Recruits with Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, participate in the crucible at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, April 22, 2021. The crucible is the final event before recruits earn the title of “Marine”. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Anthony D. Pio and Lance Cpl. Cristian G. Torres)

Transcript

When they stepped on the yellow footprints for the first time, they were still like thousands of others before them. Not fully prepared for the challenges that would come. The ultimate purpose of the confidence chamber is, it’s an annual training requirement by the Fleet Marine Forest to dawn um and clear your gas mask in the event of some seabourn disaster. Great, great, great. Mhm I know a lot of recruits fear that moment of going in the gas chamber. So they call it the confidence chamber for a reason, it’s like that one last moment before they go to the Crucible where they kind of have to step outside their comfort zone. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The crucible is a 54 hour event where the recruits are going through and doing a bunch of different obstacles and challenges. Um and then at the end of those two days we’ll get up super early and hike the reaper. The Crucible is designed to replicate the challenges of combat environments while simultaneously allowing drill instructors and officers of the company to evaluate whether or not to recruit has full possession of the attributes that will make him or her successful in the marine Corps, chesty puller is reflection when he was asked about the new breed of marine in comparison to the old breeding marine and it doesn’t really matter. We all wonder whether or not we’re going to be able to fulfill, you know, the legacy that has been laid before us at those moments when we’re challenged most, the recruits essentially get missions and one mission to the next. Those missions are designed to replicate combat operations. Everything with the Crucible was just on us as recruits, the drone structures handed everything over to us every time we go to an obstacle, it was up to us to you know, go amongst ourselves and pick a leader and accomplish the mission until you get there. I don’t think you really understand the importance of teamwork unless you’re executing with teamwork throughout the whole, entire crucible, you are going to struggle as a recruit. A lot of the events are fire team base or your squad base. So things that you’re doing you’re doing as a team ultimately. And when you don’t have teamwork, it makes everything go that much slower. When the recruits aren’t working as a team, you see the team fall apart. But when you see the recruits band together, that’s when you see them successfully complete the obstacles. Honor courage and commitment are certainly things that are tested there in crucible execution. But to focus in on honor marines gain their honor from the traditions of the past, the legacy of the past and we fear more uh letting our brothers and sisters down and all of those that have come before us down And part of the Medal of Honor citation process is to not only cognitively transport them to the challenges that that individual had to experience but provide them with a sense of honor that they will hopefully pull forward when faced with similar challenges in the future. Those high standards at the Marine Corps possesses and in fact cherishes, gives something for each marine to aspire to. And that aspiration is often quite high and often times exceeds a perceived physical and mental limitations, so therefore you have to make a little bit deeper to earn that title. Mhm. Mhm. The last day of the Crucible starts just like the others do. With the exception of now you’re about 50 hours into the crucible, so you’re both physically and mentally exhausted. But it starts early morning waiting for the sun comes up and you pack your gear, put it on your back and start walking the Eagle Globe. And anchor ceremony itself occurs on top of the report, which is designed to be a test of commitment and to really show as a, as a symbolic approach towards transforming from civilian tomorrow. Mm. Being a marine is the epitome of character. It is doing what others can or won’t do. It’s stepping forward for what’s right at all times. But above all things in 20 winning, regardless of the obstacle, it’s never quitting or giving up on anything that’s thrown in your path. And it’s about winning battles both here and abroad and a commitment to the character of what it means to be a marine.