May 27, 1997 - False Start

970527...Spent all day waiting. Couldn't ship out today 'cuz I only did 2 pull-ups. Praying I'll do 3 tomorrow. I can do it with God's help.
Prior to beginning Boot Camp, it is necessary to pass an Initial Strength Test (IST). The purpose of this test is to make sure that you at least possess the bare minimum strength and stamina to begin training to become a Marine. The IST consisted of a 1.5 mile run, maximum sit-ups in 2 minutes, and maximum pull-ups. Later on in my time in the Marines, sit-ups would be changed to crunches because the Marines got soft! Just kidding, it's because it was determined that crunches were a better exercise and less likely to cause back injury.

A Marine Corps pull-up is what's called a "dead hang" pull-up. This means that you begin with your arms fully extended, then pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar, then drop back down until your arms are fully extended once again. Later, in boot camp, I would often watch recruits quickly perform several pull-ups without ever fully extending their arms at the bottom, only to hear the Drill Instructor continue his count: "One...one...one...keep not going all the way down, see if I care." In addition to the requirement that you drop all the way, there is no "kipping." This is the kicking and swinging that often takes place when doing pull-ups quickly. If you would like an example of how not to do a Marine Corps, dead-hang pull-up, google "cross fit pull up."

As my journal entry indicates, the minimum number of pull-ups I was required to do in order to head to Boot Camp is 3. I was able to do 2.

I graduated High School on Saturday, May 24, 1997. Three days later, I was slated to go to Boot Camp. To say I had not really prepared myself for that fact is a bit of an understatement. As with my approach to tests in school, I always knew I had a looming deadline and an important examination fast-approaching, but I mostly just tried not to think about it. After all, how hard could it be to do 3 dead-hang pull-ups? Let's ignore the fact that I had frequently (though not frequently enough) tried and failed to do 3 pull-ups.

My lack of preparedness extended beyond pull-ups, however. The enormity of my enlistment and the commitment it brought was never really clear to me, despite the fact that I had nearly a year to prepare myself for it. Going to boot camp had always been a vague, distant idea. Now that the time to go had arrived, I began to wonder what I could possibly have been thinking. This was not possible. I was just a choir and theater geek; how could I possibly make it through boot camp and become a Marine?

All of this fear, uncertainty, and more fear flooded my mind as I hung, looking at the bar and wondering when my arms grew to be a mile long. I completed my first two pull-ups, but was unable to do a third. 

I spent the night in a hotel, along with some other soon-to-be recruits who had been unable to ship out that day for various other reasons. 

As a side note, I had no problem completing the run or sit-ups. So, there's that.

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