Personal Narrative: My Final Work-Up

I thought completing Marine Corps boot camp was my most cherished accomplishment, but it merely stood in the shadows of my last deployment’s final work-up. Combat preparation is as stressful as you could imagine, and that stress doubles on leadership positions. D. H. Lawrence’s poem sounds like an alarm in my head when things get hard, “I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself”. You have a choice to make during hard times: wonder “why me” or rise above the situation.
Work-ups contain two culminating events. The first event is the Alpha squad leaders in every platoon, and the last is for the entire company of 200 Marines. I lead people before, as a Martial Arts Instructor for the Marine Corps but it was still not enough. Fox 10 Alpha is the range that honestly and humbly tested my grit and my mental capacity. It tests the ability and knowledge of marines with a minimum of 8 years’ experience in leadership. This intricate range consisted of the platoon firing 25 mm cannons, 81 mm
mortars, and 8 machine guns over our heads while we overtake and clear three critically complicated bunkers with live ammunitions. This was not my first time conducting a live fire range; however, it was my first time leading the entire platoon on the ground in conjunction with live ammunitions. It was his sixth time overcoming this specific range and my first in a low-level leadership role. It was a normal start on the range with Alpha squad leader taking command. Alpha squad leader kept his composure and moved with a sense of ease and purpose. To make the training more arduous, the individuals managing the range decided to remove the Alpha squad leader to test the knowledge of the rest of the squad. Pulling the Alpha squad leader is uncommon practice. Again, it is exclusively the Alpha squad leader’s range to test his competence as the lead squad leader.
I was standing next to him cresting our vantage point when they told us. The blood in my face vacated and my stomach dropped. No one was in earshot, so the only available decision was to grab his radio and fill his boots to the best of my ability. Two rockets screaming towards their targets solidified the realism. Knowing the tolerance for error was minimal; I felt my skin prickle and temperature rise. During this training evolution, while under my command, our platoon was not the fastest, the slowest, efficient, or inefficient.
However, regardless of my inexperience leading a platoon, we completed the mission at hand. Many obstacles happened to settle on my shoulders that day. I started this final workup a team leader, but accepting and overcoming the challenge promoted me to squad leader. Any particular person can overcome a burden if they remove themselves and methodically approach the situation from a different avenue of approach. The sudden promotion was challenging to fulfill, but perseverance drove the vital success of our mission. Overcoming adversities and challenges molded me into a person who upholds professionalism and welcomes challenges. Challenges are what propel individuals to perform at the highest level. I look forward to accepting any challenges your law school
provides.