Originally Posted by
Mongoose
Well, I could say they are lucky today,to get all that training before being deployed. Grunts in our day went to bootcamp, ITR, and staging bn. Most of our training was on the job dodging rounds. We didnt have but one front, but no one told us which direction it was in. We slept in the mud and rain, what little we got. Wore utilities that rotted off you in a few weeks exposing mold and fungus growing in your ears, legs and on your feet. We were lucky to bathe once a month and never had enough food or sleep or medical supplies. We were always being eaten on by bugs and lost 20 or 30 lbs first month in country. We learned to love our brothers and hate our enemy with a passion. We spent on an average of 240 days out of a year in actual combat. The rest of the time we worried about snipers, booby traps, malaria, dysentery, and jungle rot. But most of all, we took care of each other. Bootcamp gave us disciplin. And thats what got us through the Nam. That and our brother Marines.