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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For the first time in its 96-year history, a female general is taking charge at the famed Marine Corps training depot at South Carolina's Parris Island. Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, who is also known as the first female Marine to ever hold a command position in a battle zone, takes charge Friday at the installation south of Beaufort.

MCRD Parris Island needs a hand, and someone needs to step forward to see that it happens. The Iwo Jima Memorial at Parris Island needs to be replaced and the private sector should raise the money to do it. The statue by the parade deck is one of the most significant fixtures in Beaufort County. Because Parris Island is one of only two boot camps for the Marine Corps, it's a memorial with national importance. The memorial depicts a moment in American and Marine Corps history that still is seared in the nation's mind 64 years after five Marines and...

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. _ Here in Beaufort County, we make Marines. We're better known for making memorable vacations, houses, food, art and golf courses. But the most important thing we make by far are Marines. More than 1 million Americans have come to Beaufort County as wide-eyed kids and left as Marines. They come to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, an intriguing place rich with history and open to the public. Locals joke that it was Beaufort County's first gated community. The Marine Corps says it's "where the difference begins." Call it what you will, but what...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is an 8,095 acre military installation near Beaufort, South Carolina tasked with the training of enlisted Marines. Male recruits living east of the Mississippi River and female recruits from all over the United States report here to receive their initial training. Male recruits living west of the Mississippi River receive their training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, but may train at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island by special request. Parris Island is located...

Help!!! We are to attend my neices graduation from Marine boot camp later this month and we need ideas on where to stay. Rent a hotel, a house for two or three days? Thanks in advance!!!

When 42 local teachers set off on an all-expenses-paid trip to South Carolina next month, they'll enjoy free airfare, fine hotel accommodations - and target practice with an M-16. It's teacher boot camp, part of a Marine recruiting program that sends nearly 2,000 high school educators a year to San Diego or Parris Island, S.C., to "see how we make Marines," said Captain Don Caetano, a program coordinator. The teachers, counselors and other people whom the Marines call "influencers" fire rifles, scale walls and talk with recruits in hopes they'll be better equipped to advise students considering enlistment. "There...

I’ll always remember the Christmas Eve I spent at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., in 1983. It was truly one of the coldest nights I’ve ever experienced (and this from a man who would later spend much time in near-zero climates around the world).

LETTER FROM A FARM KID (NOW AT San Diego MARINE CORPS RECRUIT TRAINING) Dear Ma and Pa, I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. but I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to...

Though John Martinez was able to escape the powerful currents and paralyzing mud of Ribbon Creek on April 8, 1956, when six of his fellow recruits drowned, he was unable to escape the feeling that the survivors from Platoon 71 had a "bad rap" in the Marine Corps.

Hummer, the new mascot for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, is undergoing his obedience training. The puppy will follow recruits through several trainings events before earning the title of depot mascot. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Brian Kester U.S. Marine Corps ‘Hummer’ 'Devil Dog' Steps in as New Depot Mascot By Cpl. Brian Kester Parris Island PARRIS ISLAND, S.C., April 7, 2006 — He is only 12 inches long, covered with white and brown hair and barks at the wall. Yet, the Marine Corps wants him to be one of the few, the proud. His name temporarily...

Educators get an eyeful at boot camp PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- With spittle flying from his lips, Staff Sgt. Craig Finger herded 38 wide-eyed new recruits off a bus and onto the yellow footprints where generations of young men and women have begun their transformation from civilian to Marine... Each year, the Marines pay for nearly 2,000 educators to observe four days of basic training, or boot camp, to reach people the corps considers "key influencers" of young people... Last year, the program helped the Marines meet their goal of 32,000 new recruits despite suffering heavy losses in Iraq, having...

On Oct 20, 2005 I was reading my Sgt Grit’s American Courage Newsletter #108 when I found a letter from a very determined young lady named April Cheek. (You can read her letter at the link, it's about the 10th letter in the newsletter). Anyhow, I was genuinely touched by her determination and I wanted to let her know that, so I decided to write her. I only knew her first and last name from the newspaper, so I looked up the female recruit schedule and found that female recruits arriving Oct 10th would be in Papa Company. I sent...

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq (August 5, 2005) -- During basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., Joanna Lael Baker met her nemesis as she stood atop of the rappel tower and peered down at her certain doom. Her fear of heights was being challenged in a finale that meant the difference between her passing the test with the other recruits and falling back in training. She took a deep breath, grabbed the rope and jumped 40 feet down – stopping short just a few feet from the woodchips. Lance Cpl. Baker finally conquered her fear...

MCRD/ ERR PARRIS ISLAND, SC (March 4, 2005) -- As the children were dropped off at the All-Weather Training Facility to begin their training endeavors as Young Marine recruits, volunteer "drill instructors" stood waiting to train them. "That initial shock from the drill instructors is what is going to make them believe they are actually going through recruit training," said Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Curran, the Parris Island Young Marines Program volunteer coordinator. Similar to Marine recruit training, the children will be referred to as recruits until the day they graduate and complete the training. The young recruits met Saturday from...

