Sisters woman gets military education

Carla Merrell wears several military-type hats. She is the ASPIRE military advisor at Sisters High School; the organizer of the Sisters Military Parents (MPS), a group dedicated to supporting local troops and their parents; and her son Jake is a Marine.

When she recently attended a US Marine Corps Educators Workshop in San Diego, she figured she was prepared for the drill sergeants. After all, she spends hours talking with recruiters and prospective soldiers and had heard Jake's stories.

On the day that the educators were treated as new recruits getting settled into their squad bay (the housing arrangement for Marine Corps recruits attending boot camp), Merrell discovered that no amount of stories or military movies can prepare one for a face-to-face encounter with a Marine drill sergeant.

The goal of the exercise was to get the educators from the foyer of the squad bay to assigned foot lockers. Merrell said that in the midst of the chaos, yelling, frantic movement of the educators and mind-numbing orders, she somehow found herself in front of a locker.

"I'm just not sure how I got there," she said. "I thought I was prepared, but doggone it, they intimidated me."

The encounter was just one of many that the group from Oregon, Alaska and southern Washington had with military personnel during their weeklong workshop. The purpose of these workshops, held throughout the year at the Marine Corp Recruiting Depot in San Diego, is to expose educators to a brief taste of the reality of the military.

It wasn't all chaos and drill sergeants, said Merrell. It was a time for questions to be asked and answered honestly. The educators wanted to know what sort of educational opportunities are available to active-duty service men and women. They also heard about the perks of military service, contained in the Montgomery G.I. Bill, that continue after active duty.

"Most school personnel don't have military backgrounds," said Merrell. "And the military wants our best and brightest."

To find those men and women and enable educators to give them correct information, nearly all branches of the military hold workshops.

Participants discovered that much of what troops do during their training and deployments is transferable as college credits. Sometimes a soldier's military job is seen as an apprenticeship, enabling a smooth transition to a civilian job. Each branch of the military emphasizes that in their advertising, but hearing about it first-hand and seeing how the military accomplishes the task of forming soldiers was enlightening to the educators.

They were able to observe and meet with recruits going through boot camp. The Marines take 13 weeks to make a soldier. Those weeks are divided into three phases, and the educators saw men in each phase, observing the transformation of gawky youngsters trying to keep from tripping during drills, to men confident in carrying out their tasks, no matter what the job might be.

Merrell plans to attend workshops offered by other branches of the military. In her roles with the ASPIRE mentoring program and the MPS, she aims to be available to both students and parents who have questions but may feel intimidated asking a recruiter.

"I have a bit more working knowledge now, having been there (to boot camp)," she said.