"Narrator:" "The U.S. Military's elite schools turn soldiers into razor-sharp weapons." "[Machine-gun fire]" "To become the best of the best, these men go to hell and back." "Get lower!" "[Groans]" "I can't see!" "Aah!" "We're trying to push them to the breaking point." "Instructor:" "This is your life now." "You're hard-core!" "Let's go!" "Narrator:" "They are the eyes and ears of the Marine Corps, the first men on the ground behind enemy lines." "To earn the name Recon Marine, they must first survive the legendary 12-week basic reconnaissance course." "If I quit, I'm dead." "It's a man-breaking, all-out trial by fire." "Crawford:" "This is what recon's all about." "Aah!" "Hey!" "Almost half will fail." "Get him!" "Get him!" "Aah!" "Only the best survive the cut." "Crawford:" "Do not let this be the end of you." "Narrator:" "Before large forces hit the combat zone, small, precision-trained teams of recon Marines sneak in first to scope out the battlefield." "Crawford:" "They locate the enemy." "They paint a picture of what the battlefield looks like to let the commanders know," ""Hey, this is the proper way to employ your forces."" "Narrator:" "The Marines only send their best." "Soldier:" "These guys are pretty hard." "These are hard guys." "They get to do the coolest missions, you know, all the high-speed stuff, the dangerous stuff." "So I aspire to be one of them." "Hold it!" "Hold it!" "Hold it!" "Narrator:" "The grueling 12-week basic recon course primes men for the mind-blowing demands of the recon Marines' job." "Bear crawl!" "Let's move!" "Get off your knees!" "Get off your knees!" "This sucks." "Narrator:" "Only the strongest Marines volunteer for recon training." "To truly understand what it is to be a recon Marine, you have to endure what this school has to offer." "Narrator:" "Nearly half won't make it." "Aah!" "Ugh!" "Narrator: 65 Marines assemble at Camp Pendleton, California." "Class 6-tac-10 has come from units across the Corps to qualify as recon Marines." "Some are just out of basic training." "Others have already been tested in battle." "All of them are in for three months of sheer hell." "Crawford:" "I'm here to look out after you, to help you through the next 12 weeks." " Do you understand?" "All:" "Yes, Master Sergeant!" "Okay." "I can be your best friend, and I can get you through this, or I can be the guy that gets rid of you." "Do you understand that?" "Together:" "Yes, Master Sergeant!" "Thompson:" "I'm here at the reconnaissance course 'cause I want a challenge." "My friend, he got killed in Iraq." "He wanted to be here with me." "And so I pretty much do everything for him." "Crawford:" "You Marines have decided to take a great undertaking." "Recon Marines are infamous in the Marine Corps." "Those are the big footprints you have to fill." "We just made the transition over to reconnaissance." "Haven't earned the title yet, but that's what I'm here for... to become the elite of the elite." "Narrator:" "Day 1 starts at the pool with a reality check." "Crawford:" "Boot camp's over with." "We're here to train, to make you warriors." "We're gonna push you outside of your comfort zone." "Don't panic... do what the instructors tell you to do, and you're gonna be fine." " Understand?" "All:" "Yes, Staff Sergeant." "Aarugha!" "Aarugha!" "Aarugha!" "Narrator:" "First up is 40 minutes of treading water wearing full battle fatigues." "Instructor:" "You ready?" "All:" "Yes, Staff Sergeant!" "[Speaks indistinctly]" "Instructor:" "Shut your mouth." "Crawford:" "Training day 1... it's basically a checkoff to make sure these Marines can essentially swim in the pool without drowning." "Narrator:" "On day 1, there is no specific test to pass." "But instructors expect students to push hard and prove they want to be here." "Hands out of the water." "Let me see your hands." "Let's see those palms." "Crawford:" "Hey, suffer in silence." "Just keep quiet." "Narrator:" "15 minutes into the course, and some Marines already know that recon is not for them." " Yes." " All right." "Stand over by the wall." "Narrator:" "After 40 minutes of treading water, an eight-pound rifle is dropped into the deep end." "Go get the weapon." "Each candidate much retrieve it from the bottom... and then pass it man-to-man." "Hand it off." "Take it from him." "Take it from him." "Start turning." "Narrator:" "Thompson is struggling." "And it's his turn to get the weapon." "Go, Thompson." "Good." "Slow your breathing." "Relax!" "Come on, get it out of the water." "Get it out of the water, Thompson!" "Hey, Thompson, does it look foggy out here to you?" "Yes, it does, Master Sergeant." "It's perfectly sunny out here." "You look like you're in a fog bank." "With this particular event, you'll see some issues." "Some