Mission MCLB: swim training at Parris Island
At 60 meters long, 25 meters wide, and filled with 750,000 gallons of water, the pool at Parris Island is the largest indoor pool on the East Coast.
USMC Swim Instructor Gunnery Sgt. Randall Parkes says the pool has to be large to train the thousands of marine recruits that pass through the USMC Parris Island, South Carolina Recruit Depot every year. “We have to train them to be ready. The Marine Corps is America’s 911 Force, we go all around the world at a moment’s notice you never know what environment you may be in” says Parkes.
For that reason all marine recruits have to learn basic swimming skills that include a number of swimming techniques and various methods of how to stay afloat. “It gives the recruits more tools for their toolbox, and marines’ tools for their toolbox so in the event that they do fall off the ship or something like that - they have all these different survival strokes that they can utilize to switch back and forth” says Parkes.
Now that the ‘War on Terror’ is winding down, many marines could find themselves on a ship - since the Marines are a division of the Navy.
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