Making the Corps [Paperback]

Ricks followed the crew of Platoon 3086 very closely. He did not change the names. He did not whitewash the situations. He followed them personally, but also incorporated pieces of information from official logs and follow-up evaluations. For all the mystery that seems to surround the Corps, it is a remarkably open organisation, and in many ways is like a Hollywood personality in search of a camera and the spotlight. Marines don't mind being in the spotlight. On the other hand, Marines strive to work as a team, so the stars of this book are, in reality, not the individuals, but the platoon, the Drill Instructors, and the Marine Corps itself. The story of Platoon 3086 could be repeated over and over. More than one million men and women have gone through Parris Island to become Marines. MCRD San Diego likewise turns out thousands per year.

One of the other elements that makes this book impressive for giving insight to the Corps is that, from the lowliest recruit to the Commandant, Marines are in many ways a band of brothers who prize their common bond. The Marine Corps has a lower percentage of officers to enlisted personnel than any other branch - to a very real extent, the enlisted crew run the Corps.

From the beginning of boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island, Ricks follows the men as they are driven through swamps and dark dusty roads through the South Carolina coast lands to a place that looks far more like a prison camp than training centre. This is intentional - the Marine Corps starts from the very beginning of the recruit's experience changing the entire outlook on life. The recruit starts becoming a Marine even before he reaches the camp. Rather than bringing the new recruits into the service with an orientation session, Ricks uses the title Disorientation for this introduction, and he is largely correct. In the first few days the world of recruits will be turned upside down, and they will become totally dependent upon their Drill Instructors, their inner strength and drive, and each other.

The hierarchy is simple. As Ricks says, at Parris Island (and the same is true at MCRD San Diego), the officers think about the training in the weeks ahead, the Drill Instructors think about the days ahead, and the recruits think about the immediate task or event.

Training takes place for weeks, and includes physical training (PT), drill and marching, military courtesy and customs, and all the various little disciplines and punishments the Drill Instructors can devise. Few things are done individually - the larger purpose of boot camp for the Marine Corps is to instill a sense of brotherhood and an indoctrination into the culture of the Marines. Ricks compares Marine Corps recruit training with Army training, and shows the contrast with two different Army installations, Fort Jackson and Fort Benning. Fort Jackson is much more like a college campus; even the soldiers at Fort Benning, where the Army does infantry training, look on Jackson as being rather soft. Benning is more like the Corps in that it is segregated (all male), marching and attention is the standard, and physical standards are tough. Ricks notes, however, that more actual training of skills takes place at Benning than at Parris Island.

'They don't train infantrymen at Parris Island,' Col. Johnny Brooks of Benning's infantry brigade states. `What they do is turn a civilian into a Marine.' Marines go on to the School of Infantry (SOI) after MCRD to become infantrymen. Every Marine learns to shot to rather high skill level; the Marine Corps states that `every Marine is a rifleman', and recruits don't make it through boot camp without acquiring that skill.

While this is far from an academic or research text, if one were to go through and collect all the books referenced in the text, and view all of the films (there is much more than films already cited here), one would get a very thorough indoctrination into the spirit and policy of the Marine Corps.

Ricks follows several of the Marines (in today's Marine Corps, the men in boot camp are not called Marines until the Crucible; in the Ricks experience, it was not until graduation - which shows the continuing evolution of the Corps) back into `the world', and follows up as they get new assignments, and, for some, discover that the ideals of Corps values are not lived up to outside of boot camp. Some also realise they no longer have that much in common with former friends and acquaintances.

Overall, this is an excellent insight into the culture of the Marines. Specifics of training may change, and the names of the participants certainly change, but the overall culture and ethos remains the same.

On the fascinating side, it's a human interest exploration of what it means to make it through book camp. Ricks follows the recruits of Platoon 3086 through their basic training ordeal, recounting the daily routine in the life of the average grunt recruit. That part of the story is pretty familiar to most everyone--to those of us who went through basic training ourselves, and also to those who've never been in the military but who have seen the million-and-one Hollywood movies with boot camp scenes in them. Familiar as the story is, however, Ricks telling of it is gripping. He's a good writer, and knows how to capture a reader's interest.

The frustrating aspect of the book is the fact that Ricks never asks, much less answers, any of the very obvious and crucial questions his account naturally suggests. Had he done so, his book would've been more than merely a journalist's story about boot camp. It would've been a real contribution to our understanding of American culture. For make no mistake about it: the very existence of the Corps is a prism through which to observe and learn things about America that go far beyond just the military.

Let me cite just two examples of where Ricks fails to reflect on what he's witnessing.

On pp. 116-119, Ricks describes a typical Sunday morning chapel call. All of us remember them; they were routine. Some of us took them seriously, most of us probably didn't. We were just relieved for the break. Now, in the Parris Island chapel, there's a stained glass window, described by Ricks, which depicts "a Marine flamethrower, his weapon's flames billowing out in a red, organce, and yellow mass." This, to say the least, is disconcerting: in chapel, a place of worship, peace, and meditation, you've got a scene of horrible carnage (a flame-thrower, for God's sake!) enshrined. This passage in Ricks' book is a symbol for the strange dilemma that any religious military person has to face: how can the demands of the job be reconciled with faith? It's a dilemma that ripples across the entire country, especially these day now that we're in a new shooting war, and it needs to be explored. But Ricks neither reflects on it himself nor invites any of the boots he's following to do so. It's as if he doesn't even catch the incongruity.

Second example. Starting on page 200, Ricks argues that the Corps, anxious to create traditions that will build loyalty (semper fi, guys) and morale, along the way creates a strong sense of anti-Americanism in its recruits. Marines, Ricks says, are being trained as "American samurai in the way they think of themselves and in the way they relate to their nation. Like the Japanese, the ... Marines, when looking at America see a society weakened by selfishness, indiscipline, and fragmentation." (201) The upshot (as Ricks himself acknowledges) is that the Corps, dedicated to the protection of American culture, is instilling in its recruits a deep contempt for American culture. How weird is that? But instead of exploring this weirdness by asking the predictable questions--What is there about American culture that the Corps finds so offensive? How protected are we if the protectors we train disdain us? How is it that military values (or at least the Corps') are so out of step with civilian ones?--Ricks moves blithely on. It's as if his loyalty to the Corps prevents him from criticizing it in any way. But why would criticism be disloyal? Has there ever been a jarhead who hasn't criticized the Corps?

So read Ricks' book, but ask the questions he doesn't. They're important, and past and current Marines are the ones best qualified to ask them. "Semper fi" doesn't mean dumbing down.