Marines get kind of overwhelmed and they may try to tap out here sooner or later." "Let's go, Marine." "Go to the bottom." "Get the rifle." "One, two, three." "Narrator:" "As exhaustion sets in, the demands get harder." "Four men have already quit, and day 1 isn't over yet." "Another Marine struggles and is moved poolside." "It's a good thing you didn't swim like that when you were a little sperm." "Otherwise you never would have made it to the egg." "Narrator:" "After over an hour in the deep end, the Marines face one final treading event." "The class forms a circle and begins passing 2-, 5-, and 10-pound weights." "Each weight must be passed hand-to-hand around the circle twice, or the entire class must start over." "Instructor:" "Stay above water." "Narrator:" "No one escapes the agony of muscle fatigue." "Crawford:" "Guys start to get really winded... [gasping]" "Crawford:" "...start to lose their breath." "Narrator:" "Eventually, the endless exertion tests every single Marine." "Instructor:" "Two rows!" "Panic begins to set in." "Don't mess it up now." "Keep it out of the water!" "Narrator:" "Safety swimmers surround the pack..." "All right, one more coming." "Ready to rescue anyone who can't continue." "Crawford:" "We could break the majority of these guys in 15 minutes if we really wanted to." "They won't even take a shower if you break somebody in the water." "But that's not our mission here." "Our mission is to make them better swimmers." "Kick!" "Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick." "Yes." "There's no side of the pool in the ocean, all right?" "[Breathlessly] Yes, Master Sergeant." "The big thing about recon training isn't the physical side of it." "It's mentally..." "are you mentally strong enough?" "Narrator:" "The Marines who are starting to drop are pulled out of the water and checked by a medic." "Relax!" "Don't let the pool beat you!" "Narrator:" "After two hours in the pool, they face their toughest trial yet." "Already exhausted, each man must swim on the pool floor for 30 yards without breaking the surface." "Any Marine that comes up early better have a good reason." "Holland:" "We have instructors in the water who are familiar with the signs and symptoms of somebody who's going down." "Narrator:" "As each Marine surfaces, he must demonstrate that he is in control and fully lucid." "Roper Searson, I feel fine!" "Roper Searson, I feel... fine." "Come to the edge." "Aye, sir." "Narrator:" "All the instructors care about today is that they see full dedication to being here." "Run till you puke." "Swim till you can't swim anymore." "Failure to complete the full 30 yards means back to the starting line to try again." "You all right?" "Holland:" "When they do try and push themselves, the most common thing is shallow-water blackout." "They'll come to the surface, and then they'll just sink right back under 'cause they'll just black out." " Take your glasses off." " Sergeant?" "Get him!" "Get him!" "Let's go!" "Get him up!" "He's out." "He's out." "Turn him on his side." "Aah!" "You're good." "You're good." "Breathe." "Put him on his side." "Put him on his side." "Narrator:" "Shallow-water blackouts are a phenomenon of extreme training." "The blood is depleted of CO2, and the brain fails to signal the urgent need to breathe, so the person passes out." "Crawford:" "When you're running out of air, your body will start making that noise." "It's like [grunting]" "And then it'll go like this..." "shooo!" "And you'll wake up on the side of the pool deck." "Right and left." "Narrator:" "Washington is borderline delirious on his second try." "He reaches the wall, but he's got nothing left." "Make sure you touch the wall." "You're coming up with a fist over your head, all right?" "You all right?" "Settle down." "Calm down." "Take a breath." "Take a breath, all right?" "Man:" "Get out of the pool." "Get out of the pool." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Washington:" "I hyperventilated, and I felt my body numbing in the fingers, tongue goes fuzzy." "Either I come up, get air... because that's what the body needs... or I keep going until I black out." "And that's what I did." "I kept going." "I touched the wall." "I made it." "But when I came up, I was not there." "Narrator:" "Washington knows the medic could pull him from the course for safety reasons." "Catch your breath." "When you're ready, go back." "Narrator:" "Today divides the class..." "those who quit..." "Go over there to the wall and face the wall." "Got it?" "Those who try to slide by..." "I feel fine." "No [bleep] You feel fine." "You made it [bleep] Half the distance." "Yes, sir." "And those who will do anything to make it." "It's all in your head." "You all physically can do it." "I guarantee you guys can swim further than that underwater if you had to." "You can do anything." "Go stand by your gear, man." "Holland:" "I think every one of them questions if they want to be here at least twice a day." "[Laughs]" "Once in the morning and once in the evening." