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Training day AD-4: Drill Instructor School Graduation
19 Dec 2007 | 14 Comments | Continue reading »
“These recruits are entrusted to my care. I will train them to the best of my ability. I will develop them into smartly disciplined, physically fit, basically trained Marines, thoroughly indoctrinated in love of Corps and country. I will demand of them, and demonstrate by my own example, the highest standards of personal conduct, morality [...]
Training days 53-55: Crucible observation
16 Dec 2007 | 2 Comments | Continue reading »
From “Rite of Passage: Making Basic Training Tougher” by Jim Garamone, 23 February 2004. Images meticulously selected and edited by yours truly. “We have two missions in the Marine Corps — to win battles and make Marines,” said Col. Bob Hayes, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations and training at the recruit depot here. [...]
Dead Marine’s poem
11 Dec 2007 | 8 Comments | Continue reading »
Get Together by The Youngbloods. The #10 song in the country in 1969. Get Together by The Youngbloods After two and a half months of aimlessly wandering the halls of Drill Instructor School, I noticed this poem for the first time today. It was sandwiched between a couple of Vietnam-era uniforms and assorted memorabilia in [...]
Transcription service wanted
25 Nov 2007 | 2 Comments | Continue reading »
I’ve decided to outsource the transcription of my Lewis and Clark Bicycle Tour journals. But rather then mail my precious notebooks to some seedy service in Bangladesh, I’m going to keep this job in-house. Hence, I now appeal to the American public and jaymekohler.com readers nationwide. I have two journals that need typing. My first [...]
Training day 35: in dreams
19 Nov 2007 | 5 Comments | Continue reading »
I had a nice little sit down chat with a military psychologist this morning. It was apparently in response to some paperwork I had filled out in the early days of DI school. I was one of fourteen Marines interviewed. Out of seventy-two. The conversation dealt specifically with my disclosure of physiological and psychological “abnormalities” [...]
Training days 26-34: Basic Warrior Training
18 Nov 2007 | 2 Comments | Continue reading »
How does two weeks pass without much to say about them? Maybe that means I’ve settled into the routine? The only real thing of note was BWT last week, which translated to a few days “in the field” smeared in cami paint and charging around the woods like a bunch of ROTC pinheads on a [...]
Training day 25: reveille, cockroach style
5 Nov 2007 | 13 Comments | Continue reading »
The picture you’re seeing to the right is the actual size of the cockroach that awoke me from my peaceful slumber at 2:00am this morning. He may not seem like much, but wait until the little bastard crawls into your ear and then tell me you’re not envisioning a thousands eggs being laid in your [...]
A mother’s PostSecret
31 Oct 2007 | 17 Comments | Continue reading »
I was browsing PostSecret.com when the Marine Corps emblem in this postcard caught my eye. I wish it hadn’t.
Training days 1-13: two week recap
21 Oct 2007 | 13 Comments | Continue reading »
I’ve got two loads of clean laundry piled on my rack to fold and put away, Drill Card 1 to practice, a movement or two to memorize out of Book II, Individual Movements Without Arms, uniforms to prep, garbage to take out, my PT Pack to ready for the morning, and I’m wasting entirely too [...]
Admin day 2: Drill Instructor School
3 Oct 2007 | 9 Comments | Continue reading »
It’s DI school, class 1-08, Parris Island, South Carolina folks, and tomorrow is the official kick off. I arrived Friday morning after a sixteen hour drive from Corunna, MI and basically wasted the weekend away working on this website and screwing off. It wasn’t a mistake, necessarily. There’s really nothing a man can do to [...]
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Born in the year of the Dragon, the author grudgingly accepts the fact he has too many interests and not enough time. A cyclist as long as he can remember, an avid yet inconsistent writer since age eleven, and a U.S. Marine since age twenty-one, the author also adds computers, snowboarding, and motorcycles to his list of interests. Incidentally, he is aware of his inability to make a living from any but the Corps. The author accepts this as fact and remains optimistic. Feel free to drop him a line.
