No, it’s not about your muscle.
US Marines boot camp is famous for being tough. Ever wonder what it takes to get through boot camp? We’ve all heard those ooh-rah Marine Corps stories about the way recruits are pressed to expand their muscle mass, or all those movie or TV episodes where we hear “OK, ladies, what are we going to do now?” And do we a performance grade, or is it entirely a pass/fail kind of program? As I explain in the book, Just Dust, it may not be exactly what you think.
No, it’s not about your discipline, not even your intelligence.
Sure, it’s body strength and obedience to authority; it’s gotta be. Sure, you hafta have smarts, but it’s just not “I can do anything” cleverness that’ll get you through either. So just how does one make it? Probably there was “advance wisdom” disclosed to us that there were three things one had to know to be effective in the United States Marine Corps:
- confidence in self
- thinking like a team member looking out for your brother’s survival
- finally (of course) achieving the mission
Though most of us got that sage advice before making our promise to God and country, most young men didn’t really get the meaning of “it” even though they understood the words beforehand, particularly in war time, particularly as the unripe youth we were heading in. But we young men agreed to participate because we believed we were ready, willing, and able to do whatever it took; nothing else mattered. Just what was “it,” and what did it really take? Yes, there were those who could just plow through unscathed; but, there were some of us who had to learn this ever-so-compelling lesson a different way.
Especially if you were a skinny wimp like I was: a scant 140 pounds, 6’4” and only enough strength to lift two cans of beer at the same time. Especially if you encountered a serious setback during boot camp, like me tearing skin completely off a finger and then having to wear a gauzed-up hotdog bandage while doing pull-ups on the high bar or crawling under barbed wire. Especially if all the other guys had to do an extra ten push-ups whenever I couldn’t do something they already could. Those drill instructors made sure a certain few of us knew who wasn’t going to make the grade …and prepared each one of us for the inevitable. Indeed, some couldn’t and didn’t make it. In Just Dust, I recount how I actually did make it through …barely …and, exactly what did make the difference.