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Stop feeling sorry for yourself!" "Way to look weak!" "Let's go." "Narrator:" "Day 1 is over." "Already 13 Marines have quit or have been pulled from the class." "52 remain." "Crawford:" "By the end of the 12 weeks, we take them from being sheep to being wolves." "We teach them how to swim, get them physically in shape, and change their mental attitude." "Narrator:" "Day 24 of Marine recon school." "50 of the original 65 Marines who started are in Coronado, California, for the amphibious phase." "Now they will confront an unforgiving ocean." "Let's get in some kind of formation!" "Marines are amphibious." "We deploy with the Navy." "We're on ships, and we go ashore." "We're always very interconnected with the water." "Eaton:" "We're heading over to the beach." "This is where we teach them everything they need to know about inserting via the water." "We're gonna see some guys get strung out pretty bad here." "Narrator:" "The weight of their equipment skyrockets here." "Soldier:" "This is heavy, guys." "Wolf:" "The gear, the rifle, the 50-pound sand bag, and the fact that the pack's wet..." "I'd say about 90 pounds." "Washington:" "We're getting ready to get our first taste of breaking surf, and we'll see how it turns out." "Eaton:" "Keep your heads up." "Let's go." "[Coughing]" "Narrator:" "The Marines that have made it this far move out." "First, a 2-mile hike to the beach, then hell in the Pacific Ocean when they get there." "Ready!" "Go!" "Let's go!" "Move!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Narrator:" "First lesson when attacking from the sea... if they can't see you, they can't shoot you." "Crawford:" "Old-school recon Marines, when they'd crawl ashore, that's what they'd do to camouflage themselves... roll themselves in the sand like a cookie!" "Put some sand on each other!" "Roll in it!" "Sugar cookie!" "Get your head sandy!" "Sandy!" "Nasty!" "Nasty!" "Come on!" "Bear crawl!" "Let's move!" "You're no Abercrombie  Fitch model!" "You're [bleep] hard-core!" "Nasty!" "Covered in dirt and sweaty." "This is your life now." "This is the way it is." "Narrator:" "The Marines of recon class 6-tac-10 may have toughed it out in the pool, but they ain't seen nothing yet." "You will start at this cone!" "You'll head down to waist- and chest-deep water." "Narrator:" "Marines must enter the surf zone..." "Swim 500 yards around two buoys, come ashore, and then run 500 more yards on land." "The goal..." "5 laps in under 90 minutes." "Fight through the stress." "It doesn't phase you." "Go!" "Let's go!" "Get it!" "Hyah, mule!" "This is combat swimming, okay?" "You could be on a swim team, a water-polo team and be really good in a pool, but you slap on full utilities, a set of deuce gear, and go in the ocean, it's an entirely different type of swimming." "Narrator:" "Sergeant Wolf leads the pack." "It's his first lap, and already the class is stretched out behind him." "Pick up the pace!" "Wolf, lap 1." "One lap in 17 minutes..." "that's not bad." "[Panting] This sucks." "Eaton:" "We've got to get them to understand it's always gonna suck." "So you're gonna have to get stronger, get harder, and get faster..." "Aah!" "To have fun with it." "It's gonna suck anyway." "Melvin, three!" "Keep going." "Keep going." "Narrator:" "Ocean currents and pounding waves hammer the Marines who lack experience in the surf." "We call the water the ultimate equalizer 'cause I don't care how tough you are or how bad you are, that water, you know, will humble you real fast." "Crawford:" "Let's go!" "Come on!" "Come here." "You all right?" "I'm just a little woozy, Master Sergeant." "Hold still." "You all right?" "A little woozy." "Woozy." "You look light-headed." "Yes, Master Sergeant." "You gonna be okay?" "I got to finish, Master Sergeant." "Okay, go, go, go, go." "Crawford:" "He looked like dog [bleep] coming out of the water." "You see that?" "That's signs that you're putting out when he's not seeing too straight." "That's what we want to see, but I still don't want him taking a header and hurting himself." "Instructor:" "Let's go!" "Keep your head up!" "Crawford:" "A lot of guys always want to conserve energy, hold back." "There's not too many people that'll push themselves to the edge." "I like the guys that'll put out all the way." "Narrator:" "Marines push hard to make time." "Hey, you're doing good, kicking ass." "Good job." "Let's go." "Come on, stud." "Get it!" "Sergeant