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Marines Add Fourth Phase to Recruit Training

Marines Add Fourth Phase to Recruit Training

Recruits arriving at Marine Corps Recruit Depots in late November will be the first to go through an additional period of training, which will be known as fourth phase, designed to better prepare them for success as Marines.

The Marine Corps has reorganized a portion of the current 13-week recruit training to afford drill instructors additional time to mentor and lead new Marines.  Among the slight modifications, recruits will tackle the Crucible, the demanding 54-hour challenge, a week earlier and then spend the final two weeks of training as ‘Marines’. The Crucible remains the culminating event for recruits as they earn the title ‘Marine.’“Making Marines is one of the most important things that we do,” said Gen. Robert Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps. “Earning the title is, and will remain, difficult.  Our standards and requirements have not changed but as recruit training evolves we want to ensure we are preparing Marines for success in their follow-on training and service to our great country.”

Fourth phase will utilize the six F’s of Marine Leader Development framework: Fidelity, Fighter, Fitness, Family, Finances and Future.  Marines will be in small groups covering subjects that are critical to success and growth in all aspects of their personal and professional lives.

Neller added that the Corps is seeking more time for these new Marines to get used to the idea that earning the title ‘Marine’ is just the beginning.

“We thought it was important that the drill instructor, the key figure in the development of these new Marines, had a role to play in the transition,” said Neller. “They were their drill instructors, but now they have to be their staff sergeant, their gunnery sergeant and we thought that was very powerful.”

As drill instructors transition from trainers of recruits to mentors of Marines, the expected result is a more resilient, mature, disciplined and better-prepared Marine.

“This is a normal evolution of the recruit training experience,” said Neller. “We are trying to keep the very best of what we do now [in recruit training] and add something to make it even better.”

Recruits at both Marine Corps Recruit Depots Parris Island, South Carolina, and San Diego will first tackle the fourth phase in early February 2018.

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Comments

Nile - June 6, 2020

RCH, you’re ate up brother. Marines must evolve quicker than our counterparts to keep the advantage. We can’t live in the past. We can only learn from it.

Dave E. Baker - June 6, 2020

In 1964 i got the works from PI and after camp Geiger, I was ready for anything, I was ready to be the leader that I had been taught to be, I didn’t need a Big Daddy. My whole term seemed hot, from house to house fighting in Santo Domingo to Vietnam Nam in 1967. While in the Mud Flats I witnessed one of my drill instructors get killed on a mine sweep. It was one of those things for me to get (3) Purple Hearts and get stationed with one of my drill instructors. A marine should be able to fall right in a leadership position when the need arrives. Sorry for the flash back, this is what I live now, Still a proud Marine

Nile - June 6, 2020

No, it doesn’t come sooner. It comes at the same time. This fourth phase is added after the normal three phases. This is what I took from the article.

Ruben Garcia - June 6, 2020

I like the idea, but the mentoring should be done by Staff NCO’s who have plenty of experience in FMF. Drill instructors have a stressful job of making marines. I am not saying they are not capable by any means, but their job is making marines not baby them. Will this type of mentoring continue when a Marine enters FMF? I think it should because it would help create good leaders in the Marine Corps. Cpl 92-96 Comms

Leroy Haverkamp - June 6, 2020

I think that this is a great idea and an important part of the training of new Marines! I wish that we had this trading back when I went through Boot Camp in 1981.

S Wilson - June 6, 2020

A lot of Marines here are remarking we need a mentoring system after Parris Island/San Diego. We have one already and it should be the best in the world. That is one of the primary duties of every Marine NCO and Officer – take care of your people. I entered the Corps in 1977 – the ‘post Vietnam’ era. It is considered a low point in the history of to Corps, requiring a rebuilding of the NCO ranks. Modern times might be a parallel. I worked for a Gunner who was God’s gift to me and the Corps. He cared deeply about the people who were around him and it showed every day. 40 years later I would still cut off my right nut for this man if he asked for it. If the leadership in the Corps does not have that kind of a leader, they should be focusing all their attention on it because technology cannot replace it.

RCH - June 6, 2020

If you have never been a D.I. you don’t know what your talking about. D.I.’s don’t want to big dad these pukes. It’s their job to train them to be basically trained Marines just as the D.I. oath says, that’s all, nothing more. I think it’s a joke and just trying to be politically correct.

Jesus F. Valdez - June 6, 2020

Smart move. The “someone to trust” factor is important. Who better than the DI.

WGR - June 6, 2020

I sense that the corp has taken a few steps back since I enlisted in “69” but was not grant to enter till “72”, This is my opinion and thoughts , The USMC has gotten soft in really making true marines , or it the leadership of who is in charged, I have been asked by my son, are the Marines better than the Army, in a honest reply I say yes Like they say once a Marine always a Marine. But I wonder what’s next after phase 4 ??

Ray Burrington - June 6, 2020

PI summer ’68 .. we did boot in 8 wks, not 12 or 13 .. don’t believe we suffered due to 4-5 fewer weeks. Altho, Crucible would have been useful, but was sorta part of “staging”. In 8 wks I gained 55 lbs, and was the fake platoon Sgt in ITR, and lasted the entire time. Think good idea, but why 2 wks, and why add to 13 wks? Trials are necessary. Cpl 68-70 Pogue!

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