In Temecula Valley, a suburb outside San Diego not far from the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, kids as young as eight years old are signing up for the Young Marines, a program teaching the core principles of loyalty and obedience within the rigid structure of a military institution. Each of the recruits comes to the program with different motivations, whether to prepare for a career in the Marines to uphold a civic loyalty, to learn discipline and stability in an unstable home life, or to carve out a path to a career with NASA. Directors Carl Brown and Sean Donnelly capture an intimate portrait of the rigors of military training and the lives of former Marines and Young Marines, bringing up questions of military influence on the lives of children and the implications on their future choices, opportunities, and society’s attitudes towards obedience and violence. -MR