Johnston with a "T"!" "Johnston:" "That was brutal." "I'm pretty wore out now." "Whew!" "Narrator:" "Two come up short, and they pay for it." "Crawford:" "Pick your head up!" "I could drop you two right now for jeopardizing our safety structure." "Instead of focusing on this whole class," "I got to focus on you two!" "Aye, Master Sergeant." "You guys need to step it up, or you're gonna have to get dropped right here, right now." " Do you want that?" " No, Master Sergeant." "You need to step it up." "You guys are weak." "Get on your feet." "Aye, Master Sergeant." "Soldier:" "Who needs help?" "Norton:" "The pool was nothing, just going back and forth." "Out in ocean, you don't push off anything, and there's no break." "You just keep going." "It's horrible." "Thompson:" "It's tough." "But we got through it." "What don't kill us makes us stronger." "Aarugha." "Narrator:" "They're cold, drenched, and ripped by the sand." "But the agony isn't over." "They still have to drag themselves and their rucks two miles back to base." "Rusk:" "It's an everyday thing." "It sucks every day." "After a while, you just stop thinking about it, and you just do it." "Eaton:" "Every day here you're gonna have to dig deep!" "This is either something you're gonna do for a long time or it's not for you!" "Narrator:" "Vazquez and Fitzgerald are crushed." "Instructor:" "Are you gonna give up?" "Come on, Vazquez!" "Let's go!" "Narrator:" "The last mile seems endless." "But if the men stop moving, they risk being dropped from the course." "Don't raise that white flag." "Don't surrender." "Push through it." "Come on, you're right there." "Let's go." "Let's go." "Narrator:" "Fitzgerald has just a half-mile to go." "But his body is seizing up." "Water-soaked, his rucksack weighs nearly 100 pounds." "Fitzgerald hits his breaking point." "He removes himself from the course." "Two of Vazquez's teammates drop back to make sure he doesn't quit." "Arch your back [bleep] And step it out." "Narrator:" "He digs in and pushes through." "Day 25 of recon school." "By now, 18 Marines have quit or been pulled from the course." "47 remain." "Today the Marines will get to know the zodiac." "Agile and stealthy, these vessels can be a recon Marine's best friend." "Today, they are his worst enemy." "They lack one essential part." "Crawford:" "It's what I call "Engine Appreciation Day."" "They won't be using engines on the zodiacs." "It basically consists of today a lot of paddling and a lot of carrying a boat." "Go ahead!" "Drop out!" "Pick that boat back up!" "Yeah, it's gonna suck." "It's definitely gonna suck." "These engines are great." "They're fuel-injected." "They're like a fuel-injected Harley-Davidson." "You can't work on it yourself." "So if it breaks down out there in the water, how are you gonna repair it?" "So this..." "technology will fail you." "Sooner or later, you will learn that." "And we always revert back to the basics." "Today's gonna suck, okay?" "But we like things that suck, right?" "Together:" "Yes, Master Sergeant!" "It's very intensive." "It's not a very fun event." "And it will smoke check them." "Go!" "Go out there to the buoy!" "[Indistinct shouting]" "Narrator:" "Each six-man boat team will paddle 200 yards around buoy number 1." "Then it's 500 more yards to buoy number 2." "Next, they'll flip their zodiac over." "Then it's back to land, where they will carry the zodiac a half-mile around a track, then back to the beach." "Then they will do it again until they've finished five laps." "The first three teams to finish win a short rest." "The last three are going to regret it." "The race is on." "Jerew:" "Everything they do leading up to this phase is to build confidence in the water, team cohesion." "You need to work together as a team 'cause nobody's gonna make it through this course by themselves." "Narrator:" "The teams reach buoy number 2 and prepare to broach." "Raise paddles!" "All out!" "Crawford:" "They'll be broaching the boats, where they will flip the boat over and try to drain all the water out of the boat." "Narrator:" "The men use ropes and leverage to flip the boat back over, launching a teammate into the hull at the same time." "Out at sea, that inside man can quickly regain control of the craft." "Let's go!" "Get up!" "Get up!" "In rough seas, these maneuvers are critical for recon missions." "Team 3 and 6 hit land and start the half-mile boat carry." "Crawford:" "They will have to pick up these boats with full combat loads inside of them." "And that's very heavy." