RECRUITING STATION SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Recruiting Station Sacramento's 14 noncommissioned officers in charge and a few command group members conducted their mid-year review and team-building training at Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center Bridgeport, Calif., during the first week of April. The three-day evolution consisted of classes, planning-meetings to map out mission direction for the rest of the year and a day of high-altitude telemark ski training.
Since RS Sacramento is made up of 14 recruiting sub-stations scattered across 115,000 square miles of Central California and Western Nevada, these Marines rarely interact with each other outside of a once-a-month meeting and all-hands training that all recruiters must attend. In order to help his RS think like a team, RS Commanding Officer, Maj. Roger B. Turner Jr. made arrangements to bring his Marines together for a few weekdays to break them away from the grindstone, take care of business on the recruiting side and remind them of what it feels like to be leathernecks in the field again.
The Marines spent the first day giving and receiving classes about how to improve efficiency and performance at the RSS level with classes and guided discussions on topics like NCOIC morning activities, interview structure and "beating FMAM (February, March, April, May) in JJAS (June, July, August, September)."
"It was a rousing success," said MSgt. Thomas Oldham, RS Sacramento's recruiter instructor. "It's easy for 8412's out here to become complacent when it comes to being a Marine. This kind of event keeps the cutting edge sharp - reminds us of who we are.
"There's nothing better than being out in 'man-land' doing man things to bring that back into focus," he added.
The next time they will be able to get together in a Marine Corps setting will be at the end of year review before this year's Marine Corps ball.