MCRD PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- Marine Corps recruit training is known nationwide as the hardest basic training program in America, and the Coast Guard wants to emulate it in order to better prepare future Coast Guardsmen for the challenges they will face.
“We are in a curriculum modernization of Coast Guard boot camp,” said Coast Guard Master Chief Petty Officer Bruce Bradley, a command master chief (sergeant major equivilent) at Cape May, N.J., the Coast Guard’s recruit training facility. “We’re here to copy the things the Marine Corps is doing.”
The Coast Guard’s goal is to make their program more physically demanding for their recruits. To reach that goal, they chose to imitate the grueling training standards of the Marine Corps.
“The gold standard is here at Parris Island,” said Coast Guard Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Bowen, the master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard. “That’s why we came here. The Marines do it right.”
One of the changes being made to the Coast Guards’ training program is the replacement of more than 65 hours of classroom instruction. Those hours of instruction will now be filled with more physically demanding challenges.
For the ultimate challenge, they patterned their culminating event on the Corps’ very own Crucible.
“We have made several changes to our curriculum,” said Bradley, from Astoria, Ore. “We have designed our own culminating event called the ‘Guardian Challenge.’ It’s only after they have completed the Guardian Challenge that we allow them to wear their Coast Guard shield on their ball caps.”
The culminating event and added physical activities are a result of feedback from recently graduated Coast Guard recruits who commented on the service’s basic training program.
“We wanted to make training more physically challenging,” Bradley said. “The biggest thing we heard from recruits is that they thought recruit training would be more challenging. Well, we are giving them what they asked for.”
The Coast Guard is also adding several classes to their program to instill values essential to their service. These classes will be based off of Parris Island’s value classes.
Bowen liked how the Marine Corps uses its Core Values classes, said Sgt. Maj. David Cadd, the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion sergeant major, and the Coast Guardsmen’s visit escort.
“The most impressive part of recruit training I saw was the Core Values classes,” said Bowen, from Fortescue, N.J. “I have never seen recruits so intent on what the drill instructor was saying. In Marine recruit training, you have great two-way conversations about Core Values.”
The Coast Guard is wasting no time in making these changes to their program. In fact, they even have drill instructors from Parris Island currently examining it.
A new, revamped program based on suggestions by drill instructors will debut in July, Bowen said.
“Within one month, we will do the beta test and run recruits through it,” Bradley added. “We are hoping to go into a full run of the program by the first of December.”