Drill Instructor Who Struck Marine Recruit Suspended The Associated Press Published: Feb 18, 2005 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A drill instructor who struck a Marine recruit who later died during training has been suspended pending an investigation into the death, military officials said Friday. Jason Tharp of Sutton, W.Va., drowned Feb. 8 while participating in a water-survival training course at Parris Island. The day before his death, a Columbia television station recorded a confrontation between Tharp and the drill instructor, who was seen in the video grabbing Tharp by the shirt and striking him in the chest. The instructor, who...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT PARRIS ISLAND, S.C., Nov. 8, 2004 – Marine recruits headed for Parris know they won't be seeing the Eiffel Tower or experience romantic strolls along the Seine River. Instead, those young men and women will challenge themselves as never before during 12 weeks of grueling, gut-check Marine training at Parris Island. Tucked away near the Atlantic coast in southeastern South Carolina, Parris Island is just that: an island surrounded by waterways and marshland. A recruit training facility since 1915, the base used a ferry system to transport troops and supplies until 1929, when a bridge was...

Parris Island closing rumored BEAUFORT: According to newspaper reports, some believe training could be handled at Fort Jackson. By Lolita Huckaby Carolina Morning News A media report that Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot could be closed and training operations consolidated at the Army's Fort Jackson in Columbia should be viewed as a red flag, said Beaufort County Council Vice Chairman W.R. "Skeet" Von Harten. Von Harten, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, made his remarks Monday during a meeting of the county's Intergovernmental Relations Committee. He was responding to a story in Sunday's The State newspaper which said the...

I am really proud of him. My daughter and I are flying down, along with my nephew's immediate family (his father, who is my brother in law, his mother and his sister). My brother in law made reservations for us on the base itself. What can we look forward to? What are the base accommodations like? I like the price ($29/night). I understand the first ceremony takes place at 1 pm on Thursday, and has to do with presentation of colors? What about Friday? What exhibits should we see while we're on the base? How far is Parris Island from...

A while ago, before more recent geopolitical disasters, I saw on the news that a "rapid response team" of Marines had landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and I wondered whether any of "mine" were there — the recruits I see at the Parris Island Marine training facility in South Carolina. I realized my first morning here that the culture of the "Island" and the "grunts" is worlds away from my own. My first recruit-patient — an 18-year-old with pilonoidal abscess — shouted "Yes, Ma'am!" or "No, Ma'am!" whenever I asked him a question. When I was his age, I was out...

All right. That does it. I am going to say it. EVERYONE who ever went to boot camp was humiliated more than these people were in Baghdad. And I mean EVERYONE!

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- A morning here is punctuated by shouts and yells. Standing at an area reserved for martial-arts training sometime around 7 a.m. -- practically afternoon by Parris Island standards -- I can hear platoons in the distance well before I can see them. There are the distinct, barking voices of drill instructors, inevitably followed by the staccato collective answers of their platoons of recruits.    When the platoons come into view, the recruits are jogging in loose formation, constantly prodded and harried by drill instructors wearing yellow T-shirts, running up and down among them, picking out recruits for...

Lance Cpl. Brian Kester MCRD/ERR PARRIS, ISLAND, S.C.(April 9, 2004) -- Shortly after seeing the events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, Bradley Scott, like a lot of people in the United States, wanted to do something about what he had seen on the television that day. He joined the Marine Corps and in October of that year he began his long journey to become a Marine. That journey began in 2001 and should have concluded in early 2002. Instead, Scott's journey will conclude today when he graduates as a member of Platoon 1025, Delta Co., 1st RTBn. While...

MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C.(March 19, 2004) -- The Infantry Combat Equipment team from Marine Corps Systems Command was aboard the Depot March 11 to show off improvements and replacements currently being made to the Corps' combat gear. While bulletproof vests and bug repellant utilities may seem like gear from a James Bond movie, Lt. Col. Gabe Patricio, project manager, ICE, said these and other improvements are already being used to help bring Marines home alive. "The new gear has improved functionality and user friendliness," said Patricio. " Some of the new gear has already been tested in combat and the...

<p>Here's a two-word phrase you don't see or hear much anymore: young adults. It sank beneath the waves of a more recent, more powerful force: the "youth culture."</p> <p>The youth culture in America is a lifestyle, emphasizing the one thing that youth tend to be very good at: thinking about themselves. Pridefully inner-directed, it opens itself to the outer world primarily in two ways: style and "attitude." Membership in the youth culture is defined by mass marketers as a "demographic," which begins about the age of 12 and runs without interruption to the age of 35. A "young adult" is an anachronism.</p>

Twelve weeks ago the young men of Echo Company Second Recruit Training Battalion entered Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island for the first time. They drilled. They trained. They learned to fight, to shoot, to survive. Today, as they graduate from recruit training and officially take on the responsibility of a United States Marine, the world is a very different place. During the 12 weeks the recruits trained at Parris Island, tension with Iraq has turned to war and the possibility of overseas deployment has become almost certain. Today, 292 recruits will become Marines, the first class to graduate...

<p>The recruits are tired.</p> <p>They will only get eight hours of sleep over 54 hours. They are hungry — they will eat only 2½ standard military meals. They are worn down — they will carry as much as 120 pounds of gear and hike 40 miles.</p>

Being a United States Marine is tough enough, but imagine only having one arm. Col. Timothy Howard lost his arm about 20 years ago, but he hasn't let that keep him from serving his country. It's not too often you find a Purple Heart recipient who continues to serve our country, let alone one who still ranks first class in the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test. Close to 20,000 recruits and marines achieve their marksmanship qualifications each year at Parris Island, and Col. Howard is the man behind it all. Howard serves as the commanding officer for the Weapons...