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Instructor:" "The van's not moving!" "You guys are!" "[Grunting]" "Narrator:" "An empty zodiac weighs 330 pounds." "Add sand, paddles, and undrained water... the weight creeps up fast." "Aah!" "Instructor:" "Hey, suffer in silence!" "Hey, you!" "Put you shoulder on it!" "I can see you slacking!" "If one person didn't do their part, everyone suffers." "Find a way to switch sides without pulling the boat down!" "Vazquez:" "Carrying that boat gets pretty painful." "You have to switch positions because just... it's a lot of strain on the shoulders and the back." "You try to rotate out but... you try to get it done as fast as possible." "Crawford:" "Come on!" "The last three teams are gonna pay the piper!" "Narrator:" "After an hour, most teams are on lap 5, almost finished." "One, two, three!" "But team 4 is stuck on lap 2." "They haven't mastered flipping the boat, and they're flailing." "Broach that boat again!" "[Indistinct shouting]" "Get it over!" "Jerew:" "If they're doing this for real, they got a 500-pound engine and all that gear, all that equipment, and they're gonna have to do that, then they're [bleep] out of luck." "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "They're getting stressed out, and then they start cutting corners and they start losing the minds." "They don't follow the procedure, and then the mission's scrubbed." "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "[Indistinct shouting]" "Narrator:" "Eight of the nine teams finish." "But team 4 is just finishing lap 3." "Instructor:" "All together, get it up!" "Get it up!" "Get that boat up!" "Let's go!" "You are in last place!" "You need to pass three teams!" "Come on, gents." "You need to put some octane in your fuel." "Come on!" "Get it!" "Soldier:" "It keeps going on, and it gets a little worse." "And doing that five times is pretty challenging." "Narrator:" "By the time they reach lap 5, they're running on fumes." "[Grunting]" "It's sliding out." "Shift right!" "Shift right!" "Narrator:" "An hour later, team 4 finally finishes." "High boat!" "At recon school, you do not want to be last." "I'm gonna walk underneath." "Get it up!" "Get it off your back!" "Aah!" "We can't do this, can we?" "One good one!" "Everybody's arms locked out, all right?" "One, two, three!" "[All grunting]" "Don't drop it." "Don't drop it." "Are we gonna drop the boat again?" "Together:" "No, Staff Sergeant." "Don't drop it." "Aah!" "That sucked." "[Laughs]" "Had we been able to broach the boat properly the first time around," "I think we'd have finished a lot better than last place." "Down boat!" "It's pretty rough." "Pretty rough." "Hey, studs, you were the last three teams to finish today." "We're starting to doubt some of your resolve." "Okay, we're here for the right reasons." "Do we want to be recon?" "Together:" "Yes, Master Sergeant!" "We do not fail." "We put out all the way." " Do you understand?" "Together:" "Yes, Master Sergeant!" "All:" "One!" "Narrator:" "As the winners rest, the last three teams have won the right to do push-ups." "40 Marines have survived the course so far." "But soon they'll face something every man dreads..." "Day 30 of recon school." "Get used to it." "Today, the 40 remaining Marines face a notorious milestone of the course called "The Longest Day."" "For the next 18 hours, the Marines of class 6-tac-10 will fight to survive in the pounding waves of the Pacific." "It's a crushing nonstop test of strength and grit, and not every Marine will make it." "Melvin:" "This is the most dangerous event in the course where the most students get injured." "So we're looking forward to it." "We want to see what happens." "Let's go." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Narrator:" "With 80-pound packs, they head for the beach." "Instructor:" "Now, there's is a big difference between digging deep and pushing through than getting lazy, falling down, dropping your gear!" "I told you this is a mind-set!" "Start figuring it out!" "Narrator:" "First up, a 2,000-yard combat swim in the surf with their 80-pound rucks." "Schmidt:" "I did a lot of surfing growing up." "It might be a little different." "I've never done it with the rucks we got." "So pushing the rucks out through the surf might be a little more of a challenge, but we'll see." "Apodaca:" "The time limit for this is 60 minutes." "Anybody that hasn't made it to the buoy, they failed the fin." "Narrator:" "A Marine must be able to swim 2,000 yards in an hour with full gear." "And today there's a strong current working against them." "Now you got a ruck with you and deuce gear." "You need to kick hard!" "If you're not hurting on a fin, you're not doing it right." "Okay?" "Narrator:" "Two-man teams move out past the surf break." "Their rucks are packed in airtight bags, giving them a neutral buoyancy in the water." "14 teams find a rhythm and push through to the finish line." "Eaton:" "They're getting ready right now to