Steve Bunting

They do a really good job of that.

And then from there, you select your last time to go recon.

So they'll give you one more shot there if you haven't made it.

Now, is this a tryout, or is this they ask you if you want to do it?

They'll ask you, yeah.

So it's all voluntary, but you've got to try out.

So you've got to do the NSW screener, the same as the BUDS one, same run, swim, pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, et cetera.

So you do the same BUDS screener, and then if you make the times, then they'll award you a contract.

Yep, for recon, yep.

And then what?

Then you get assigned to your first unit, right?

So oftentimes just based on the school and where you are in time, they'll send you probably to like first, second, third recon first to kind of cut your teeth till you wait till orders to BRC.

So BRC is like the gold standard there, the basic reconnaissance course.

I ended up checking into first recon January of 2007.

Okay.

So I check in there as this fresh boot corpsman at the BAS and things started getting real, really quick, right?

Oh, in the beginning they do, right?

A roper's a roper, whether you're a wannabe recon marine or you're a wannabe SARC, and you get treated as such.

Yeah, as soon as you check in, you're on your face doing push-ups, pushing them out, and they start laying the groundwork pretty quickly, right?

Which is something I always have so much respect for the culture that recon, the recon community has is that they don't sway in it.