MY BROTHER MARINES LIFTING LOGS
I fucking HATED log PT in boot-camp.
These recruits at MCRD San Diego are in First Phase — early on in boot-camp.
You can tell this by the fact that their trousers are not “bloused” above their combat boots. You don’t get to do that until you’ve entered Third Phase, which begins just after returning from the rifle range — which is Second Phase.
And you can tell these are West Coast Marines — versus Parris Island Marines — by the control tower in the background and the hill rising up behind it.
MCRD San Diego is located right next to San Diego’s airport and at the foot of a residential neighborhood that’s built up the hill just across Interstate 5 from the recruit depot.
I’m a Parris Island Marine, but I had lots of buddies who graduated from boot-camp in San Diego. And they all said that being so close to the airport, and seeing all those planes {Freedom Birds — in the parlance of the Marine Corps} taking off every day filled with people going places while they were trapped in boot-camp was absolute torture.
March 17th, 2013 at 10:31 pm
Lol, I bet it would be torture. There was a news report of a marine recruit going over the fence and running away across the runway at Lindbergh Field (our San Diego airport) just this last January after three days there. He suffered lacerations and the loss of his pants going over the razor wire.
He was eventually separated from the Marines. Not the first time I’ve seen that type of story, either!
March 18th, 2013 at 11:18 am
bill, that’s one of the many differences between MCRD San Diego and MCRD Parris Island — you can escape from San Diego, while there’s only one heavily guarded road off the island and the waters around PI are shark infested and the currents treacherous.
March 18th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
Are they carrying logs as a type of conditioning/bonding exercise, or are they actually building something with them?
March 19th, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Todd. It’s my understanding that the log is that it takes X number of men to hold it up. Once up it takes a single TEAM to keep it up there rather than X number of individuals.
At least that’s how my Aus Army mate describes it here.
He was told “now you’re a chain. Lets see if you got any weak links”.
I find it a total turn on. But I’m a mili-phile so…
March 20th, 2013 at 6:31 am
Correct Damien. At a certain point in the exercise, if the log is in the air above their heads and one man drops his share of the load, the log comes down.
Its also immediately apparent to almost everyone on the log if someone is slacking.