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Eric Kocher on the Marines | Big Think
Posted
April 24, 2012
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April 24, 2012
47,671
547
83
1.32%
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Eric Kocher goes inside the marine corps.
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Eric Kocher:
Staff Sergeant Eric Kocher is one of the men portrayed in Evan Wright's Generation Kill. A U.S. Marine and member of the First Reconnaissance Battalion has received two purple Heart and a Bronze star, earned during his tour in Afghanistan and four tours of Iraq.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: Why did you join the Marines?
Eric Kocher: I think the commercials got me. Maybe I was watching... I think for as long as I remember, I wanted to join the military, not specifically the Marine Corp. I went and actually looked at all of them. The Navy, the Air Force. I was originally, actually going to join the Navy for their Nuclear program, and it was a $60,000.00 signing bonus, and it sounded all sexy and high-speed, and then I went over to the Marine recruiter, and they offered recon, which at the time, I had no fucking clue what it was, and they offered me a $3,000.00 signing bonus, which sounded so much better than the sixty. So I signed the paperwork. The next thing you know, I was in recon. I signed up when I was 18 for like delayed entry, and I actually didn’t go until I was 19.
Question: Was boot camp tough?
Eric Kocher: It wasn’t. I thought it would be a little more physical than what it was, but it was definitely great. Now, I look back, I mean boot camp’s... it hasn’t changed for decades, because it’s designed so perfectly to kind of break you down and then build you back up, and you see the quality of Marines across the generations, and it really starts at boot camp. Boot camp, it kind of strips you down as an individual. It starts like teaching you how to work as a team and build you up that way and just start engraining like discipline. I always say the biggest thing they teach you, which, to most people, wouldn’t matter, is like, you gotta tie your shoe...your boot laces left over right. They teach you all the little small details so that that’s what you pay attention to.
Question: Why do those small details matter?
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