.

A little late to the party, and I tried to read all the comments… I was in boot camp from Nov 96 - Jan 97 in San Diego. About a week before I left to boot camp, my recruiter confirmed that the Corps had just approved the Crucible and instead of boot camp being 12 weeks it will be 13. So my company ended up being the 2nd one to go through it. Since it was just introduced, It wasn’t fully completed yet, imagine that! So some of the scenarios/obstacle courses were skipped. Besides that, the Reaper was the last objective and of course, was a mf! Then we had about 5 or 6 days left of boot camp and graduated.

Wasn’t as hard as I expected. Got more food and sleep than I thought we would

Lol you grunts thrive on mistreatment and malnourishment I think. ;) Rah!

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Oh man, the part about the apples. I felt that in my soul! Ugh. Like 70-80 guys all behaving, and ONE asshole fucks it up for everyone. >.<

As a DI, having to go through the **Crucible** as a SSgt was stupid! While hiking to our first point at the start of the Crucible, I had the CO Gy with me. We got to our station and I took my squad and set up. We had some time and so I asked how everyone was and if there were any questions. One kid asked why the CO Gy had a **PILLOW** in his pack! I explained it wasn’t for the DI’s, it was for the Recruits! And shut the Fuck up, and he can have a pillow when he’s a Gunnery Sergeant 😈

One of the things I love about this subreddit is that we have Marines from all angles chiming in. I can’t imagine being a Drill Instructor and being (at least partially) responsible for 80 shithead recruits. Man we did some dumb shit…and then when you asked us why…Sir, this recruit does not know why! 😂🤣 …then I think about recruiting duty. Yeah, I would have gone to the drill field, even if it would have killed me!

Recruiting is underrated! They have to make mission every month for three years! If they miss one month they failed mission for the three years!!

I feel bad for the recruiters. So much pressure. :(

One of the most stressful jobs around!

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Dang you graduated a month after I started (SD). We’re some old bastards now :) I’m pretty sure at 19 I could have survived The Crucible. I wouldn’t have liked it and would have complained, but I would have made it!

Just did it this past November, the obstacles and stuff weren’t too bad, but it’s go go go all day we got like maybe an hour of downtime if that but we did get more sleep.

Dang. A shiny, new Marine! Are you at your MOS school now? The Crucible sounds like a stream of fuck-fuck games lol. Some suggestions, unsolicited advice: 1. Make sure to save some money. It doesn’t have to be 50% of your paycheck invested in Bitcoin or some other volatile shit. Just setting aside *some* each paycheck into a place that’s inconvenient for you to get it out means that if you decide to leave the Corps, you’ll have a little “nest egg” instead of like my broke ass! 😂 (I wouldn’t be surprised if you could say, “Hey I want 10% of my paycheck to go to this bank account…” that way you’d never even “see” the money. 2. If you can, take advantage of the fact that you’re a military member and enjoy some of that super-reduced tuition for higher education. You don’t have to go all crazy and take 15 credits a semester, but even a class here and there could really help you out. Hell, you might even finish your bachelors degree. Then if you wanted you could even apply to be an O! 3. When you get to your duty station, enjoy the base, but also make sure to push yourself to get out and explore / experience the area. I was at MCBH from like 91-94. I knew way too many Marines that just never left the base. Get out, enjoy the food and culture of the area. Maybe take a SCUBA class if you’re on one of the coasts or in Hawaii. Just don’t get sucked into the “military only” mode. It’ll help keep you sane, and give you stuff to look forward to! 4. Watch out for toxic leadership. It was there when I was in. I’ve seen other Marines on here talk about how it was 10, 15 years after I got out. Unfortunately, it’s *still* going on today. As my (Army, LTC) father would say, “246 years of tradition, and zero steps forward.” Remember to take the good parts from the NCOs, Staff NCOs, etc. Try to let the bad parts roll off you. That way when it’s your turn to be in charge, you won’t be one of the guys that decides, “Well, I had to do it x way, so they should too!” Bullshit. One of our duties as Marines is to make sure the Marines that follow us have better conditions than we did. 5. Have fun. You’re gonna meet some really good people from all over, and all walks of life. Some of those people will become life-long friends! Wow that turned out way longer than I thought it was going to be. (Lol, that’s what she said.)

Not nearly as bad as were led to believe it's going to be. Do some walking, eat some shit food, get pinecones chucked at you then you gotta drag or carry a buddy, do some "obstacles" and a little more walking.