Pride and Discipline

Marine Boot Camp has been described in many books and movies over the years and in many cases not favorably. The author is especially qualified to write about this subject because he went through a Boot Camp at Parris Island in 1953 and returned as the commanding officer of the Recruit Training Regiment in 1982 after spending a significant amount of time leading Marines as an officer and noncommissioned officer. The author goes into great detail explaining his theory about why abuse occurs. He also describes the quality of the drill instructors and their background.

The author places the reader in the environment by telling stories about what is actually happening throughout the training cycle. He explains why more supervision or regulations will not eliminate abuse, but only by changing attitudes will that happen. His style of working with the drill instructors and junior officers takes the reader through the events.

A totally new approach of stress management was implemented with superb results. Experts in conditioning and psychology were used in an effort to improve the production of basic Marines and reports from the operating forces supported the end results. The author spent most of his time out of the office observing training and speaking with recruits and drill instructors. Many of the changes that occurred were suggested by the drill instructors during these informal talks.

Some of the changes that did occur are listed near the end of the book. Many of them remain in effect today while others have been overcome by time.