GET OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW!
Marine Corps Recruit Depot
The journey towards earning the title and becoming a United States Marine begins with a bus ride to MCRD – Marine Corps Recruit Depot – aka Boot Camp
USMC Boot Camp is 13 weeks long – it’s the longest and the toughest of all the branches!
If you’re from East of the Mississippi – you go to Boot Camp at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina.
If you’re from West of the Mississippi – you go to Boot Camp at MCRD San Diego, California.
I took my bus ride to Boot Camp at MCRD San Diego, CA on September 25, 2001 – exactly 2 weeks after 9/11
The ride is mostly quiet until the bus starts to get closer to it’s destination then it gets really quiet, everyone puts their hands on their laps and their heads down.
As the air brakes hiss, hearts beat faster, palms sweat, breaths become shorter – a bus of hopeful Marine Corps Recruits are unified by the fear of the unknown.
Receiving Drill Instructor
The bus comes to a stop, the doors open, and the silence is broken by our Receiving Drill Instructor who steps onto the bus and yells:
You’re now aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego California Receiving Barracks Building 622.
The last word out of your mouth will be “SIR” and it will be loud!
Do you understand?
Now when I tell you to GET OFF MY BUS you will bring everything off the bus that you brought on the bus and you will get on my Yellow Footprints.
Do you understand?
GET OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW!
You exit the bus – sounding off “YES SIR!” Leaving behind the person that you were… The lean, mean, disciplined Marine that you will become awaits you. “YES SIR!”
As the Receiving Drill Instructor’s voice reverberates in your ears, you make your way through the night towards your future and onto the Legendary Yellow Footprints.
“YES SIR!”
The transformation has begun.
– Semper Fi and God Speed, Marine Miguel.
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