finish up a 1 -nautical-mile, 2,000-yard fin." "We was finning against the current there for a little while, and the water's real choppy out there." "It makes it difficult to keep that low profile." "Start having the finners fin into the beach." "Narrator:" "The one-hour time limit is up." "And the current has produced multiple casualties." "The six teams miss the mark." "They will be given a final chance in a week to pass this event." "If they fail, they go home." "This how you plan on getting onto the beach in a real mission?" "No, Staff Sergeant!" "Well, get your [bleep] pack on and get the [bleep] up!" "Narrator:" "The men are dog tired, falling over in the surf." "But Marines need to hit the beach ready to fight." "The instructors step in." "Quit taking your damn time!" "You would do what I told you to do out there, you wouldn't be having this problem, would you?" "No, Staff Sergeant." "See, you come into the beach, you got a 100-pound ruck, you're taking fire from the enemy right now, okay?" "Put it on out there while it floats." "Sousa:" "[Bleep] sucked." "That was one of the hardest fins I've ever had to do." "The waves were unforgiving, kept pulling me back and forth." "You get about 6 feet and lose [bleep] 10." "So it was definitely a [bleep]" "My uncle did it during Vietnam, and so it's been a goal of mine." "But it's the toughest thing the Marine Corps has to offer." "And I never settle for second best." "Neither do any of these Marines here." "That's why we want to be Recon Marines." "I'll never question being here." "This is my dream." "It's what I'm gonna do." "Soldier:" "We're just prepping the boat to do our surf passage." "We're all a little nervous at this point." "Matthews:" "Everybody wants to be first." "Nobody wants to be last." "Pride." "Like everything we do, it's a competition, isn't it?" "Together:" "Yes, Staff Sergeant." "I like looking left and right and going, "I'm gonna crush you."" "Get on your boats, get your helmets, get ready." "We're getting ready to kick this thing." "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Narrator:" "The Marines have been pushing hard for nine hours." "They're hurting." "But the longest day is only half over, and it's only getting harder." "No thrust means no getting past the waves." "Stroke!" "Stroke!" "Instructor:" "Straighten out your boat!" "Narrator:" "Caught in the surf zone, a few teams lose control." "Turn around!" "The beach is littered with capsized boats and stranded Marines." "If just one Marine on a team doesn't paddle his hardest through the surf, the boat gets swamped." "Hey, just keep [bleep] paddling!" "Eaton:" "The little wave comes, and it splashes them, and everybody pulls up their paddles." "They've got to continue to paddle and push hard through the surf zone." "Paddle!" "Paddle!" "Paddle!" "Narrator:" "The more time they spend in the surf zone, the harder it gets." "Once again, team 4 is struggling." "Pollock-Jacobson:" "They're trying to fight the ocean." "They're not using the waves to push them in." "They're not using the current to bring the boat up on the beach." "Narrator:" "They've been at it for 10 hours." "Soldier:" "We're going out there, and our boat is, like, full all the way up with water on the inside, and it's not going nowhere 'cause it's got all that weight." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Aah!" "You have to dig deep and push together, together, together." "You have to attack those waves!" "Narrator:" "An instructor joins team 4 to show them how it's done." "With some motivation, they make it out past the break." "Instructor:" "Prepare to low-boat carry." "Together:" "Prepare to low-boat carry." "One, two, three, low boat!" "Crawford:" "That was a butt kicker." "[Bleep] pull together as a team." "Don't roll over and quit, and all is well, right?" "Semper fi." "Oorah." "Narrator:" "Team 4 gets no time to recover before the next event." "After 15 hours in the ocean, the Marines are given the gift of engines for their zodiacs." "[Engine revving]" "They spend the next three hours smashing through the surf." "Eaton:" "Now we're doing nighttime operations in and out of the surf zone." "And this is the ideal time, when we're gonna be coming in to a hidden objective, going to get eyes on something." "Narrator:" "Completely exhausted, the Marines have now completed 18 hours of hell." "Four more Marines have withdrawn or been pulled from the course." "36 Marines survive." "Washington:" "Nobody got hurt." "Good day." "Good day." "Sousa:" "Cold and miserable." "That's what it is to be in recon... cold and miserable." "But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." "Narrator:" "It's week 12 at the Marine recon course." "Only 36 of the original 65 Marines who