Well not sure what to say

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Just a typical day in the life of the junior personnel...........

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

GYSGT Randal, SSGT Withrow, SGT Clark who was replace by SGT Martinez after rifle range. We were told SGT Clark had a "family issue".

I never saw Withrow smile, I saw Randal laugh and when several of us were sicker than dogs and send to the barrack while platoon was on mess duty, Clark who was also sick, told me he was also from Montana asked if I hunted and fished and when I said yes sir, he said you will be fine.

There was a well built pvt Withrow in the platoon, some believed the SSGT favored the pvt. Then, one night another smaller pvt gave pvt Withrow a pretty good beating. Withrow stayed and the other pvt went away. Some talk because no pvt had been sent away for fighting before. But, pvts came and went. My mission was to make sure I didn't go as that would mean more time there and the evil you know is better than one you don't and if you left most likely it wouldn't to any improvement. The horrors off the Physical fitness platoon, motivation platoon and corrective custody were all told by replacements we picked up.

My brother's tales of motivation were "interesting". He said he was so "motivated" that when he went back to a regular platoon the senior DI told him he needed to jack down

Our D.I's never used profanity with us in 1965. They used other colorful words to describe us. We had our share of bed wetters, blanket parties, and one fellow even went to the Company Commander and proclaimed he was queer. We saw him a few days later in a blue suit waiting for the bus to be removed from P.I.

The Sr. D.I. did use physical force and other forms of torture. We had air raid drills. You crawled under the bunks and when you got to the other end of the barracks, the D.I. would declare "All Clear". At which time you had to get back in front of your own bunk as quickly as possible. A lot of arms and elbows were flying.
While at the rifle range he got the platoon in formation and asked who had been smoking on the head break. When we got back to the barracks, he took the Guide and four platoon leaders into the hot locker and proceeded to pummel each of us. He got to me first because I was the Plt Guide. Hit me twice in the gut and once in with a right to the chin. I went to the floor, sliding done the wall. Saw stars for a while. He then proceeded to kick me in the shin. That's when I said to myself, do it again and we're going to see someone. He then went after the squad leaders and pummeled them even worse than me. He then got the rest of the platoon in the small room and started doing calisthenics. They came out really beat up.
He was relieved of his duties just before graduation.


Oh the fun we had

You meet the darndest people in the wee hours of the night.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

S/Sgt. J.H. Jones (Senior DI - the good guy), S/Sgt. Snowman (the bad guy), S/Sgt. Beeman (the tough guy).

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

On the nice sunny Sunday between the first and second week at Edison Rifle range, we are all out on the sidewall by the wonderful concrete barrack we had while there, we are cleaning our rifles. GYSGT Randal is there wearing class As, his duty belt and of course the "HAT". Pvt Hughes who is constantly doing stupid stuff approaches the GYSGT from the rear and brushes him aside as he passes by. Holy mortal sins Batman. Randal proceeds to berate him and ends up having him hold his M14 out in front of him on his open palms. An m14 gets really heavy fast that way. Randal ask Hughes how much it weighs. Hughes responds 11.2 pounds or what ever it was. He asks several times with the same answer, Hughes's arms are trembling and The Gunny takes off his hat and sits it on the rifle. Then asks, "how much does it weigh now"? Hughes responds 10,000 pounds sir. Randal laughs, then the platoon burst into laughter. I believe that was the lightest moment of boot camp for me.

Later back at MCRDSD after the range, Hughes show up in formation without bloused boots. Bloused boots and the top button of you shirt being open, marked the platoon as a senior platoon that had returned form the range. The DIs are on him like wolves on a wounded calf. His excuse was he didn't have time etc. They also got on his squat leader for allowing him to be such a cluster bad words The DIs had the whole platoon unblouse there boots and button their top button. Hughes was not in my Quonset, but the next day he was certainly not looking so good.

I broke my Fibula (the small bone in the lower leg) at the obstacle course.
I went to sick call 2 days later and saw the X-ray, showed about a 1/2" gap between top and bottom bone and they said I was going to the Fitness Platoon and I said NO, NO, NO!

Surprisingly, they let me return to my platoon and my Sr DI said Ok.
I was very, very determined I was not going to drop out and go to the Fitness Platoon. I hobbled around for a couple of weeks, the pain diminished, but more importantly, I graduated with my Platoon.

When I went back to visit in 2019 to mark 50 years since I went the gunny who gave me the grand tour pointed out a pvt with tennis shoes on. He said that marked him as having some kind of physical problem and unable to do PT. He also told me that PT was their major form of disciplining.

But, ya getting dropped for any reason was a major concern. I was in really good shape when I showed up. HS jock, in track I ran the 2 mile in 10:15. Only thing I sucked at was chin ups. But, there were many times the only way I could do another mountain climber, up and on shoulders or push up was the fear of attracting attention of the DIs. The summer heat and humidity in SD was brutal and I am sure the same in PI. I believe it may have been better in the winter, but the tents at Pendelton during ITR in early Nov could be chilly. I remember one night at 0 dark thirty the instructors coming back drunk and waking us up and having us stand at attention, struggling to stay awake, while they told stories and berated us. To quote another Marine, "Oh, the fun we had"

I got pneumonia in boot camp at Parris Island. Spent two week in the hospital. Got set back of course. Still wasn't feeling real chippy when I got to my new platoon. DI's felt that I needed a trip to motivate me. so off to One Day Motivation Plt. I went. In the afternoon they had us standing in cold weather in wet utilities in formation. For some reason the base chaplin was there. I was coughing and hacking and the chaplin ask me what was wrong. When I told him that a few days before I had been in the hospital for pneumonia, he came unglued. Made the Senior DI at Motivation put me in his car wrapped in a blanket with the heater on and take me back to my platoon. The Chaplin showed up at the platoon and had a discussion with the Senior DI of our platoon. Pretty one sided I think. Chaplin wanted to see me every Sunday at church and asked how things were going. DI's never said anything about it to me. Still got their attention (as did others) from time to time until I graduated.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Some great stories, but to lighten the mood

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#3 for sure. Blowing up stuff is FUN.

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Paul
Salome, AZ

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Here’s a pic of Vung Tau. Mountain in background is where ASA had their “ antennas”. We had a contact team there and I got to go about once a month delivering parts and got a 3 day R&R which was nice.

On #1, I had OD (officer of the day), which was really perimeter guard duty, on new year's eve. Had lots of fun having a flare fight with the MP bunker at the main gate. Topped it off by clacking off the Foo-gas in the wire. What a show. After a conversation with the CO I was out "supervising" the repacking the foo-gas barrel.

For the uninitiated, foo-gas is a 55 gallon drum buried on a 45 degree angle with a claymore in the bottom. It is then filled with home made napalm mixed with every scrap nut, bolt, safety wire and scrap metal laying around. A wire goes up to the clacker in the bunker with the rest of the claymore clackers. Squeeze the clacker several times and a big gooey fireball belches over the wire. Your recipe may vary

The best weapon for a flare fight is the parachute flare with the parachute removed. Second choice is the star cluster.

What about pencil flares from your survival vest? We would have flare fights between the officer's tent area and ours. Got pretty lively sometimes.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

If you want good chow, do not send the cook on patrol!!

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I still have the pen gun I kept on my flac jacket. Brought it home in my hole baggage. The new press in flares have too many misfires compared to the old screw it types.