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thedrifter
10-22-07, 07:38 AM
Boot camp was rude awakening

Editor’s note: This is part of a weekly series published each Monday between Memorial Day and Veterans Day honoring local veterans.

By JOE GORMAN

Tribune Chronicle

YOUNGSTOWN — Just three days after graduating from East High School, Jim Rounds joined the U.S. Marines and quickly wondered what he had gotten himself into.

The Youngstown police officer recalled a rude awakening to boot camp in 1962, back when some old salts say boot camp was as tough as it could possibly be.

Rounds said he remembers pulling into a recruit depot at 1 a.m. and getting introduced into the world of boot camp right away.

‘‘The DI’s (drill instructors) got on the bus, and all hell broke loose,’’ Rounds said with a laugh. ‘‘It was terrible.’’

Rounds said he was the ‘‘House Mouse,’’ or smallest recruit in his platoon, which meant he did not escape any abuse

His first duty was on Okinawa and he also served at the Navy Brig in Norfolk, Va., when he was called to duty in Vietnam in 1968. Rounds was a sergeant and a crew chief for an 8-inch self-propelled howitzer, serving with the 1st Marine Division.

The gun was attached to a tracked vehicle, kind of like a tank, but the shells were so enormous, weighing in at 204 pounds apiece, that they had to be lifted hydraulically into the breech before they could be fired.

Rounds said once he was promoted to sergeant, he knew Vietnam was not far off.

Rounds said he was so immersed in training at Twenty Nine Palms, Calif., that he did not pay attention to any of the controversy surrounding the war. His battery consisted of four other crew members, and the gun had a maximum range of 10 miles, Rounds said.

The crew wore earphones to help them deal with the noise when firing the gun.

‘‘They were a big help,’’ Rounds said.

Rounds also served at Khe Sahn during the famous siege there, where he said the rats were huge and his battery was firing into Laos at North Vietnamese Army 152mm howitzer batteries. His crew lived in a bunker lined with stolen lumber and steel and they learned when to take cover during rocket barrages, Rounds said.

‘‘They (rockets) were louder when there was a whistle and a scream together,’’ Rounds said. ‘‘They would hit about five seconds after that.’’

His battery was busy during the siege, Rounds said.

‘‘There was no time to sleep,’’ Rounds said.

Rounds was confident that the siege would be broken, which it was after heavy bombing and a joint Army-Marine relief operation.

‘‘I thought we would get out of it,’’ Rounds said.

After six months, Rounds was sent home because his father died, but he was brought back to Vietnam to finish his tour. He ended up driving a truck on convoy duty, which he said was largely uneventful.

One of the reasons he got out of the service was the travel, Rounds said, although he said he liked the Philippines.

He said the Naval Air Station at Cubic Point had some of the best food he ever ate in the service.

After service, Rounds did odd jobs, including driving an armored truck, before taking the Civil Service test and landing a job as a city patrolman. Now assigned to the department’s Traffic Unit, Rounds said boot camp did teach him to swim, but in a unique way: He simply jumped in the pool when his drill instructors told him to.

‘‘I jumped in, and they pulled me out,’’ he laughed.

jgorman@tribune-chronicle.com

Ellie