started are left." "They have just 24 hours to go." "But it will be the toughest 24 hours of their lives." "For the past week, the Marines have run missions night and day." "They have just one mission left." "The students should be very worn out right about now, little to no sleep at this period." "They're gonna have to stay up all night." "They're gonna be getting attacked." "And the idea is to push them to the limits." "This is the closet thing they will ever see to combat, kind of a final gut check." "Narrator:" "The Marines are ready to hold their position through the night." "But it won't be easy." "Lamb:" "We've heard a lot of stipulation and rumor, but I think there's some riot-control agents introduced throughout the course of the night." "And they're just gonna drop some gas." "That's all right." "It's just a little gas." "Narrator:" "Confidence is what a man experiences just before he learns all the facts." "At 9:00 p.m., all hell breaks loose." "[Whistling]" "All:" "Incoming!" "[Explosion, gunfire]" "Instructors assault the perimeter." "They blanket the patrol base with military-grade tear gas, or CS gas." "Gas!" "Gas!" "Gas!" "CS gas is a common form of tear gas." "The effects are temporary but intense." "Aah!" "I can't breathe." "I got to..." "[coughing]" "Instructor:" "Don't breathe too [bleep] deep." "[Coughing]" "Narrator:" "The Marines don't have gas masks, and they must fight the urge to run." "[Coughing]" "Stay the [bleep] down." "Aah!" "Narrator:" "Panic is a natural reaction." "But leave your position, and you fail the course on the last day." "Deep, short breaths." "Swallow." "[Whistling, gunfire]" "Narrator:" "Attacks continue through the night for 10 hours straight." "[Coughing]" "Stand." "Are you all right?" "Narrator:" "The Marines are disoriented and beaten." "It's almost morning." "They've made it through the long night of agony." "But at dawn, these Marines have a job to do." "Crawford:" "What they're gonna do this morning... they're gonna execute that raid that they planned last night while they were being assaulted." "Once they hit the objective, we're gonna put several of the shooters down, which is gonna really put a strain on the platoon." "This final evolution... we call it the final raid death hike, and it pretty much looks like a death hike." "By the end of this, they're gonna look like zombies." "You studs stink." "[Bleep] Oh, my God." "Narrator:" "Daybreak." "And the Marines prepare to strike." "You guys are like 100 yards away." "This is what 1 st Recon Battalion's doing right [bleep] now in Afghanistan." "So get your [bleep] head in the game." "Last day." "Go out with a bang." "Be a [bleep] man today." "[Gunfire]" "Fire and movement!" "Fire and movement!" "Narrator:" "The 36 Marines move out and attack the enemy camp." "Crawford:" "Go!" "Get in there and take that [bleep] out!" "Let's go." "There you go, Washington!" "Put you foot in their butt." "Narrator:" "The raid goes down fast, but this mission is far from over." "Move your casualties!" "Get them off the "X"!" "Marines never leave their dead or wounded on the battlefield." "Two, three... 200-pound dummies stand in for the fallen." "And some Marines are designated as wounded." "Oh [bleep]" "It's only three miles back to base, but there's one massive hurdle in their way... [bleep]" "[Bleep]" "Gas." "Instructor:" "Get 'em up." "Get 'em up." "Oh, here we go." "Here we go!" "We better start moving, or we're gonna hurt bad." "You take a breath in, and it just like burns you inside of your lungs." "Aah!" "[Coughing]" "And you start coughing hysterically." "And the more you breathe in, the more you start coughing." "[Coughing]" "Instructor:" "Get out of the smoke." "Here we go!" "Aah!" "Tucker:" "Your skin is irritated." "Your eyes are burning, your chest, and your lungs if you take a deep breath of it." "It becomes unbearable to a certain extent." "[Soldier coughing]" "Narrator:" "In short order, the Death March earns its name." "Soldier:" "Here comes the gas!" "Here comes the gas!" "Let's go, Marines!" "Let's go!" "Narrator:" "It's a rite of passage every recon Marine must endure." "Let's go." "Nobody gives a [bleep]" "Let's get through this [bleep]" "Narrator:" "But there's no perspective for the Marines caught in the crippling fog." "Get the [bleep] up." "[Coughing]" "The instinct to quit overwhelms every man." "Hey, get the [bleep] up!" "Get up!" "Narrator:" "It's pure survival and chaos." "That way!" "Go!" "Tucker:" "The easy things become much more difficult, and the difficult things become seemingly impossible." "Pick him up!" "Let's go!" "What the [bleep]" "Crawford:" "It'll definitely induce panic and stress similar to being in a really good ambush about to overrun." "No!" "No!" "Please