CAMP GONSALVES, Okinawa, Japan --
For years Marines have turned to the reconnaissance field looking for the most intense training available in the Marine Corps.
Cpl. Cody A. Cunningham, a reconnaissance man with Company C, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, is one of those Marines who rose to the challenge.
However his path to becoming a Marine was a long journey which took him across the Pacific Ocean.
Born in Conway, Ark., Cunningham later moved to western Australia at the age of 11 where he attended middle and high school.
He returned to the United States in 2005 to celebrate Christmas with his family. With aspirations to be an infantryman, Cunningham took a trip to the local Marine recruiting office.
Cunningham was very adamant about becoming an infantryman, however he didn’t know what type of grunt he wanted to be, he said.
After graduating from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Cunningham went on to attend the School of Infantry where a few recon Marines came and talked to his company, according to the 24 year old.
That was when he knew exactly what he wanted out of the Corps; to become a reconnaissance Marine.
“To become a recon Marine, one must go through SOI and the Basic Reconnaissance Course,” Cunningham said.
“It was worse than boot camp,” he added about the BRC. “It was 10 weeks of hellacious training.”
According to Cunningham, at one point in the training he was up for an entire week and received a total of six hours of sleep during that time.
“Some guys were so tired, they were walking up to trees, trying to order food and slide their debit cards in the trees as if they were ATMs,” Cunningham said. However, nothing the course threw at him slowed him down, and he finally graduated and became a reconnaissance Marine.
“I felt proud after completing all that training,” Cunningham said. “I became the first person in my family in the military aside from my grandfather who was in World War II.”
Just doing the basics is not the culture of a reconnaissance Marine in regards to training. Their lives, when not deployed, consists of classes, weapons training, additional education on skills essential to mission accomplishment and countless days in the field.
“Some of the best training I ever had was in Korea and Hawthorne, Nev.,” Cunningham said. “We learned how to set water charges, plant C-4 explosives and received a lot of training in live-fire exercises.”
He was taught early on to continuously improve himself in every way he could, but one piece of advice has always stuck with him.
“I had a sergeant who used to always say, ‘Be the guy on the poster,’ “ Cunningham said, referring to the images of squared-away Marines featured on recruiting advertisements.
Cunningham said, he hears those words in his head every day, driving him to excel and strive to be his best.
During his free time, Cunningham maintains his physical training and indulges in rock climbing to keep in shape. There are an abundance of rock faces he frequents throughout Nago, he said.
Whether training to be the best reconnaissance Marine he can be, or training to be at his personal best, the bottom line for Cunningham is staying at the top of his game.