Impact on the Marine Corps
My Impact On The United States Marine Corps Before this assignment I have never thought of the impact I would have on the Marine Corps. Once I began to reflect on the short amount of time I have spent in the Corps, I realize that I have not made much of an impact on the Corps itself, but I have made an impact on the Marines around me. This impact has been both positive and negative on the individuals I have served with. During boot camp, I was never in a leadership role and therefore I tried to fly as far under the radar as possible. The recruits around me that I had made friends with in boot all tried to take this same mentality, to make boot camp go by as quickly as possible. However, I had failed many times to go un-noticed and this led to my rack-mate and I both spending a lot of our time on the quarterdeck. This soon began to cause conflict between my rack-mate and I, and led to the recruits around us trying to solve our problems for us. Soon I had a negative connotation and it took the rest of boot camp trying to make a positive impact on those around me, and get back to spending more time learning and less time on the quarterdeck. Through my experience at boot camp I had learned that even though an event may seem insignificant in some eyes, it is much larger in others’ eyes. At MCT I began to see that every Marine in the Corps would have an impact on those around him. Although we had earned the title, we still had much to learn about what it meant to be a Marine and the consequences our actions would have. During my first few days at MCT I tried taking the same approach I took at boot camp and remain hidden and skate by, however my combat instructors had a different idea and I was made squad leader. As a squad leader I found new responsibility and soon realized that I would need to change my way of thinking if I were to keep my job, I soon started trying to be the leader my instructors