Editor’s note: Our reporter, Shawn Skager, spent a week following the U.S. Marine Corps during recruit basic training in San Diego. He features David Gubarik, a recruit from Auburn.

They call it The Crucible.

For a Marine Corps recruit, it is the final test, the last chance to prove he has the physical and mental toughness to become a United States Marine.

For 54 hours, some 200 recruits have been in The Crucible. Operating on just four hours of sleep a night and three meals, they have marched more than 40 miles to confront physical and mental tasks conceived to simulate the rigors of combat.

At issue –  whether the recruit has absorbed the extensive training he has received in the past 11 weeks.

“This is it, this is everything they have learned, and they are tested on it,” said Col. Robert W. Gates, Chief of Staff for Marine Corps Recruit Training San Diego. “It all goes toward determining if the recruit has the mental toughness to become a Marine.”

For 18-year-old Auburn Riverside graduate David Gubarik, it’s almost over.

In the early hours of a rainy Thursday morning Gubarik begins the final test of The Crucible. He shoulders his 80-pound pack, picks up his 8-pound M16A4 service rifle and begins a nine-mile hike that culminates in an ascent of The Reaper, a 700-feet peak. At the top waits the ultimate prize –  the Marine Corps emblem, the Eagle, Globe and Anchor. It is bestowed in a ceremony that marks the completion of The Crucible and the first time the recruit is officially called a Marine.

“When I reached the very top my senior drill instructor told me to control my emotions,” Gubarik said. “I kept a straight face, but inside I had tears of joy in my heart. It was an incredible feeling, like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

The journey begins

Gubarik’s journey as a U.S. Marine began when he was a high school junior.

“In high school I had my ups and downs, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life,” Gubarik said.

He was torn between moving on to college or joining either the Marines or the U.S. Army.

First, however, he had to graduate and turn 18. Although the Marines and the Army allow enlistment at 17, parents or guardians must sign the enlistment papers.

“My parents came from the Ukraine, so my dad was forced to go into the military because of the USSR (former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics),” Gubarik said. “So he said he wasn’t going to sign and that I had to make that decision on my own.”

After weighing his options, Gubarik settled on the Marines.

“I didn’t really like high school because of all the drama, I just didn’t care for it, so I didn’t really want to go to college,” Gubarik said. “I looked into the Army a little bit also, but they don’t have a brotherhood like the Marines do. So I decided to join the Marines. It’s a brotherhood, and it’s going to change me into something better, and I get to serve the United States.”

After signing his papers last August, Gubarik had to wait until December to actually board a plane for training.

With fewer than 200,000 marines on active duty with the Corps, the demand for spots in recruit training is high. As a result most young men and women join on a deferred basis. Gubarik used the time to prepare himself physically for training.

“The recruiters had physical training sessions four times a week,” Gubarik said. “It really helped me improve, and I started eating right and doing the right stuff.”

Welcome to the Marines

In December, Gubarik’s plane touched down at Lindbergh Field in San Diego. A white Marine Corps bus awaited him and the other recruits. After a 15-minute ride, the bus stopped outside the Recruit Processing Center at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, training ground for male enlistees west of the Mississippi train.

Outside the bus, yellow footprints painted on the concrete courtyard waited for the new recruits, who would soon get their first experience with the infamous Marine Corps Drill Instructors (DI).

The yelling begins immediately, and the recruits are ushered off the bus and swarmed by DIs. They are informed that they no longer live by civilian laws but are now governed by military justice. They are warned that if they leave the depot without authorization, the punishment will be severe. A few hundred yards away, planes at the busy airport take off, symbols of a freedom the recruits won’t taste for the next 13 weeks.

The recruits are ushered inside the building through silver hatches (the Marine Corps uses Naval terminology because of their association with the U.S. Navy). Inside they divest themselves of the material possessions of their civilian lives. Wallets, cell phones, reading material and MP3 players all go into bags, to be returned once the recruits finish training.

They receive their first set of government-issued clothing and a pair of tennis shoes. Boots come later and must be earned. They are quickly ushered into the telephone room where they make a brief, scripted call to their parents or guardians, letting them know that they have arrived safely. Then their heads are shaved and they are ushered through a myriad of medical and psychological exams.

Despite his careful physical preparation, Gubarik said the mental shock and confusion were overwhelming.

“Now that I look back, I thought I was ready but I wasn’t,” he said. “At first you’re just ‘yes sir, yes sir’ or ‘no sir, no sir.’”

Recruits are assigned to 40-man platoons, and training begins with instruction in martial arts, physical fitness and military protocol, and history. The platoons march everywhere in formation, learning discipline as they go.

According to Gubarik, it wasn’t long before he began to notice the results of his transformation.

“You start adapting and improving yourself and become more disciplined,” he said. “Then there is less yelling, and you become used to the yelling there is. When you get yelled at, you correct yourself and you remember it because you were yelled at. That way you don’t do it again.”

He continued:

“I would say the thing I overcame the most was just being more disciplined and more courageous, just looking at the obstacles and knowing that you can do that and that there is nothing to worry about.”

The end in sight

For Gubarik, it’s almost over.

After passing through The Crucible successfully and earning the title of Marine, there is just a week left.

After graduation he will take a 10-day leave and report to the School of Infantry, where he will learn advanced combat training. Even though his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is motor vehicle operator, every Marine is a rifleman first. After 29-days he will head off to MOS training.

“My first choice was intelligence, but there wasn’t any room there,” he said. “But I’m satisfied with this choice because it’s what the Marine Corps needs. And I want to help out this country rather than just sit back and do nothing.”

When his MOS training is complete, he will be assigned to a duty station. The training won’t stop there. While on active duty he will have the opportunity for more training, be allowed to train in a different MOS and have the chance to attend college courses and earn advanced academic degrees.

For Gubarik, however, it’s not about the benefits of being in the military; it’s about duty.

“You can’t join the Marines for the wrong reason,” he said. “You’ve got to join for the right reasons. You can’t just join for the benefits, because if you do, it’s going to be much harder to get through it and be mentally prepared to just do it. It’s just about doing the right thing that counts. I come from a Christian home, and we say, ‘wherever God leads, you that’s where you go.’ You’ve got to go. I feel very satisfied. I feel like my life is moving forward in a better direction.”