August 15, 1997 - Knowledge Recruit

970816 - Wed, Thu, & Fri was more A-Line. I could go into detail about it but I hated it so much that I've blocked most of it out of my mind. One thing I remember is that the DIs treated us like DUNG all week. Partly because they wanted to and partly because there's a DI from San Diego who's here for the rest of our stay here on "Paradise Island." 

The other day, my journal entry mentioned that A-Line was both boring and high-stress. A large reason for that is that we had lots and lots of down-time. And if there's one thing that Drill Instructors can do, it's filling down-time with "games," frustration, more "games," and more frustration. With some trips to the quarterdeck thrown in just for fun.

At one point during A-Line, we found ourselves in an extended (i.e.: hours-long) rifle cleaning session. The entire platoon had our footlockers pulled out from the bunks and we were sitting, cross-legged behind them, cleaning our rifles. Think of that scene in Forrest Gump where Bubba and Forrest are cleaning their rifles while Bubba lists off even more ways to cook shrimp. The big difference here (aside from the fact that they were Army recruits, and fictional) is that we were cleaning our weapons in silence. That is, until DI Sgt. V__________ called for the Knowledge recruit to review knowledge in preparation for our upcoming final academic test.

At this point in boot camp, our Knowledge recruit was a guy named Recruit L______. He was one of the recruits who had come over from Second Battalion during Mess and Maintenance week (a 92-day reservist). He was unique for a couple of reasons. For starters, he was 32 years old. Normally, the maximum age to enlist in the Marines is 28. L______ had gotten an age waiver though, meaning that the Marines had decided that he was just too valuable to the Corps to let slip away, despite being 4 years past the age limit. Why did they think he was so important? Well, that brings us to his second unique trait: L______ scored a perfect score on the ASVAB test (the military entrance exam). Because of this, the Marines had decided that L______ would make a fine Marine, even though it might be more difficult for him to get through boot camp.

L______ was named Knowledge recruit for the obvious reason that he had scored so well on the ASVAB and not for the reason that would have maybe made more sense: in his civilian life, L______ was a teacher. He had enlisted and chosen to spend his summer off in boot camp. Crazy.

Anyway, L______ stood up, got out the Knowledge binder, and began to review the content for the upcoming exam. Unfortunately, though, L______ was a natural teacher and was unable to simply regurgitate the material. Instead, he would pause and explain each point until he was sure that every recruit understood. Just like a good teacher should do. And just like a good recruit should never, ever do. What he should have done is simply asked the question (like: "Five types of wounds are?") and waited for the platoon to answer together ("Recruit, the five types of wounds are, keyword CALIP: C: cut, A: abrasion, L: laceration, I: incision, and P: puncture, recruit.").

After he had been reviewing, or more accurately, teaching the platoon for about five minutes, Sgt. V__________ walked out of the DI room and stopped him.

Sgt. V: Hey, L______. Did I tell you to do all that?
L: Sir, no, sir. This recruit was just tryi--
Sgt. V: I don't give a crap what you were trying to do. It's not what I told you to do. Get on my quarterdeck.
L: Aye, sir!

And L______ put down the binder and headed up to the quarterdeck to be punished for teaching.

Sgt. V: Where you at, Bailey?

Oh, crap.

Whenever a recruit was being punished on the quarterdeck or in the pit, it was common to have a second recruit up there being punished as well. The main reason for this is so that, if one recruit wasn't working hard enough, the DI could talk to the other one about it: "If he would start pushing, you wouldn't need to be up here. But apparently he doesn't give a damn about you. He doesn't care if you die up here. He's just not going to try." Considering L______'s age, there was literally no one worse to join on the quarterdeck. I was by no means the model of fitness, but I was 18, and he was 32. He would burn out within the first minute on the quarterdeck, which meant that my time with him was sure to be much longer than it needed to be.

All of this raced through my head as DI Sgt. V__________ called my name. But I didn't have any other choice but to answer. So I stood up and answered.

Me: Here, sir!
Sgt. V: You're my new knowledge recruit. Don't try and pull some shit like L______ just did.
Me: (as a wave of relief washed over me) AYE, SIR!

I picked up the binder and began reviewing material, in the V__________-approved manner.

Before long, the other Drill Instructors must have gotten bored as well, because they both came out of the DI room, picked ten recruits at random, and put them on the quarterdeck. I simply moved back in the squad bay and continued to review for those recruits who were still cleaning their weapons. Soon, the first group was done on the quarterdeck and ten more were called up. Then ten more. Then ten more. This continued right up until chow time, when we were instructed to reassemble our rifles and prepare for chow.

By the time I headed to early chow with C___, everyone in the platoon had been on the quarterdeck, at least once, for at least twenty minutes.

Everyone except me.

Somehow, by simply reviewing knowledge, I had managed to escape the notice of the DIs and avoid being called up to the quarterdeck.

So that was a pretty good day.