Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
SAN DIEGO – Most everyone sets goals for their lives.
Marine recruits are no different, and many enter training hoping to earn a
leadership position. However, goals sometimes take more time to achieve than
expected and for one recruit, it took most of boot camp to get within reach of
a leadership billet.
Throughout recruit training, Marine
Corps Pvt. Zachery T. Douthitt, Platoon 3242, Lima Company, 3rd Recruit
Training Battalion, strived to be a squad leader or guide. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t until the later stages of training that his drill instructors noticed
his upstanding character.
“He’s been a good recruit this whole
cycle,” said Sgt. Alanser Uruo, the platoon’s senior drill instructor. “He
always puts out in all the events, whether it’s physically training, drill or
guided discussions.”
Out of a platoon of 60 recruits, only
four are selected as squad leaders and one as platoon guide.
At 5 feet 4 inches, Douthitt, a
20-year-old native of Muncie, Ind., is one of the smaller recruits in his
platoon. He also has a calm demeanor and is soft spoken. While that didn’t make
him a bad recruit, it did make it harder for him to get noticed.
“I always tried to show leadership
characteristics,” said Douthitt. “I don’t know why I wasn’t picked. I hope to
get recognized after boot camp to show I did give everything I have.”
Uruo said that it’s possible for
Douthitt to pick up a leadership role in the Corps if he does three things:
“All he has to do is stand out, be more vocal [and] take more initiative.”
Although Douthitt was a good recruit,
Uruo said, it took until the second and third phase of recruit training to
notice his outstanding positive and humble character.
“If I wanted to know how the platoon was
doing, I would ask him. That’s how much confidence I have in him,” said Uruo.
“The way he presents himself, his mannerisms, motivates other recruits. He has
really good character and is a humble recruit.”
As the weeks passed in training, Uruo
said Douthitt’s positivity and motivation became obvious, particularly when he
would consistently provide input during recruit classes and direct fellow
recruits to improve.
However, Uruo said, by that time it was
too late in the game to switch up the leadership roster.
Fellow recruits called Douthitt a
positive light and someone who always helped others during stressful times.
“He would help me when I was
struggling,” said Pvt. Justin E. Duncan, one of Douthitt’s platoon mates. “I
remember telling him that I didn’t know what I was doing here and he told me
basically to keep my eyes on the prize of becoming a Marine.”
Although Douthitt did not reach his goal
of holding a leadership billet in recruit training, he said it hasn’t
discouraged him from continuing to excel. Douthitt believes he can earn it
during his time in the Marine Corps.
“He’s been that positive person that
people have looked up to,” said Duncan. “Yeah he’s not a squad leader now but
if he continues the way he is there is no doubt in my mind he’s going to
accomplish big things.”
Douthitt said that not being picked as
squad leader didn’t affect him; it instead drove him to try harder to help
others and to be someone to look up to.
“I’m not going to let my efforts stop
here in boot camp,” said Douthitt. “I’m going to keep trying to do my best.”
Douthitt is the son and brother of
former Marines, and, he said, he plans on passing on to his kids the values of
honor and courage he learned in recruit training.
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