PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. - Justin Bockway always wanted to be a Marine, just like his father who fought in Desert Storm.
"I guess you could just say ... I'm just trying to keep the tradition," said Bockway, an 18-year-old Huntington High School graduate and one of 211 West Virginia residents to join the Marines since 2014.
Marines, with their reputation for being the first called to fight, have a presence in 17 places throughout the United States and the world, according to Marines.com. Deployments range from Guatemala, where Marines provide annual medical and construction training, to Colombia, where they teach marksmanship to local forces in anti-drug operations, to the Middle East for the War on Terrorism.
There are hundreds of career roles, but for enlisted Marines, it all starts the same way - with 12 weeks of demanding training either at South Carolina's Parris Island or in San Diego, California.
The recruit depot's mission statement is painted on a sign that stretches across the roadway and on a water tower on the island: "We make Marines." It's a motto that Marine leaders take seriously.
"We like to say we take boys and we turn them into men," said Cap. Eric Albright, executive officer for the Recruiting Station Charleston.
Besides physical fitness, recruit training includes military history and customs and water survival. Recruits learn how to rappel, shoot and use a bayonet. They'll learn to use a gas mask and experience first-hand the effects of tear gas. They'll learn to march in formation and to stand perfectly still, even ignoring the island's biting sand fleas and fire ants.
Bockway, who was about halfway through with his training at Parris Island earlier this month, had already picked up on an essential element of the Marine Corps training: teamwork. Instead of saying "I" or "me," he referred to himself as "he" or "this recruit."
It was a little difficult to get used to, he admitted.
"Every once in a while, the recruit slips up, but it's not very often that it happens," Bockway said.
Bockway, who has a wife and young son, said having a family was the deciding factor in joining up.
"He sees other married men or other people with families, and he knows that he wants his family to be protected so he also wants to protect everyone else's family as well," Bockway said.
Just by being at boot camp, Bockway had already beat out the majority of other potential recruits. According to the Marine Corps, 71 percent of people in the target market of ages 17 to 21 do not meet the USMC standards to get in. Felonies and serious drug use, racist or sexist tattoos and failing the military aptitude test will all disqualify a person from joining the Marines.
"We don't just recruit the bottom of the barrel ... you actually have to be quite intelligent for us to put a gun in your hands," said Sgt. Caitlin Brink, the marketing and public affairs representative for Recruiting Station Charleston.
Applicants also must pass a medical exam and meet certain fitness standards that include a 1.5 mile run, pull-ups and crunches. Allergies requiring an EpiPen, diabetes and heart problems are all likely to keep someone out, though cases are decided on an individual basis.
Bockway's journey through boot camp started like all the other Marines trained at Parris Island - the depot's famous yellow footprints.
They get off a bus very early one morning and stand, still in their street clothes, with their feet on the footprints, making their first formation as their new leaders scream instructions and the basics of military law at them.
"Whenever you step off the bus, they're screaming at you and you really don't know what to do or say," said Ryan Berry, of Huntington, who recently graduated from boot camp. "You're just standing there like 'I don't know what's going on.' And then you run into the building and they sit you down in a little room and you sit there Indian style.
"We were some of the last ones to get there and we sat there for like two hours, so other people sat there for like eight," he said. "So, that was absolutely terrible."
Berry said the first week - known as receiving week - was mentally the toughest time on the island. Getting all the recruits on the same sleeping schedule requires them to be kept awake at times. At the end of the week, recruits meet the drill instructors who will be responsible for them for the remainder of their training.
Being a Marine wasn't a first choice of careers for Larry Rhodes II, 27, of Kenna, though he has several family members who were in the military. Rhodes decided to join after a divorce and being laid off from his job in the oil and gas industry.
"I knew I had to do something so that I wouldn't have to worry about being laid off and have a steady income," Rhodes said.
His mother is proud of him now, he said, but it took her a while. He used her computer to initially contact a recruiter. "The first thing she said was 'get off my computer,'" Rhode said and laughed. "But now she's very proud and excited."
Rhodes said the thought of going off to war doesn't bother him. He signed up to protect his country, he said.
"Marines are protecting the country by keeping [terrorists] occupied and stopping a repeat of 9/11," Rhodes said. "That's kind of how I look at it."
Female Marine recruits are trained exclusively at Parris Island and only in the fourth battalion. Officials say despite being trained in separate battalions, 60 percent of the training has female and male recruits working in close proximity to one another.
Beginning this spring, female Marines are allowed into combat roles for the first time, provided they meet the requirements.
Capt. Oliver David, a public affairs officer for the Fourth Marine Corps District, said as with any institutional change, there will be those who do not like allowing females into combat roles. But as a military organization, the Marines believe in following orders, he said.
"We want to make sure that we are following the orders and we do it well and ultimately that's what matters to us - making sure that we accomplish the mission well," he said.
Some have argued that allowing women into combat roles will lead to personal relationships that would become a distraction during combat situations.
David said he thinks any female who can meet the requirements should be able to perform in those roles.
"We all see each other as Marines first," he said. "Whether it's male or female, your priority is the mission and then your second priority along with that is making sure that your brother and sister to your left and your right is taken care of.
"So is it a distraction to have somebody that you know as a Marine next to you? No, I think that's what makes us strong," David said.
Marine recruits train six days a week - Monday through Saturday. Their days start at around 5 a.m.
Berry, whose father was also in the Marine Corps, said training was more mentally challenging than physically.
"It's like everyone comes here thinking that it's gonna be physically hard - like running all the time and [doing] a bunch of push-ups, but really it's really tough on the mental side," he said.
Of the approximately 19,000 recruits to go through Parris Island each year, 1,500 won't make it through training.
Training ends with a grueling 54-hour right of passage called the Crucible, designed to test recruits on everything they learned during training. During the Crucible, recruits will march 45 miles and participate in team building exercises and simulated combat experiences, and they'll do it all on a limited amount of food and sleep.
The last part of the Crucible is a 9-mile hike from the training compound to a statue of the Iwo Jima flag-raising. There, during a ceremony they are presented their eagle, globe and anchor - the emblems of the Marine Corps, and called Marines for the first time.
Few people besides Marines ever witness the ceremony.
Despite the hard work they do there, Parris Island remains a special place for a lot of Marines, including Brink, 22, who was stationed there for three years as a photographer. Brink lives in Charleston, was raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and still refers to Parris Island as the place she was born - a figurative expression for when she joined the Marines.
"Every step that I've taken on this base is just filled with pride, just because this is where I became a Marine," Brink said. "This is where I was stationed for three years. Just being around other Marines and just seeing drill instructors and seeing the transformation these kids are going through ... It's just an incredible feeling. It's pride.
"It makes you want to yell."
Note: Staff writer Lori Kersey and photographer Sam Owens reported and photographed this story during a Marine-sponsored educators workshop at Parris Island earlier this month. About 60 teachers from several states including West Virginia were invited to find out what life is like for the Marine recruits at Parris Island.
Reach Lori Kersey at Lori.Kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240, or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.