Staff Sgt. Marlene Rodriguez currently serves as a Marine Corps drill instructor with November Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. Rodriguez joined the Marine Corps in October 2005 and became a drill instructor in July 2012. “The reason I became a drill instructor was because of the example my drill instructors set for me, and I wanted to be that example for the future of the Marine Corps,” said Rodriguez, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., native. About 600 Marine Corps drill instructors shape the approximately 20,000 recruits who come to Parris Island annually into basic United States Marines. Parris Island is home to entry-level enlisted training for 50 percent of males and 100 percent of females in the Marine Corps. (Photo by Cpl. Octavia Davis)
