Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. -- Standing solemnly between their fellow classmates, two sailors nervously examine their drill cards before performing the final drill portion of the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Corporal’s Course. With their shiny noncommissioned officer sword in hand and determination bursting through every smooth as silk movement they call, both sailors perform admirably, netting an overall score of 94 and 95, respectively.
The sight is something all too common now for the three-week course, which was traditionally intended to train corporals in the art of drill, leadership and peak physical fitness.
Petty Officers 3rd Class Adam J. Stremel and Jeremiah L. Freye, both Construction Mechanics with the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion aboard Naval Base Port Hueneme, volunteered to participate in the course to prove to themselves and their peers that they have what it takes to equal their Marine counterparts.
“I came into the course slightly intimidated by the image of Marines,” said Freye, from Bemidji, Minn. “At first I feared that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with their tempo, or I would be singled out, but the Marines were extremely helpful and there was no sense of individualization.”
Stremel, hailing from Albert, Kan., entered the course with an entirely different, albeit curious, mindset.
“I just wanted to try something different that I knew I could do,” Stremel nonchalantly remarked. “The course wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it wasn’t easy either.”
Sailors such as Freye and Stremel are but a growing trend that Master Gunnery Sgt. Ross A. Raymond, Director of the Corporals Course here, would like to see flourish in the coming years.
“At least every third course we get two or three sailors,” said Raymond, from Oceanside, Calif. “It would be nice to have more volunteer, but we don’t forget that the primary focus is on the Marines.”
Acceptance into the course can often be a challenge for sailors. Though voluntary, sailors who wish to attend compete with others for spots and must perform a physical fitness test as well as undergo medical and mental examinations prior to arrival.
Once accepted, sailors dearly depart the customs and environments that they’re used to and thrown headfirst into an alternate dimension of high-and-tights and slim waistlines. For three weeks, sailors follow Marine Corps regulations, from proper grooming standards to military bearing.
“Sailors have always been able to handle the course, but they immediately come in at a disadvantage because they’re assimilated to Navy regulations,” Raymond explained. “But they definitely rise to the challenges ahead of them.”
Once Freye and Stremel graduate the course Feb. 10, each hopes to take with them all they have learned and apply it to not only their jobs but also their personal lives.
“Once graduating, I plan to apply the training and discipline I have learned and use it to aid my fellow sailors as well as my personal life,” said Freye. “I now carry a strong sense of pride in having accomplished the corporals course.”