MARINES STILL DO IT THEIR WAY

By MARK THOMPSON

The Marines relish being different from the other three services--tougher and cheaper, Leathernecks like to say--and that attitude is reflected in their boot camp. While the other branches have relaxed their training, last year the corps stretched boot camp from 11 weeks to 12. "This is not making things easier," says General Charles Krulak, the Marine Commandant. "This is making things tougher--physically, mentally and morally." Unlike the other branches, the Marines have also refused to mix men and women in basic training, which angers some who believe that it shortchanges women. Each sex trains the same way, but physical requirements for women are less demanding.

Last October the Marines added a grueling new climax to boot camp called the Crucible. Spread over 54 straight hours near the end of their training stint, it requires recruits to simulate a variety of battlefield actions amid 40 miles of hiking. They traverse a 20-ft.-wide creek with a pair of 10-ft. boards, and they carry a "wounded" Marine for a mile over rugged terrain. They perform with scant sleep or food, through day and night, and have to ignore scrapes and sprains. "I had to keep going and not let my team down," says Private Scott Feather. The Marines say the beefed-up regimen is working, based on early anecdotal evidence of fewer disciplinary problems and a dip in attrition. This week the Navy will launch its own 12-hour version of the Crucible.

Still, many Marines say boot camp is easier than they expected. And even if it was too tough for boxer Riddick Bowe--he dropped out after 11 days last February--recruits are not immune to society's trends. Krulak, for example, has had to ban the practice, popular among some male Marines, of wearing fingernail polish.

As in the other branches, the corps also discovered it had to begin educating recruits about fundamental values after 22 Marines were implicated in the 1991 Tailhook scandal and a pair were found guilty in the 1995 rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl. Drill instructors and recruits now have long talks on morality and choices. "We're teaching them how to think, rather than telling them what to think,"says Staff Sergeant Steven Manzo, a drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C.

The Marines now trumpet matrimony. Four years ago, General Carl Mundy, Krulak's predecessor, was denounced for trying to bar married Marine recruits. But earlier this year, the corps heralded the wedding of a young Marine couple that left for boot camp at Parris Island shortly after they exchanged vows. "We'd see each other when our formations passed each other," recalls Private Sarah Wallace of Sioux City, Iowa, the uniformed bride.

Her husband Terry says the two decided to enjoy a honeymoon of rifle practice and forced marches because "we thought it would give us a good base to build on." Like many newlyweds, the Wallaces do not see everything the same way. "I thought it was going to be more physically challenging," says Terry, who is training to become a helicopter mechanic. But Sarah found it plenty demanding. She dislocated her left shoulder in boot camp and expects to be discharged from the service for medical reasons later this month. Is this what people mean when they talk about tough love?

--By Mark Thompson