Changes in Boot Camp

“Boot Camp Kicks Its Harsh Image” (Oct. 26) focused almost exclusively on two services. While acknowledging that the Marine Corps has “toughened its boot camp,” the frequent use of the military moniker reinforced by quotations from military brass and the Pentagon may cause your readers to miss that point.

We have made changes to how we train Marines--changes designed for the express purpose of making it more challenging to become a Marine. They are anything but “slight.”

It begins with recruiting. We have raised our standards for enlistment, and we have made or exceeded our recruiting goals for the past 27 months.

Once at the depot, recruits undergo the most rigorous training I’ve ever witnessed. We upped our evaluation standards, added a week of training and gave time back to the drill instructor, who still barks commands, pushes recruits through rigorous physical training and drills them for hours on the grinder. And our recruits are still required to scale the walls of our obstacle course wearing “fatigues” and combat boots.

Their final test, as you note, is the Crucible. It is 54 hours of mental, physical and moral challenges exacerbated by food and sleep deprivation; it demands the utmost of each recruit, and no one makes it through alone. It is the defining moment in that recruit’s life.

I can assure you that we are making Marines today who are physically and mentally equipped to fight and win in “old-style combat” or on the battlefield of tomorrow.

GEN. C.C. KRULAK

Commandant of the Marine Corps

Washington