MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO -- From cooking in their mothers’ kitchen to marching across Shepherd Memorial Drill Field as Marines, identical twins Nathan and Samuel Watts, Platoon 3202, Company I, said they have always done everything together and would never dream of being separated.
Pfc. Nathan Watts and Pvt. Samuel Watts, 21, grew up in the small mountain farm town of Mansfield, Penn., where they spent the majority of their time in the kitchen making extravagant dishes.
Both brothers attended Mansfield University, where Nathan studied history and Samuel was working on a degree in general studies. Later, both brothers wanted to branch off and study culinary arts.
After a year of college, they began to get tired of the repetitive school life and wanted to tackle a new challenge. They moved to Texas with their parents then they decided to join the Marine Corps.
“Our father was in the Marine Corps, so that is what initially attracted us to that branch of service,” said Nathan. “We chose the Marine Corps because we wanted a challenge and figured that we might as well do the hardest training.”
Kathy Watts, their mother, said that at first she wasn’t very thrilled about them joining the military, but after they researched the Marine Corps and made plans to attend college while serving, she supported them.
On January 28, the brothers arrived at recruit training and were immediately separated.
“For the first week of training we were apart and all I could think about was when I was going to see my brother again,” said Nathan Watts. “I was worried that we would be put in different platoons and not get to experience boot camp together.”
Once the brothers picked up with their training platoons, they were reunited and became bunk-mates.
“They never left each other’s sides; wherever one was, the other one was, too,” said Staff Sgt. John Leard, drill instructor, Platoon 3202. “Some how they always ended up in the same squad or fire team during field training.”
Leard said that the brothers acted, spoke and performed equally. He said that they were both good at the physical aspect of training, especially pugil sticks.
Samuel said that there were a couple of incidents when his drill instructors confused him for his brother. “Sometimes they would yell and punish me for things that my brother did because were really hard to tell apart.”
The brothers agreed that having each other there made recruit training a lot easier.
“Whenever I had hard times or got stressed out, I would just talk to my brother,” said Samuel Watts. “When training got tough, I just thought about my brother who was going through the same things and it motivated me.”
Nathan Watts said that they pushed each other to give their best in every training event they did and study knowledge so one of them wouldn’t get dropped to another platoon and they wouldn’t get separated.
“They excelled at the teamwork aspect of training. During the final Crucible hike, I saw them motivating and helping the other recruits up the Reaper mountain,” said Leard.
Samuel Watts said that as they were about to reach the top of the Reaper his brother looked over at him and said, “We started boot camp together and we are going to end together.” Then the brothers stepped on the peak together.
“They have both made a huge transformation,” said Leard. “They came here shy and are leaving with much more confidence and leadership skills.”
The brothers enlisted in the Marine Corps with the infantry military occupational specialty, but they hope to change their occupation to food specialists because they want to pursue degrees in culinary arts.
After graduation, the brothers will return home for 10 days of boot leave and then report to the School of Infantry, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“We have been through everything together,” said Samuel Watts. “Earning my eagle, globe and anchor was amazing, but doing it alongside my brother made it unsurpassable.”