PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- From the first moments recruits meet their drill instructors to the day they graduate, they are taught teamwork is essential in accomplishing any task.
The recruits of Bravo Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion got their hands dirty as they made their way through the day movement portion of Basic Warrior Training in the rain, Jan. 20.
“The Day Movement Course is a practical application exercise of classes recruits are taught,” said Capt. Ankur Kumar, a series commander for Bravo Co., 1st RTBn.
Kumar, of Flemington, N.Y., said recruits are taught how to use hand and arm signals, fire team formations, and individual and buddy rushes.
“The Day Movement Course combines everything they’ve learned in the classroom into a physical course,” Kumar said.
Recruits are sent to Page Field during training day 48, for three days, to learn the basics of combat survival.
They are put through a realistic recreation of a battlefield, complete with barbed wire they must crawl under, walls that must be climbed, tunnels that must be checked for booby traps and clearings they must sprint across.
Drill instructors take recruits to classrooms where they learn how to read a map and use a compass, utilize teamwork in a combat environment and use hand and arm signals to navigate through terrain quietly.
“We teach how to properly move in combat,” said Lance Cpl. Steven Escobar, an instructor at Page Field.
“They’re taught how to properly crawl, use teamwork to get around the enemy, maneuver under fire and get over obstacles properly and efficiently,” added Escobar, of Gaithersburg, Md.
He said recruits learn to look at the course from a warrior’s perspective to overcome their fears on the battlefield.
“Being out here instills a warrior mentality into the recruits,” Escobar explained. “Out here, they’re in a combat mindset, and this gives them a really great foundation to build on when they get sent to the School of Infantry.”
Rct. Steven Campbell, of Plt. 1008, Bravo Co., 1st RTBn., said the course pushed him and his fellow recruits to their limits. He said the most challenging part was dragging their buddies through portions of the course.
“The Day Movement Course is an excellent training event that helps build the foundation, both mentally and physically, of a Marine,” Kumar said.