A Marine holds the coveted Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem at the top of the Reaper at the end of the Crucible. Photo by Ethan E. Rocke/Coffee or Die Magazine.
A Marine recruit died Friday aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, while participating in the Crucible, a 54-hour field training exercise full of continuous physical and mental challenges.
A post on the MCRD Parris Island Facebook page said Pfc. Dalton Beals, who was assigned to Echo Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, “passed away during the conduct of The Crucible with the new Marines of Echo Company. Our deepest condolences go out to Dalton’s family and to the Marines and staff of Echo Company.”
The cause of death is still under investigation.
The Crucible is the culminating event of Marine recruit training and serves as a final test of all the skills and knowledge recruits learn in boot camp. Echo Company completed the Crucible Saturday and will graduate from recruit training June 18.
The last time a recruit died during training at Parris Island was in March 2016 when Raheel Siddiqui jumped to his death after enduring hazing that included physical and verbal abuse by his drill instructor.
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James Webb served as a US Marine infantryman from 2005 to 2010, completing a combat tour in Iraq. He’s worked as a freelance writer and photojournalist covering US troops in Afghanistan, and Webb spent more than two years in the US Senate as a military legislative assistant and as the personal representative of a member on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
