MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON -- Marines and Sailors undergo a life transition upon graduation from boot camp. They experience a significant boost in confidence and a sense of purpose and brotherhood.
One Marine Corps Community Service program, and one of the five pillars of Marine Corps Family Team Building, is in place to help rejuvenate these feelings of self worth and personal accountability.
The Chaplains’ Religious Enrichment Development Operations, or CREDO, provides an assortment of free retreat-based programs to sea service personnel to increase the development and use of personal and spiritual resources.
“Spiritual” development does not require adopting a religion or system of beliefs.
“Spirituality is just that extra part of being human,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Kay R. Reeb, Director, CREDO, Marine Corps Installations West. “People who have a very high faith, and those who really don’t have any particular faith, feel accepted.”
“We always have a wide variety of people at the retreats,” added Reeb.
The CREDO also offers team-building seminars, marriage reintegration workshops and pre-marriage counseling, but its main focus is to provide personal growth and marriage enrichment retreats, said Reeb.
The personal growth retreats are 72 hours long and zero in on the array of emotions that Marines and Sailors often hold back, either due to deployments, family issues or feelings of isolation.
“We use a lot of music in the personal growth retreats,” said Reeb, who has served as CREDO director for about one year. “Music helps people get in touch with their feelings, both positive and negative, that they’re still holding onto.”
“We try to model a healthy family where people listen to, respect and trust each other,” continued Reeb. “It’s not therapy, and it’s not a magic cure… It’s just a beginning point.”
The second form of retreat offered by CREDO is a 48-hour marriage enrichment.
“Marriage enrichment retreats are really fun and probably our most popular,” said Reeb. “They’re a wonderful way for couples to build on the strengths they already have and maybe even pick up a new skill or two.”
Although 18-20 couples usually attend the 48-hour retreat, the majority of time is spent between the two married individuals, said Reeb.
One participant in the marriage retreat said the program helped him and his wife to better communicate with one another.
“I’ve been on a couple of retreats… and they weren’t at all boring,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Jackson, an administrative specialist at the CREDO headquarters building. “(The retreats) gave us a chance to get away and taught us a lot about forgiveness.”
He recalled a particular retreat that took him and his wife to a remote location in the Palomar Mountains.
“There are no televisions and no radios – it makes you want to get out and go for a walk with your wife,” said Jackson, a 26-year-old from Oxnard.
Again, Reeb emphasized that the couples’ retreats do not cure all marriage problems by themselves. The process requires effort from both partners.
“What you get out of a weekend retreat is what you put into it,” said Reeb. “People really have all of their own answers, this just gives them a way to see that.”
Anyone interested in learning any more about the CREDO retreats or any other CREDO program should call (760) 725-4954.