the delayed entry program

The Delayed Entry Program is kind of self-explanatory. When people go to MEPS, enlist, and then wait up to a year before going to boot camp, they are in the Delayed Entry Program. I don't know what the other branches do, but I'll tell you about being in the Marine Corps DEP.

The people who are waiting to go to boot camp are in the "pool" and are referred to as "poolees." When a recruiter gets into a relationship with a poolee (highly unauthorized) it's called "dipping into the pool". Just in case you wanted to know...anyway, read on.



DEP-in Brief

After I come back from signing all my enlistment papers and swearing in, they gave me my poolee T-shirt, a recruiting station dogtag, and a "Welcome Aboard" package that contained a video, a Marine Corps sticker, a physical training guide, and a booklet called "The Making of A Marine." The book explains what is expected of me while I'm in the DEP. I'm supposed to be in contact with my recruiter once a week, attend required monthly Pool Functions, and maintain appropriate height and weight standards. (So unless I shrink or have a horrific growth spurt, I should be fine.) I am also supposed to notify my recruiter of "any changes in my current status." That is, I should let him know if I move, get arrested, get a ticket, use drugs, get pregnant, break a bone, get married, etc., "no matter how minor you may consider the incident..." Most importantly, I am asked to "conduct yourself in a manner that brings credit upon yourself, your family and the United States Marine Corps." It also reminds me that, "You are a future Marine, and when a Marine needs help, he turns to another Marine. If you need help, turn to your recruiter or NCOIC." (Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge)



Poolee Function No. 1

On the first Saturday of each month, Recruiting Sub-Station Rockville has its Poolee Function. So far, I have been to two of them and the first one was on December 7, 2002, the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Sgt Nungesser came to pick me up from my house and took me and another poolee to the office. We waited around for awhile for everyone else to show up and after all the other forty-some poolees arrived we waited around for Gunny Babb to get there. The recruiters lined us up against the walls and talked about some things before calling out the names of everyone who had enlisted the previous month. This included me so I went out into the hallway and lined up again. We walked back in and lined up in the middle of the room while the others stood at attention. Gunny Babb and SSgt Ellin presented us one-by-one with our official Delayed Entry Program certificate and shook our hands.

After we were done in the office, we headed outside, piled into the cars, and drove to a nearby school to play football. There was about four inches of snow on the ground that day. We divided up into two groups for two different games after a sad attempt at one giant game. Gunny Babb roamed around joining whichever team he pleased and periodically tossed helpless poolees into the snow. Afterwards, predictably, the walk back to cars turned into a snowball fight.



Poolee Function No. 2

The next poolee function was on January 4, 2003, and I drove myself to the office in order to sleep longer instead of getting up early and waiting an hour for my ride to show up, like last month. The morning began the same as the previous with the presentation of certificates to the new poolees. After the recruiters talked for awhile about current events and who knows what else, we split into two groups of about 20. This month we had to do the quarterly IST (Initial Strength Test), so my group went upstairs to see how many pull-ups the guys could do and how long I could do the flexed-arm hang. The males ranged from 0 pull-ups to 20 something. For the flexed-arm hang, women are supposed to hold onto the bar with both hands facing the same direction, with their chin over or level with it but not touching, and stay like that for as long as possible. The time keeps running as long as your elbows are bent, even just a little bit. With my lovely audience of 20 some people, I hung on for 80 seconds which is ten longer than the maximum.

Next, we headed back downstairs to do our crunches. I was paired with a girl who had just returned from boot camp and she told me that she could only do the arm hang for 70 seconds! I did my crunches first but I only could do 42 and we're supposed to do 44 in two minutes before we go to boot camp. She did about 85 and said she was disappointed because at the last test in boot camp she did 102!

To do the mile and a half run, we had to drive to a lake in Germantown with a nice path around it. The recruiters showed us where to start and where stop and then sent us off. Some people started out really fast and were gone. I don't know if they were the same ones I passed later on or not. I didn't want to wear myself out so I tried to go the same speed the whole time. Apparently, it paid off because I passed all sorts of tired-out guys who stopped running and were only walking! About halfway through I was ready to pause and take a nap in the woods but would have felt stupid if I started walking, and I knew if I stopped running, I'd never start again. Eventually I finished. It took me 12 minutes and forty seconds. The maximum time before going to boot camp for girls is 15 minutes and for guys is 13 minutes and 30 seconds, so I did good.



NBC News Interview

On Thursday, January 23, 2003, I dragged myself out of bed early to make it to the office by ten o'clock. Yes, that's early...at least when you've been getting up no earlier than noon! I was supposed to do a high school visit with SSgt Trent during the lunch period, but while I was waiting in the office for him to come back, he called to cancel. Apparently, he either forgot or didn't know that it was finals week and there wasn't a lunch period, so we couldn't do our table set-up thing as planned. But I didn't move from the couch. I just sat and watched "Rules of Engagement" and those Discovery Channel "Making of Marines" videos.

Sometime during all of that, Gunny Babb called me into his office and asked me what I was doing that day. I said "Nothing" and he said "Good!" There was an NBC producer and cameraman coming to do a story about recruiting and they wanted to do some interviews. SSgt Trent was going to be interviewed and suggested that I be interviewed as well, for the recruit viewpoint. "Maria would be perfect!"

At first I didn't care, but then I got nervous as three o'clock drew closer. Some kid named James, me, and the other recruiters raced around and cleaned up the place. I've never seen Gunny's desk so clean as it was that afternoon! The NBC folks finally arrived and the producer, Julie, seemed like a very nice lady. The cameraman was a Norwegian guy whose cell phone played "The Pink Panther" song in the middle of SSgt Trent's interview.

First they set up the equipment in Gunny's office and interviewed SSgt Trent. He sat at the desk in his dress blues with that bright light shining in his face and answered questions for ten or fifteen minutes. Julie asked him about the draft, whether they had enough enlistees, effects of September 11, what he liked about recruiting duty, the impending war with Iraq, and other things. I thought he did pretty well.

I went back to my couch and they set up the equipment again to interview me. I don't know how many dumb things I said, I was nervous and probably starting babbling. Julie asked me questions like why I joined the Marines, what I thought about the possibility of going to Iraq, what my family and friends thought, about my grandfather's medal I was wearing around my neck, and what I hoped to gain from the Marines. SSgt Trent watched the whole thing. Afterwards, he insisted I did a good job and I said the same of him, but about ourselves we both said we did bad. He said he was glad I was there that day.

I'm supposed to call or email Julie to find out when our interviews will air.

P.S. Julie never answered my phone calls or emails and I never found out when or if our interviews would air. However, a while later, a friend of mine from work named Matt told me he saw part of my interview on TV while he was in Vermont. Hopefully one day I'll be able to see it!