Send in the Marines

This ethnographic study of the cultural management of and ability to endure pain in the U.S. Marine Corps was carried out over a period of two and one-half years (1992-1994) at three different field sites in the United States.

means to be physically and emotionally “broken” in such an organization which places a primacy on physical prowess, performance, and the ability to bear pain—just in order to belong and achieve membership, as a man or woman, and for the organizational mission.

Also, the Marines make no secret of breaking a young man down. That was stated explicitly to us the day we hit San Diego. The first thing to go was hair. After the haircut (so fast and so rough, our scalps were bleeding from the electric clippers), we were obviously all alike. And no one was allowed to use any personal pronouns when a DI (drill instructor) was present. “Sir, the private wishes to speak to the drill instructor, sir!” (Anonymous ex­Marine, 2003)

When I interviewed Lance Corporal “Hays” over several sessions, he eventually told me how his own earlier personal experiences with physical injury potentially compro­mised the mission of the Corps. He was unable to physically perform, and to a certain degree blamed himself for the persistence of his injury. His self-blame for physical injury had both emotional and mental components. Three operations and several months of physical therapy later, he talked with me about his attempts to finish boot camp. How­ever, due to his physical injuries, Hays often spoke about being recycled if he did not heal after his most recent operation.

Connell (1990), among others, has argued that there has been very little work that ac­tively explores the processes through which masculinity is socially constructed. There is even less research exploring the relationships between masculinity, femininity, and the enduring of pain in the U.S. Marine Corps. The USMC presents a fascinating case study of the manner in which the social construction of gender and its relationship to pain gets “played out” on the terrain of identities, emotions, and bodies—specifically what it means and how it feels to be both physically and emotionally “broken” in the most so­cially conservative of the U.S. military organizations.

Infantrymen (both injured and non-injured) in the U.S. Marines subscribe to a culture where the bearing of pain is expected and normalized within the following contexts: through the socialization to become a Marine, in training for the mission, and through an intense personal and organizational experience of transformation of the body, emotions, identity, and mind. The cultural context of physical injury for injured enlisted infantry­men represents a space where both masculine and Marine identity are continuously chal­lenged and renegotiated.