Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Example of Marine Corps Recruit Training
Review: This book is an absolute necessity for anyone who is even in the slightest bit interested in enlisting in the corps, or learning about the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) at Parris Island, South Carolina. Ricks presents a firsthand look at the day by day life of recruits training at Parris Island. Some will make it, others won't. Those who make it will be proud to call themselves U.S. Marines. Those who don't will go back to the civilian life. Ricks presents this firsthand account in such an extraordinary way, that you will feel like you are right there going through the grueling experience with the recruits. This true story of Platoon 3086 is presented with absolutely no bias at all. The one slight problem with the book, is that it was written during the forming of the crucible, the 54 hour intense training that makes today's Marines. Before the crucible was introduced to the corps, the warrior week was the main transformation point. I would recommend the book "Into The Crucible" by James B. Woulfe. [NOTE: "Into the Crucible" relates to the crucible training at the San Diego MCRD, instead of at Parris Island.] Excellent book..Combined with "Into The Crucible", it is 110% enlightening
Rating: 
Summary: Three month review
Review: Thomas Ricks' "Making the Corps" is a fascinating but also frustrating book. On the fascinating side, it's a human interest exploration of what it means to make it through book camp. Ricks follows the recruits of Platoon 3086 through their basic training ordeal, recounting the daily routine in the life of the average grunt recruit. That part of the story is pretty familiar to most everyone--to those of us who went through basic training ourselves, and also to those who've never been in the military but who have seen the million-and-one Hollywood movies with boot camp scenes in them. Familiar as the story is, however, Ricks telling of it is gripping. He's a good writer, and knows how to capture a reader's interest. The frustrating aspect of the book is the fact that Ricks never asks, much less answers, any of the very obvious and crucial questions his account naturally suggests. Had he done so, his book would've been more than merely a journalist's story about boot camp. It would've been a real contribution to our understanding of American culture. For make no mistake about it: the very existence of the Corps is a prism through which to observe and learn things about America that go far beyond just the military. Let me cite just two examples of where Ricks fails to reflect on what he's witnessing. On pp. 116-119, Ricks describes a typical Sunday morning chapel call. All of us remember them; they were routine. Some of us took them seriously, most of us probably didn't. We were just relieved for the break. Now, in the Parris Island chapel, there's a stained glass window, described by Ricks, which depicts "a Marine flamethrower, his weapon's flames billowing out in a red, organce, and yellow mass." This, to say the least, is disconcerting: in chapel, a place of worship, peace, and meditation, you've got a scene of horrible carnage (a flame-thrower, for God's sake!) enshrined. This passage in Ricks' book is a symbol for the strange dilemma that any religious military person has to face: how can the demands of the job be reconciled with faith? It's a dilemma that ripples across the entire country, especially these day now that we're in a new shooting war, and it needs to be explored. But Ricks neither reflects on it himself nor invites any of the boots he's following to do so. It's as if he doesn't even catch the incongruity. Second example. Starting on page 200, Ricks argues that the Corps, anxious to create traditions that will build loyalty (semper fi, guys) and morale, along the way creates a strong sense of anti-Americanism in its recruits. Marines, Ricks says, are being trained as "American samurai in the way they think of themselves and in the way they relate to their nation. Like the Japanese, the ... Marines, when looking at America see a society weakened by selfishness, indiscipline, and fragmentation." (201) The upshot (as Ricks himself acknowledges) is that the Corps, dedicated to the protection of American culture, is instilling in its recruits a deep contempt for American culture. How weird is that? But instead of exploring this weirdness by asking the predictable questions--What is there about American culture that the Corps finds so offensive? How protected are we if the protectors we train disdain us? How is it that military values (or at least the Corps') are so out of step with civilian ones?--Ricks moves blithely on. It's as if his loyalty to the Corps prevents him from criticizing it in any way. But why would criticism be disloyal? Has there ever been a jarhead who hasn't criticized the Corps? So read Ricks' book, but ask the questions he doesn't. They're important, and past and current Marines are the ones best qualified to ask them. "Semper fi" doesn't mean dumbing down.
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