Question on Basic Training....

[F4phantom]

Boot camp was a time to keep your mouth shut and do as you were told and don't be the nail that gets pounded back down. That lasted about three weeks. The platoon guide couldn't run 200 yards without falling down. Then one day as were were running a hand on my shoulder and a really loud voice says private you're it. Suddenly I was the new platoon guide. I tried to persuade the DI's, no I begged them not to be the guide. Well that was settled I was the platoon guide.
Then there was the Private who wanted out so bad that he requested to see the company CO, a Captain. In Marine Corps fashion he went to his office and knocked three times, the Captain told him to enter. He entered and the Captain asked him what he wanted. The Private said he was gay. The Captain asked him to repeat it and he did. there was some shouting and we never saw him again. He did show us a newspaper article of his engagement to a really good looking girl. Oh well.
Then there was the bed wetter. He got a blanket party one night by the people who were in the bunks next to him. I can't remember what happened to him.
The Private I replaced in the guide position got his jaw broken by the Sr. DI. The Sargent lost a stripe over that.
The Captain walked in one afternoon and reminded the DI that if anyone got hit to not make so obvious. i only got smacked really hard once. About It was three shots to the gut and right cross. I saw stars. To finish it all off a kick to the shins. I was one of the lucky ones.
Thirteen weeks of fun.

 

[UncleEd]

F4phantom,

Your story reveals that the Corps was
probably full of psychotic morons
willing to physically injure essentially
helpless people. The fact that they
could get away with it really does
not speak well for the service.

 

[Donn]

"I could never enlist in the military. The first time a DI got in my face, I'd deck him." Can't tell you how many times I've heard that one. I used to engage guys like that, but not any more. I know better, and Bad Guy Billy Beer Can never will.

 

[NYlakesider]

My older cousin who retired with 34 years service was offered a recruit instructor position. He joined the Corps at age 17 a couple years after the Korean war was over.

Now Bernie was a tough your typical Marine but he turned down that position. He later said I do not mind having to kill or maim the enemy but I just do not want to put those young people through what I had to go through at Paris Island.

 

[F4phantom]

One thing I forgot to mention. All the time I was at Parris Island, the DI's never used profanity with us. Not once did I hear the f word or any other expletive. They yelled a lot and called us girls and other names but they never swore at us.
There were good memories too. This was a small portion of my time in the Corps. I don't regret a second of it. I was never bitter or mad at the DI's. They did their jobs the best they could. Out of four DI's there was only one that really bent the rules.
I think psychotic is a strong word. Did they get harsh at times, yes but in way to build mind and spirit.
Semper Fi

 

[Old_Cop]

Shut your mouth and know your role.

 

[F4phantom]

F4phantom,

Your story reveals that the Corps was
probably full of psychotic morons
willing to physically injure essentially
helpless people. The fact that they
could get away with it really does
not speak well for the service.

Sorry UncleEd I couldn't let this go. I'll probably get dinged for it but here it is.

One needs to remember that this was Spring of 1965. We all knew where we were going after training. Boot camp was meant to retrain you in body, mind and spirit. I learned more about myself in those 13 weeks than most men learn in a life time. I learned that I could endure more than I thought I could. I had more self discipline and self awareness than I did before those first days of training. It gave me confidence to know that I could handle the rest of my time in the Corps and after that I could take on anything.


There are sick people everywhere and not only in the military. Show me any profession and I'll show the "psychotic morons" that work there. How many policemen, doctors, nurses, priest, and teachers (to name a few) have gone off the rails.

We live in an amoral society today and many would benefit from the 13 weeks that I went through 57 years ago. They even made us go to church back then. No one didn't go.


I think the Marine Corps speaks for itself for what they have done and what they will do. Semper Fi

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Marine Corps Basic in the 1950s ? The Marines had just gone though Korea, the Pusan Perimeter, the Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Chesty Puller, who knew something about combat, complained the Marines had gotten soft, the Army did quite a bit of tightening up then. When I enlisted in the Army in 1967 I went though Basic COMBAT Training.

 

[UncleEd]

F4phantom,

The main point is that "psychotic morons"
should not be tolerated anywhere in
civilian or military life.

 

[Capt Steve]

Great discussion...

I've enjoyed reading all of these memories and bringing back more than few of my own. I went with a delayed enlistment in march of 69 as I was still in high school. Ten days after graduation, barely 17 and a half, I was on the bus to Fort Odd for Basic. We processed through the reception station in downtown LA and yes I saw guys delivered in cuffs by LEO's opting out of jail/prison.

I was such a skinny little guy {5'9" 115#} most folks either left me alone or looked out for me. I remember my M14 being a handful but I was in great physical condition so PT was a piece of cake despite being always done in combat boots... no freaking tennis shoes for us. The first time we marched all the way down to the beach ranges at Ord {with fullbacks} nobody bitched too much. When it was time to double time back to the company area up on the hill about half of the company dropped out.

They thought they had it made when a deuce and half came along and picked them all up for a nice ride back. The extra PT started that day right after dinner and lasted through the remaining 6 weeks of basic including Sundays when the rest of us mostly had the day off.

Good times...

 

[Smoke]

The cruelest thing our TI did to us was not letting us smoke until we started to act something resembling a unit.

Seven days!

When he said "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" we bolted to our footlockers and scampered out to the designated smoking area between barracks buildings (two trees with red butt cans) and hot boxed until we got light headed and then greenish around the gills. A bunch of queasy pings were we.

The Night I got to Fort Sill they made me throw my open pack away and they took my sealed cartoon. I got them back 13 weeks later. Biggest mistake I ever made was not throwing them away.