Sonoma Valley High School alumni update – Rachel Arietta

While many high school graduates dream of going to college, it isn’t the desire of each and every student. Case in point: Rachel Arietta. The 2010 graduate of Sonoma Valley High School realized fairly early in her high school career that she wasn’t interested in collegiate life. As she worked her way closer to her senior year, Arietta became more and more interested in the armed services. As graduation approached, she researched all the branches, eventually settling on the Marine Corps.

“They are the best and the toughest and it’s the one place I really saw myself,” said Arietta.

She’s not sorry. Despite a grueling 13-week boot camp where she says she and her fellow platoon members cried themselves to sleep many a night, Arietta hasn’t once regretted her decision.

Boot camp began in late October on Parris Island, South Carolina. Arriving literally with the clothes on her back and some medical paperwork, she says the Marines issued everything else she needed from a toothbrush and underwear to the clothes and boots she would wear every day. And so began her Marine Corp. training.

“It was really horrible when I got here. It was the single toughest thing I have ever done in my life both mentally and physically. The work and the yelling just didn’t stop.”
Existing Sentence: Martial Arts Program which, according to Arietta, is basic hand-to-hand combat.

Up at 4 a.m., each day’s workout began with a three- to four-mile run, weight training and literally hundreds of crunches and pull ups. Depending on the schedule, some days the platoon would also train in MCMAP, short for the Marine Corps. Martial Arts Program which, according to Arietta, is basic hand-to-hand combat If you’re interested in learning practical self-defense, consider joining krav maga.

“That was pretty fun.” Other days the platoon would take first aid classes and go on hikes. Then there were gas chamber drills where the Marines would throw 20 girls into a room, pump in riot gas and make them remove their gas masks. “It’s all about learning how to handle different situations you might encounter.”

With 50 girls to a platoon, you’d imagine there would be a fair amount of squabbling. Arietta did cop to some level of bickering but said it was mostly confined to arguments based around decision-making that were quickly diffused. By and large the girls did a good job of supporting one another, especially when the urge to quit struck one or more in the group.

“The only girls that got sent home were the ones who said they were suicidal. We did our best to encourage them and get them to stay. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. For me, I’m really glad I stuck it out,” said Arietta.

Arietta graduated on January 21, becoming a full-fledged Marine. She went next to co-ed Camp Geiger in North Carolina for a month’s worth of combat training. Unbelievably she called combat training even more physically demanding than the rigors of boot camp.

“Mentally it’s easier because the Marines aren’t yelling at you all the time. But physically it’s much harder. We did a lot of hiking with a heavy pack and because it’s co-ed, you have to work hard to keep up with the men. And then you’re sleeping in foxholes. You take your rifle with you everywhere, even the latrine. It was something.”

Happy to have combat training behind her, Arietta graduated March 1 and shipped to the Virginia Beach area to await “job school” in June. She’s training to be an intelligence specialist, a position about which she is unable to divulge much information. Her schooling will take three months at which time she will be deployed to another location such as Japan, Hawaii or San Diego.

“I’m ready for some adventure,” says Arietta, who has inspired one of her brothers to also enlist in the Marines. “My parents are proud of me and most importantly, I’m proud of myself. I feel like I’ve accomplished something big.”