Fleet Marine Life #80 – Line Crossed
A lot of shitbags in the Marine Corps weren’t always shitbags. After all, they did join the Marine Corps voluntarily. They came in highly motivated and left as empty shells of men. These Marines don’t just wake up and say “I’m going to be a shitbag.” No. Something has to have happened or continue to happen to them.
I knew a good Marine who had his whole career ahead of him. He was caught drinking underaged in the barracks. Other than that, he didn’t do anything seriously wrong. But, his command wasn’t having none of that. His command gave him his first NJP. He lost his rank and just went downhill from there. He was a perfectly good Marine who was destroyed after being over-punished for something so minor. He became overly belligerent, freaking out at SNCOs and having yelling matches with them.
Sometimes, it takes a while for Marines to develop into shitbags. My old command used to play favorites and awarded only those they loved. Regardless of how hard you worked, if you didn’t know the right people, it was pointless. So Marines just stopped trying so hard and just set their cruise control for bare minimum effort. I was one of them.
It’s a sad process but it is the consequence of higher ups and their decisions.
Getting framed by our Corporals since 1775.
I have a friend in California who runs a non profit military organization. Does stuff like cook for marines during the holidays when they have no family to go home to or can’t afford it, gets them off base and such. She frequently gets boots from SOI out of the barracks to keep them sane. She has told me that EVERY boot is motivated in SOI, and usually by the four month mark in the fleet, they have had their ideals destroyed and are no longer motivated. Others take less, some longer, but the average time it takes to destroy a boots morale is a mere 4 months.
Sounds about right. I was in for 13 months before hitting the fleet and felt good. Not masturbating-to-the-recruiting-posters-good, but okay. My Plt Sgt was a real sack of crap, and he had a host of NCO minions who sucked, as well. When I got married he tried to get me to bring my wife in for him to give us marriage counseling.
Luckily, he was replaced shortly after and the new SSgt tossed the minion NCOs, and generally thought I was alright, which he should have since I had the highest PFT in the Co. and didn’t get in trouble.
Had I had to suffer through a deployment with the first group of assholes, I’d have really hated life fast, but got lucky and was able to feel okay for a couple years instead of a couple months.