CAMP PENDLETON — Christopher Blackman, 19, of Walla Walla, Wash., is cold, hungry, covered with mud, soaked by sweat and chilly rain, and exhausted both mentally and physically. He has never been happier.
He has just endured a 54-hour gut-busting ordeal called "the Crucible," the capper to 12 arduous weeks of Marine Corps boot camp--a regimen that a national commission has suggested the other military branches, which have softened their own training, would do well to emulate.
Blackman's reward for his perseverance is the right to be called a Marine and to possess a miniature of the eagle, globe and anchor that constitute the Marine Corps emblem.
"This means everything to me," a tearful Blackman said as he held the small piece of metal as if it were a priceless gold nugget. "I earned this."
To Blackman and other recruits in Company A, it is a matter of immense pride that basic training in the Marine Corps is tougher than that of the Army, Navy or Air Force.
"Everyone wonders at some point during the 12 weeks why they didn't go into another service where training is easier," said recruit Joel Francis, 18, of Los Angeles. "But you keep pushing and pushing, and in the end, it's all worth it, believe me."
For two centuries, the Marine Corps has prided itself on being different than other branches of the U.S. military--a difference that begins in boot camp. Even the other services concede that the Marine Corps is a breed apart.
"The Army and the Navy are run like traditional military services," said a Navy admiral. "The Air Force is run like a corporation, but the Marine Corps is a religion."
The Marine Corps is the smallest service, the most tightly knit, the most combat ready, "the first to fight," and the most dependent on its enlisted ranks.
Never has the difference between the Marine Corps and other military branches been more apparent than in recent years as America enters the uncertainties of the post-Cold War era.
Other military branches have reduced the rigors of basic training, scaled back the physical and mental demands, and moved to include women in previously all-male training units--all in the name of accommodating trends in the civilian society. Defiantly, the Marine Corps has opposed those trends.
"By being out of step with civilian values, the Marine Corps has remained in step with military values," said Charles Moskos, military sociologist at Northwestern University. "The Marine Corps hasn't lost sight of the fact that a military force exists to fight and to change civilians into combatants."