don't leave!" "[Gagging]" "Get up." "Get up." "Get up." "Get up." "Get up." "Pick up your weapon." "Get the [bleep] up." "Let's [bleep] go." "Stop quitting on yourself." "Some of them cannot function with the CS." "I mean, they can't help carry a stretcher." "They can't carry their own rifle." "They can't... you pretty much got to walk them through it." "Keep walking." "Keep walking." "Hey, keep walking!" "Whew." "[Bleep]" "Narrator:" "They've only gone a mile, but the tear gas is just getting thicker." " Let's go." " Go!" "If they can't find a way to get through it, they have endured 12 weeks of hell for nothing." "[Coughing]" "Instructor:" "Come on!" "You got it!" "Narrator:" "The combined weight of a rucksack and a dummy is 270 pounds." "Uphill in the tear gas, every step is bone-crushing..." "Aah!" "Every inch of ground earned." "[Spits]" "Gas!" "Aah!" "Instructor:" "Hey, get it up." "Get it up." "Get it up." "You got to keep moving." "[Bleep] Aah!" "Pick it up!" "Pick it up!" "[Coughing and gagging]" "Aah!" "[Spits]" "Hey. [Bleep] Pick the body up!" "This ain't [bleep]" "I can't see!" "[Bleep]" "I can't see!" "If you say you can't, you can." "Aah!" "You believe that you can." "Pick it up!" "The gas is terrible." "Chill the [bleep] out!" "You need to get it the [bleep] together." "We [bleep] broke you like that!" "[Bleep] Get your head together." "This ain't so [bleep] bad." "You haven't been shot at." "Suck it the [bleep] up!" "Stop being a [bleep]" "Tucker:" "Eventually, the guys realized," ""Hey, you can move through this and breathe through it and carry somebody through it."" "Come on!" "[Indistinct shouting]" "It just comes back to the mental-toughness thing and the limits that you have to exceed." "Narrator:" "After two hours and two miles, the gassing finally stops." "Instructor:" "Roger." "All clear." "All gas expended." "Sims and smoke only by designated personal." "Narrator:" "But there is still a mile left to go and no fuel to get there on." "Ohh!" "No. [Bleep] that." "Keep on moving." "Oorah, Staff Sergeant." "Pick your weapon up." "Pick your weapon up!" "There you go!" "Come on, let's go!" "I can't carry the dummy anymore." "Let's go!" "I can't carry the dummy anymore!" "Then quit!" "Then quit!" "I don't want to hear, "I can't."" "You come this far to graduate, and you want to say, "I can't."" "It's been a rough day." "It's just nice to know that this is the end, this is it." "This is like the final test." "You finish this, and you've done it." "That alone is enough encouragement to push through." "Crawford:" "This is where you find out who you really are." "All right?" "There's no [bleep] time to feel sorry for yourself." "Just suck it up." "Good job, Washington." "Good job, man." "Good job." "I should never quit!" "Quit!" "Surrender!" "To give up is to fail!" "To be a Recon Marine is passed failure!" "To do our recon!" "To attack!" "And do whatever it takes to complete the mission!" "Narrator:" "One last hill." "One final push." "Come on, Marines." "We got this." "This is nothing." "Narrator:" "Semper fi." "Do or die." "Come on, gents." "Come on, gents." "Come on, stay strong." "We're almost there." "We're almost to the top." "Keep it up." "Good job." "Finish strong, brother." "Finish strong." "Let's go!" "Step!" "Step!" "Let's get up here." "It's two columns." "Single-file line." "Ready to move back down." "Got it?" "Make it snappy." "Happen now." "Roger that." "Good job, 6-tac." "Good job." "Narrator:" "The 36 remaining members of Class 6-tac-10 descend the hill toward their new brothers." "Aah!" "Good job, men." "Let's go." "Get your heads up." "Good job, men." "Narrator:" "As they walk through the line, they are no longer Marines." "They are Recon Marines." "Hell, yeah." "Washington:" "When we got back from our march, it's probably the best I've felt in a long, long, long time." "This is the proudest moment in my life." "I'm finally here, and I've finally accomplished it." "It was hard, but you know what?" "It means just that much more to me now." "Come on!" "Crawford:" "To see these Marines from day 1 to the final day, you know, I have a serious sense of pride in every one of them." "They sucked it up." "They did 12 weeks of living hell." "It's a certain amount of pride for me." "Those are my Marines, and I know they're gonna go forth on the fleet Marine force, and they're gonna do good things." "And you can't help but be proud of them." "Thompson:" "I made it." "It's an honor... an honor to be able to earn the title." "Sousa:" "My dream my whole life." "I know this sounds corny, but it's true." "I'm finally here." "I just can't even put it into words, man." "Ahh." "We've waited three months for this, and it's just such a great relief, you know?" "The making of men."