A Brookhaven Academy teacher received an opportunity recentlyfor which many people have to dedicate several years of their lives- an inside glimpse of training at a Marine Corps boot camp.

English teacher Janet Whittier, 55, attended the four-dayEducators Workshop at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island,S.C., in mid-January.

“We were there only to observe,” she said. “We did not followone particular group. We saw several different platoons at variousstages of boot camp.”

It was an experience she said she’d never forget. Whittier and asmall group of Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia teachers arrivedat the base early on a mild, foggy day in two small buses. Theywere met by Marine Corps drill instructors and treated like newrecruits on their arrival.

“We had the full routine,” Whittier said. “Instructors chargedonto the bus the moment we stopped and were shouting at us. We weretold what to say and how to say it.

“Then we were rushed onto the yellow footprints,” she said. Itwas very disorienting. It was also frightening in a way.”

Afterwards, the teachers were treated with respect, althoughtheir day was as regimented as a recruit’s.

Whittier, the only private school teacher on the trip, said shewasn’t sure what she expected to learn on the trip but got morethan she bargained for.

Whittier is in her first year as a teacher at BA and actuallymade the contact that nominated her for the workshop while at LoydStar, where she was a senior sponsor charged with helping studentsmake career choices.

The workshop is designed for teachers because of the frequentcontact they have with the young men and women who may beconsidering careers in the military.

The program gives teachers a clear view of the sacrifices madeby young people who choose to enlist, she said.

“We were not to come back and recruit, though. That is not ourjob,” she said. “But we were asked to serve as the eyes and ears ofthe public because very few get to see that. We can now answerquestions from others about boot camp and the military from acivilian’s perspective.”

Teachers were allowed to speak briefly with some recruits atvarious times. The first group they talked to had just arrived, andWhittier described them as bewildered, confused and scared.

“They had only been there a few hours. They had just had theirhaircuts and been issued their cammies. When we saw them, they werehaving their physicals,” she said.

Later, the group met recruits nearing the end of their trainingas they went through the Crucible, a test designed to challengerecruits and gauge physical and mental preparedness and theirability to work as a team. The test is conducted at a point in thetraining when the recruits are the most stressed and fatigued.

“It looked to me to be one of the most grueling, physically andmentally challenging tests I could ever imagine having to gothrough,” Whittier said.

Despite the frayed nerves, she said, there was no yelling ordisharmony among the recruits.

“I was amazed at how determined they were,” she said. “You couldsee it in their faces. You can see it on TV and in pictures, butyou can’t grasp how important it is (for them to become Marines)until you see it in their faces.”

Participating in the program was a rewarding experience,Whittier said.

“I saw children, young men and women who could have been in myclasses only weeks before, become men,” she said. “This was anopportunity I’ll never forget. It really changed my outlook on themilitary in a positive way.”

Whittier has used the experience gained at Parris Island in theclassroom to help students connect to soldiers and understand theperils they face in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countriesoverseas.

In addition, she has taken a personal interest in the recruitsshe met. Students have sent letters to the recruits, and Whittieris e-mailing the mother of a recruit. Two of the recruits withMississippi ties have promised to come visit her class after theygraduate from boot camp.

“I was truly honored to meet them. I was surprised, impressed,humbled and so proud of those young people,” she said. “Once you gothrough this, I can see how it changes you forever.”