MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- It is a small Marine Corps, many Marines have said.
This phrase had special meaning in the case of two drill instructors here who graduated from the same platoon in recruit training and are both now working as senior drill instructors in the same company where it all began.
Staff Sgt. Patrick Port and Sgt. Montinez Kornegay stepped onto the yellow footprints Dec. 2, 1996, and began their journey to become Marines. They both graduated from Platoon 3016, Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, but neither had any idea that one day they would be working together to make Marines nearly a decade later.
As the recruits of Platoon 3107 prepare for their upcoming graduation, Port, their senior drill instructor, waits in a small room called the "DI hut" for his former platoon mate to arrive. With an immaculate high-and-tight haircut and froggy drill instructor voice, Port begins to pass the time by reminiscing about his boot camp days, long passed.
"His left leg would always shake when he was nervous," recalled Port of Kornegay.
While Port took on leadership billets in recruit training, Kornegay was more of a quiet recruit who blended into the background and tried to stay out the drill instructors' way.
"I was his guide," said Port, a Shrewsbury, Pa., native, who ended up graduating as the platoon honor man. "[Kornegay] was more of a stanchion recruit; he would hide behind the stanchion."
Stanchions are pillars that serve as structure reinforcements within the squad bays, but the recruits lucky enough to have a footlocker near the stanchions can use them to hide from the drill instructors when on line, explained Port.
When Kornegay arrives a few minutes later, he is a stark contrast to what one would envision a quiet Marine to be. At 6-feet-2-inches tall and 230 pounds, he seems as though he would be the type that could chew someone's head off and eat it for breakfast. But when he casually props himself into a chair in the hut, he reveals himself to be a very mellow character, a man of few words.
The first time the two saw each other after recruit training was when both Marines were stationed in California a couple of years after they graduated recruit training.
"I met him in southern California about seven years ago," Kornegay recalled. "I saw him at a bar, and we both recognized each other. It was a jovial time."
Both Marines had led very different paths since leaving recruit training. Port was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., and had deployed to Japan, the Philippines, Tokyo and Singapore, to name a few. Kornegay had spent most of his time in the Marine Corps stateside in Pensacola, Fla.; California and his hometown of Atlanta.
Port said he later saw Kornegay again while in Drill Instructor School. He was observing recruits and drill instructors on the rifle range and recognized his former platoon mate.
"I was standing next to this big black dude, and I recognized him," said Port. "He looked over at me, and I looked over at him and I said, 'I recognize you,' and he said, 'You were the platoon honor man.'"
A flood of memories came back, and Port exclaimed, "Oh yeah, you're Kornegay!"
After Kornegay had pushed five platoons as a "green belt" drill instructor, and Port had pushed three platoons, both were assigned to be senior drill instructors for the same cycle of recruits.
"When we both got selected to be senior drill instructors for the very same cycle, it kind of broke some walls and we kind of developed more of a professional friendship," said Port.
With that friendship also came a bit of friendly competition between them as to which platoon could out-do the other. Having been "cut from the same mold," Kornegay and Port's platoons both received the same exact score on final drill - 83.
"We were competing against each other, but we both got eighty-threes, and I thought that was funny ... we were talking trash to each other once in a while," said Port. "His platoon beat me in knowledge."
While they both have similarities as drill instructors, their personalities are vastly different.
Port exudes energy when recounting his boot camp days, while Kornegay sits quietly and gives short, to-the-point answers when questions are asked.
When asked how he and Port are different from each other, Kornegay replies, "He talks a lot more than I do," of Port, adding "he's always in a good mood - I'm not."
"That's not true!" said Port with a laugh.
"There is one similarity," Kornegay said, "the training we got from our drill instructors and senior drill instructor."
Thumbing through their old platoon yearbook, Port showed Kornegay the picture of their former senior drill instructor with whom they both agreed had a vast impact on them as Marines.
It was his senior drill instructor who had "stoked the fire" within him to want to make Marines, said Port.
"In every platoon, maybe one will become a drill instructor, but to have a couple and for them to become senior drill instructors at the same time speaks highly of him as a Marine," said Port.
Port said he wanted to be a drill instructor so he could say that not only was he a part of the Marine Corps, but also that he made Marines as well.
"[I wanted to] have the opportunity to make and mold and create what the world esteems so highly - a United States Marine," said Port, who is a third-generation Marine. "[I wanted to] feel like I not only was one, but I made them."
Having reminisced about the past, they closed the book on nearly a decade of memories as they prepared to carry on with the plan of the day - making Marines.
Port walked out of the DI hut and continued where he left off, barking orders to his recruits who were scheduled to graduate today. Kornegay's reserved persona quickly faded away when he stepped out of the small room; he stood tall and walked sharply out of Port's squad bay and back to his own, recruits stepping out of the way when the broad-shouldered drill instructor walked on by.
The drill instructors now look to the future of the Corps as they make Marines, hoping to leave a lasting impression on their recruits, who may one day follow in their paths and reunite on the drill field as Marines.
It is a small Marine Corps after all.