ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: QUANTICO
SOURCE: ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
The wallet-size cards list what Marines call the corps values of honor, courage and commitment.
Scott Buttz awoke at midnight after two hours sleep and marched 10 miles before dawn Monday. By mid-afternoon he had scrambled up hillsides and built a plank bridge.
But the hardest part of a new Marine Corps training program is not the physical endurance, Buttz said. The three-day test emphasizes values, morality and above all teamwork.
Would-be Marine officers such as Buttz, 22, go through all exercises as a group and are graded partly on how well they perform together. Buttz is part of the first class of officer candidates to receive the training.
``You're only as fast as your slowest man,'' said Buttz, of Bedford, Ind.
The program is called the Crucible, after the vessel used to forge metal.
Eventually, every Marine from raw recruits to senior officers will go through it, and earn a new ``values card'' they must carry along with their military identification.
Smarting from criticism of a brutal hazing ritual for Marine paratroopers, the Marine Corps is eager to show off the program and the cards.
``The big thing is the values [tested] during a defining moment, an experience that's a challenge for them to go through together,'' said Col. Al Davis, commanding officer at the Officer Candidate School at Quantico.
The red, wallet-size card lists what Marines call the corps values of honor, courage and commitment, plus an eight-point checklist of Marine conduct.
``Marines obey the law, lead by example [and] respect themselves and others,'' the card reads.
After graduating from the Crucible training, Marines sign the card as a pledge to follow those rules, Marine spokesman Lt. Scott Gordon said.
In January, Defense Secretary William Cohen said he was ``disturbed and disgusted by the treatment of young Marines'' involved in an unofficial graduation ceremony.
Called a ``blood pinning,'' the hazing incidents involved golden jump pins beaten into the chests of paratroopers.
``Abuse such as this has no place in any branch of the U.S. military,'' Cohen said after videotape of the incidents was televised. The pinning ceremonies were recorded by participants in 1991 and 1993.
``We don't condone that. We don't condone hazing of any kind. Whatever initiation or whatever they were doing, it wasn't good, and it wasn't right,'' Davis said.
``Obviously we don't expect if an individual has a card they're never going to do anything wrong. I think it's just a good reminder,'' Davis said.
Officers' Crucible training will be the capstone to nine weeks of grueling training at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. Buttz and the several dozen others in his group will graduate as lieutenants next week.
``There's some incentive. We know it's almost over,'' said James Chiacchia, 29, of Hopkinton, Mass.
Enlisted Marines began the Crucible program last fall. The first class graduated in December after 54 hours of continuous team training.
Active-duty Marines are designing their own ``crucible experiences,'' Gordon said. In keeping with the teamwork theme, Marines decide within their offices or units how to test themselves, he said.
The tests are not always physical, he said.
One office at Quantico opted to tour the Holocaust Museum in Washington and then discuss what the experience means to warriors and citizens, Gordon said.
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