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The Pink Marine: One Boy's Journey Through Bootcamp to Manhood by Norman Lear, Greg Cope White
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
When White joined the Marine Corps, he did and didn't know what he was getting into: he knew he'd have to beef up. He knew he'd have to take orders. He knew he'd be able to stay with his best friend. He knew that he was gay, and that he'd have to stay closeted for the duration of his—pre-Don't Ask Don't Tell—service.
He didn't know just how hard training would be. He didn't know that he'd rise to the challenge. He didn't know, or at least fully process, that "boot camp" had a whole lot less to do with tents and campfires than it had to do with endless drills.
White offers up a surprisingly balanced view here: he hates his trainers sometimes, and he hates the drills sometimes, and it takes a long time for him to see the point of things like having to make his bed perfectly...over and over and over again. He's constantly afraid of being outed. But he also develops, over the course of the boot camp that he describes here, a respect for what the Marines are teaching them. He also learns that he is, physically and emotionally, capable of far more than he'd expected.
Early on in the book, White goes into a litany of all the moves he experienced between childhood and high school graduation. One move after another. Dale, he says, one of the few friends he managed to keep through all these moves, was a constant—and it was Dale's enlistment in the Corps that led White to do the same. Consistency.
There's painful stuff here, some to do with White but just as much to do with other recruits: We never saw Baker again. McKinnon explained that Baker had been found incompetent to handle recruit training, and he was sent home. Baker's recruiter had filled out all Baker's paperwork—including the basic IQ test—for him. Baker couldn't read or write. His squad leader stuffed his belongings into his sea bag. (169) What was that recruiter thinking? I mean...I can guess. But this is in the context of Baker having been subjected to all sorts of humiliation, only after which he was sent home, and all of which could have been avoided if...I dunno, if the Corps had done a better job of it.
Still...I appreciate the balance, and I appreciate the snark. I wish there'd been just a little more on what Marine Corps life was like for White after his training, because I was curious about things like just how far in the closet he'd had to stay (what about when he was home?) and whether he stayed in communications and so on. Other than White being gay, the book also doesn't stray super far from other boot camp memoirs I've read. Worth the read, though.
He didn't know just how hard training would be. He didn't know that he'd rise to the challenge. He didn't know, or at least fully process, that "boot camp" had a whole lot less to do with tents and campfires than it had to do with endless drills.
White offers up a surprisingly balanced view here: he hates his trainers sometimes, and he hates the drills sometimes, and it takes a long time for him to see the point of things like having to make his bed perfectly...over and over and over again. He's constantly afraid of being outed. But he also develops, over the course of the boot camp that he describes here, a respect for what the Marines are teaching them. He also learns that he is, physically and emotionally, capable of far more than he'd expected.
Early on in the book, White goes into a litany of all the moves he experienced between childhood and high school graduation. One move after another. Dale, he says, one of the few friends he managed to keep through all these moves, was a constant—and it was Dale's enlistment in the Corps that led White to do the same. Consistency.
There's painful stuff here, some to do with White but just as much to do with other recruits: We never saw Baker again. McKinnon explained that Baker had been found incompetent to handle recruit training, and he was sent home. Baker's recruiter had filled out all Baker's paperwork—including the basic IQ test—for him. Baker couldn't read or write. His squad leader stuffed his belongings into his sea bag. (169) What was that recruiter thinking? I mean...I can guess. But this is in the context of Baker having been subjected to all sorts of humiliation, only after which he was sent home, and all of which could have been avoided if...I dunno, if the Corps had done a better job of it.
Still...I appreciate the balance, and I appreciate the snark. I wish there'd been just a little more on what Marine Corps life was like for White after his training, because I was curious about things like just how far in the closet he'd had to stay (what about when he was home?) and whether he stayed in communications and so on. Other than White being gay, the book also doesn't stray super far from other boot camp memoirs I've read. Worth the read, though.
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