Jun 16, 2008 by Marine Corps News

Cpl. Aaron Rooks

Marine Week: Ideal College Summer Vacation 
 
CAMP LEJEUNE, NC - A group of college students from across the East Coast began what many could describe as an eye-opening, opinion-changing, and for some, even scary experience. They began learning what it takes to be U.S. Marines.

These young Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps students arrived at Camp Lejeune June 8 to complete the Marine Week portion of Career Orientation Training for Midshipmen, a four-week training program that allows college sophomores to examine possible military careers.

“All NROTC students, after they complete their freshman year, go through CORTRAMID for the summer,” said 2nd Lt. James Vickers, a communications officer with Combat Logistics Regiment 25. “They spend a week with Navy surface warfare officers, submarines, the Marine Corps and then aviation.  This helps them narrow down what choice they want to make coming out of college as far as the career they want.”

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Maj. Andrew Hesterman, a Marine officer instructor at Auburn University, said this is the students’ opportunity to have exposure and orientation to the Marine Corps and Marine training. 

He said their first day of training began with “the most physically challenging day” they would face - a day of Marine Corps Martial Arts Program training, obstacle course negotiating and surviving the gas chamber.

“They get pretty worn out,” Hesterman said of the first day of training. “The kicker to this training is that it’s all midshipmen, not just Marine options. It’s new to a lot of them, so it’s pretty tough.”

Vickers, who is currently serving as commander of 2nd Platoon, said this group of midshipmen just came from their surface week in Norfolk, Va. He said this has been a shock of sorts for them, going from the Navy’s pace to the Marine Corps’ pace.

“Proportionally for (the students), this training is tough,” Vickers explained.  “They’re not used to getting up at 5 a.m. everyday, eating when they’re told to, going to the (restroom) when they’re told to. It’s a wake up call for a lot of them on the kind of discipline that’s required to become a Marine officer.”

The intensity of the day did not slow down the midshipmen though, especially the Marine options. Midshipmen Cory Moyer, a student and Marine option from the Citadel, was motivated by the training and is looking forward to the rest of the week’s activities.

“The training is intense, but unlike at school, it’s a different intensity,” Moyer said.  “Here it’s more respect, and they expect more out of you. It makes us work harder because we don’t want to let them down knowing we will be leading these staff sergeants and gunnery sergeants.”

Midshipman 3rd Class Jonathon Shouse, a student from the University of South Carolina, is currently a Navy option, but recently submitted a package to become a Marine option. He said simply seeing the way other Marines carry themselves changed his mind about his future. The first day of Marine Week only improved his opinion of the Marine Corps.

“It’s great to see people who’ve never done anything like this build confidence and succeed at things they never thought possible,” Shouse said. “It’s something to watch, seeing they’re faces after they complete an obstacle.”

Vickers said his platoon is doing a good job of adapting to the new work pace. He said it’s important the students understand that this week is not what the life of a Marine is like.

“They seem to think life in the Marine Corps is hard core all the time,” Vickers said. “We let them know that this is not a taste of day-to-day life in the fleet, it’s a snap shot in a week that gives them a taste of what they could experience.”

Besides the intensity and discipline the training focuses on, Vickers said the most essential factor they hope to get across to the students concerns leadership. He said if they hope to become officers, they need to understand that what they do is not about themselves, but rather, it’s about the Marines and sailors under their charge. As day one went by, Vickers said he felt the students were already grasping that necessary concept.

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