Marine recruits train for rigors of boot camp

Sgt. Chad Moppin, in uniform, with a group of recruits gathered for a training session at the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting station in Nevada. Back row, left to right, Remington Pence, Sherwood; Cody Lawerence, Fort Scott; Dustin Frazier, Nevada; and Chris Frazier, Nevada. Middle row, Daymon Gannon, El Dorado Springs; Jacob Anderson, Nevada; and Taylor Durbin, Fort Scott. Front row, Evan Baderdeen, El Dorado Springs, Will Miller, Linn Valley, Taylor Felt, Union, and Pvt. Schoeman, Schell City. --Steve Moyer/Herald-Tribune

A U.S. Marine Corps sergeant stands watching a stop watch as recruits go through their exercises. As they complete each crunch another recruit, while holding their feet, calls out the count.

"Thirty seconds left," the sergeant suddenly says. "10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. OK. Time's up, stop."

No, it isn't the Parris Island or San Diego recruit depot -- it's the Marine Corps recruiting office on West Cherry Street in Nevada. Sergeant Chad Moppin is putting a group of recruits in the delayed entry program through some training to prepare them for the day when they will step in to the real deal with nothing but the clothes on their back and a few essential papers.

"My job is to get them in shape, get them to start learning the basics of boot camp, leadership traits, the general orders, the basic things that Marines need to know before they go down there to be successful," Moppin said. "I have some that come up that aren't even in the delayed entry program but just want to condition with us. We have them every age from 18 to 26. We have a lot of fun."

The training the recruits go through isn't all physical. Some basic Marine Corps history is taught along with some of the information that must be memorized by every Marine recruit; Marine ranks and their insignia, the Marine Rifle Creed, the USMC Core Values, and the 11 General Orders for a Sentry, among other things.

After one of the recruits leads the group in repeating the 11 General Orders, Moppin questions a few of the recruits to see how well they're retaining the information they've heard.

"What's the fourth general order?" he asks a recruit in the front.

"To repeat all calls from posts more distant from the guardhouse than my own," is the reply.

Moppin goes through several such questions and answers before running into one the recruits can't answer. He checks with several to see if anyone can remember, then calls off the exercise when no one does.

In addition to all else, the recruits are encouraged to be productive members of their community. This group has helped out with the Habitat for Humanity house construction, doing some yard work and working on the structure.

Through this office, about 20 recruits will be accepted into the Marines in a year's time. "This is a small station out of Joplin." Moppin said.

"Joplin is where our main office is. From this office we cover from Belton, Mo., all the way past Pittsburg. I go to all the high schools around, and community colleges, I go to Fort Scott, to that college there and talk with them, do career talks. It's definitely a long process, but worth it because I get to see what the Marine Corps turns into."

It's all about quality with the Marines, not quantity.

"We've actually raised our standards," Moppin said. "It's actually getting harder to find the highly qualified now and not just the qualified. We get more and more people coming to us that would qualify under the old standards but now aren't under the new ones."