San Diego -- Military personnel with the United Arab Emirates were provided an overview of Marine Corps recruit training during their visit aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego Dec. 2-8.
The purpose of their visit was to learn the methods used in making Marines for the development of a similar curriculum for the Presidential Guard Institute, UAE’s elite military force that only select few have the opportunity to join.
To provide the UAE with information regarding recruit training, they were given a tour of the depot which gave an overview of the 12-week training schedule. They were able to witness the process from first phase to third phase and how recruits are molded into Marines.
“They were able to witness recruits in a classroom setting to them learning drill,” said Master Sgt. James R. Biggs, officer-in-charge, MCTM, UAE-PGI. “It gave them a better understanding of the discipline we instill in recruits as Marines and the leadership that is here guiding them.”
The group also visited Weapons and Field Training Battalion, Edson Range aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., where they were able to see recruits in various assault courses, live-fire exercises, Crucible events and the culminating event of recruit training, the emblem ceremony.
The professionalism displayed throughout recruit training, whether aboard the depot or WFTBn, impressed the UAE from the moment they arrived, according to United Arab Emirate Col. Abdullah Mohammed Saeed Al Dhaheri, commander, PGI.
“We have a very good team that helped prepare this visit and we’ve been impressed from the first day we arrived here,” said Al Dhaheri. “We are very happy with the training that we’ve been seeing here. We got more than what we expected to get.”
The UAE plans to apply the same curriculum they observed aboard the depot to the training with a slight difference to fit their needs as well as send their own instructors through Recruit Training Regiment’s Drill Instructor School to better support the mission in training the PGI.
“We need to follow exactly what they are doing here with some change to fit in our country,” said Al Dhaheri. “We will prepare our instructors before they come here. There will be a little (language barrier) but I don’t think it will be a problem.”
The end state overall left leaders with enough gathered information to help support their training, and to leave with a positive impression of the Marine Corps.
“Thanks to the (Marine) instructors that are there with us, I believe we will have a different soldier in the future,” said Al Dhaheri. “We are very happy to be here. Thank you is not enough to say for all that the Marines have done for us.”