Private Gregor

When thinking back on Marine Boot camp there are so many different memories. Private Gregor (Name changed to protect the innocent), is a memory that I will never forget. Private Gregor actually gave me a few memories a couple of them are listed below.

First, Private Gregor had been in boot camp for almost 7 months. Now boot camp is only 3 months long so how exactly did Private Gregor accomplish 7? Evidently he was a literal genius, not in the since that a Drill Instructor calls a dumb recruit a genius, but a serious genius. The Marine Corps was rumored to have offered him a substantial amount of bonus money to join the corps in order to have one of the nations leading computer brains as a member of the worlds best fighting force. However, Private Gregor was not a genius when it came to physical fitness or common since.

I was the 4th squad leader of Platoon 2054 in San Diego. As the 4th squad leader I had all of the tall recruits in my squad. The Marine Corps has a purpose for everything they do. The fourth squad had the tallest then 3rd squad, then 2nd and of course the shorter recruits were in the 1st squad. They do this so that in ceremony everyone can be seen from the stadium. Private Gregor was a 6'2" beanpole of a recruit. He could not march at all and his physical ability was even worse. In 7 months of boot camp he could only do 3 pull ups and somewhere around 20 sit ups. An average Marine could accomplish at least 17 pull-ups and 80 sit-ups. The goal was always 20/80 for a perfect score.

One of the funniest of moments with PVT Gregor was during our third phase obstacle course. The stairway to heaven is an obstacle that is built with telephone poles. There are two vertical poles holding a number of horizontal poles that are separated a good distance apart making it difficult to climb if you are scared of heights. The goal of the obstacle is to build confidence once it is successfully negotiated. Of course the faster the better. I remember waiting behind PVT Gregor because he was scared about climbing the obstacle and actually froze at the top while laying on the very top Horizontal pole, clutching on to it as if it were his only means of survival. One of the Drill Instructors was yelling at him to climb down and he was frozen. Finally you could see the distress of the DI and he yelled at Gregor "PVT Gregor will you do me a favor?" Gregor answered "Sir what favor sir?" the DI replied "Its a Yes or No question Gregor, now answer the freaking questions". After a long pause PVT Gregor said "Sir Yes Sir, I can do you a favor sir". The DI yelled back up a Gregor "Can you do the swan dive Private Gregor?" of course the DI did not want him to jump from so high up but he was definitely letting Gregor know he was frustrated.

Another incident happened just before Final Drill. You see all of the Platoons have a competition in 3rd phase of boot camp to see who is the best marching platoon. Drill Instructors will do about anything to make sure that only the good marching recruits are involved in the competition. As the fourth squad leader I was in charge of Gregor and the Senior Drill Instructor tole me to send him to medical and make sure he came back with a sick bay chit so that he would not have to march.

I told Gregor to go to medical and tell them he had shin splints. When I told him he said "What are shin splints?". I went on to explain that it was a pain in his shins. He said "I don't have a pain in my shins". I told him to put his foot up on my foot locker and I hit his shin with my knuckles to give him some pain. He said "What if the pain goes away?". I pulled a boot from under my rack and took a full baseball swing at his shin. Gregor jumped around limping and then amazingly enough put his other foot up on the footlocker to be hit with a boot. Private Gregor did go to medical that afternoon. He did come back with a medical chit. Private Gregor's chit said he had cellulitas on the heals of his feet. All of my explanation on shin splints was for not.

Private Gregor did graduate boot camp that year. I also learned that there is more to the Marine Corps than physically fit fighters. There is also an elite branch of Intel Marines.