Private 1st Class Brandon Wood

Tucson, AZ

Before I went to Recruit Training I was not the type of person who would take other people around me yelling and treating me unkindly, saying things that they know you hate to hear and they know you can't do anything about it. But I learned a very valuable lesson from a new Drill Instructor who had picked up with my platoon during second phase. He saw how frustrated I would get at things like that and taught me the way that Drill Instructors do, by doing it over and over again until it doesn't even bother you in the slightest. He drilled those thoughts that i couldn't stand into my brain as many times as he could, but ultimately I learned the lesson I now know that he was trying to teach me. "Tough skin" he would say, "In the Marine Corps you're going to need tough skin, you are going to have to show the other Marines that what they are saying doesn't bother you or else they will eat you alive". I can't tell you how many times he said that to me whether it was just like that or in another way. But it got through to me and so far in my time as a Marine it has helped me come a long way and I know it will continue to help me in the rest of my career. I will never forget all the lessons I learned in Recruit Training but that one will always stick out in my mind more than any other and I cannot thank that Staff Sgt enough for helping me to learn that very valuable lesson that all Marines must learn.