Norwood’s Charles King Jr. Shares His Marine Journey-This Day In Norwood History-March 26, 2011

Fifty-four hours, three MREs, four hours of sleep (if you’re lucky), 55 miles to hike, obstacles to overcome and teamwork to pull one through.

This, Charles King Jr. said, is the Crucible, the last phase a recruit must overcome before becoming a Marine.

“It is a test of everything we’ve learned up until then and how well we handle it,” the young Marine said at Perks Coffeehouse on Washington Street. “It all ends with the Crucible. The ultimate, the final test.”

The 20-year-old Norwood High graduate listed the details of the Crucible with precision.

Charles King Jr. Wicked Local

On the first day the recruits hiked over 10 kilometers during the day, only to hike another 8 kilometers in the dark after a short rest, “but this really turns into a run, then you sleep, get up and hike more. Eating is up to us.”

“The rest of boot camp is completely structured,” he said, balancing a half-full juice bottle between his two hands. The Crucible is where you put it into practice.”

During the final test, King said, there are various obstacle courses, or combat situations.

“There was this one,” he pauses, puts the bottle back on the table. “We had to carry a radio pack, water jug and two ammo cans all the way to the end.”

At one point, King said, he had to traverse a ropes course.

“I got halfway up and I fell off and just landed down on my back and I was hurting,” he said. “My friend Martin who was with me. He just picked me up; he dragged me. He didn’t even think twice. He carried me to the end.

That’s what the Crucible is all about. (Marines) live by honor, courage and commitment and they are testing that.” Eight a.m. Saturday morning it ends at the replica Iwo Jima monument on Parris Island, South Carolina.

“The minute you get there. When you put your pack down,” he said, “you go from a recruit to a Marine … Our drill instructors that have been on us for the three months (of boot camp), hand us an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor (pin). You don’t have to call them sir anymore; they are gunnery sergeant or staff sergeant. At that point, we are part of the brotherhood. We are no longer a recruit, we are a Marine.”

King paints a surreal picture of that morning.

“I was kind of just staring, looking around and thinking, this can’t be it. This can’t be over,” he said. “Then I saw this Iwo Jima Marine from World War II, He was just there, he had his red retired hat on and we were at his monument.

He said ‘We are all part of a family. We are all marines until the day we die.’ And I just lost it.”

Pvt. 1st Class King left for Camp Lejeune in North Carolina earlier this month for one month of Marine combat training. It is there, he said “We shoot the big guns.” As a Marine, King could be called into a combat situation and he must be prepared.

Eventually, he will study aviation maintenance in Pensacola, Florida at a Naval air station. Which, he points out, is interesting because he originally signed up with the Navy after high school graduation in 2009.

“I took steps for the Navy, got sick and I was delayed a year,” he said. King got a kidney stone the summer after college and was discharged. He decided to attend Mass Bay Community College for a year, where he studied criminal justice, but he kept in touch with a Marine recruitment office in Westwood.

“I just wanted to serve my country,” he said. “The country has been at war ever since (9/11) and I grew up watching it on TV.”

Now that he is officially a Marine, King said his parents are very supportive. His father, retired police Lt. Charles King, put a Marine Corps flag on the front lawn.

“And my mom has the bumper sticker ‘My son is a Marine,”’ he laughed.

A Perks patron walked over to King, who was in his dress uniform. She thanked him for his service. Politely he shook her hand and sat back down as she left the coffee shop.

“I am just a new Marine,” he said. “I have a lot to live up to. I still have to go out there and live up to the Marines before me. And try to carry on the tradition. I haven’t done anything yet. I just went to boot camp.”

(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)