‘Poolees’ get taste of boot camp life

Two dozen high school Marine recruits got the reassurance they wanted Saturday: “You all are going to go through the worst program known to man.”

Not even Marine officer candidates can expect as much rigor as the “delayed entry pool” recruits, or “poolees,” who assembled at the Hauser Lake Resort for a preview of boot camp, a drill instructor advised.

It will be “13 weeks of hell,” Staff Sgt. Anthony Hagman said after helping deliver a two-hour sample.

But, as predicted by Staff Sgt. Thomas Eardley, who runs the recruiting office in Hayden, Idaho, no one flinched.

Not even 16-year-old St. Maries High School student Jacob Gallagher, who came with a couple of older friends and left convinced he wants to enlist when he’s old enough.

“Nobody here joined because the Marine Corps is easy,” Eardley said. “They know what it’s all about. That’s one of our selling points.”

He and several other North Idaho Marine recruiters brought Hagman and his drill-instructor wife, Gunnery Sgt. Dawn Hagman, from Seattle to deliver on the promise. Afterward, no poolee complained about being short-changed.

“I expected it to be very hard,” said Charles Kauffman, of Hayden Lake, who’ll be off to boot camp on Aug. 14, after graduating from Coeur d’Alene High School. “It’s something I want to do, and I’m very motivated to do it.”

Saturday morning’s get-acquainted session looked as though it might have been easy when a half-dozen Marines set up an inflatable obstacle course that resembled a carnival attraction, except for an ominous message on the side about the need to test yourself daily.

The course was tougher than it looked, especially after 100 sit-ups, 10 pull-ups, way too many leg-lifts and a firefighter’s carry sprint with another poolee on your shoulders.

“The sit-ups and the leg-lifts are killing me,” Orofino High School student Joe Bledsoe said later.

The recruits were paired up to promote teamwork – there are no individuals in the Marine Corps – and so they could encourage one another as they moved from station to station. There also was plenty of encouragement from a Marine at each station.

“Is that all you got?” drill instructor Dawn Hagman barked as a winded team jogged to her leg-lift station. “Is that it? Is that it?”

Back at the previous station – the chin-up bar – Anthony Hagman was growing impatient: “You! Get over here. I don’t care if you’re tired or not. Get on my bar.”

A lesson on how to form ranks, stand at attention and respect your mother followed the physical training. Marines call their food “chow” and compliment their mothers’ cooking, Hagman said.

But the poolees got MREs – Meals Ready to Eat – Saturday.

“It’s about the best meal you can find on this earth,” Eardley said.

Each MRE contains about 3,000 calories, Anthony Hagman told the recruits. “Do you need that?”

“Yes, sir,” his pupils boomed, confident they had learned the appropriate response.

“No, you don’t,” Hagman responded.

He directed them to find the gum in the meal package and toss it away. Be sure it lands outside the formation and be sure to pick it up later, Hagman ordered. Lowering his voice in a way no one else was allowed to do, Hagman entertained questions while the poolees ate their meals.

Priest River High School senior Brian Neil figured he could afford a risky question after completing the course with the best time.

“Sir, what kind of mind games do they play on you in boot camp?” he asked.

Hagman had Neil stand and hold his arms straight out on each side while Hagman told a long story about having made an exhausted recruit cry that way.

“I thought he’d try something with me,” Neil said later, pleased with the outcome.

Several parents watched the exercise and felt the Marine sergeants’ actions were louder than their words.

Judey Brown of Coeur d’Alene said she was “a little reluctant” when her son, Mason, signed up for the delayed entry program, but Saturday’s event assured her it was a good decision. “I see the way the leaders care for the boys and care for their futures,” she said.

Her husband, Leo Brown, said their son’s recruiter, Eardley, “helped Mason out in school and in his personal life – and he got me some Marine Corps sweats so I can get my fat butt in shape.”

Coeur d’Alene resident Wayne Frisbie said his son, Jeffrey, was in danger of not being able to graduate from high school. But Eardley helped get him enrolled in the Bridge Academy alternative school and “helped hold him on task.”

Frisbie said his son has been named “student of the week” three times and now is expected to graduate on schedule and enter boot camp on Aug. 7. He said his son’s eagerness to be a Marine has changed his life.

“I’m proud of him. It’s one of the best decisions I think he’s ever made.”