guard duty, fire/security watch

What does this consist of and how does it work. All i can find is that you keep watch at night and report incidents like fire. Is this just in the barracks or the whole recruiting station. And what is your gear.

Surely they don't make us patrol in our night clothes. And are we armed or do we carry like some baton or something. Not sure if this is just practicing patrolling or is guard duty a really serious thing (not saying anything in boot is not serious).

I'm sure i will find out when i ship but i'm just curious. The only thing I know is from full metal jacket (and we all know that night watch didn't end well:confused:.)
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile..._8356599_n.jpg

During boot camp there will be about 4 recruits at any given point in the night on firewatch. You will mostly just be cleaning the squadbay, and making sure nobody is doing anything stupid.

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Originally Posted by EpicPopsicle

What does this consist of and how does it work. All i can find is that you keep watch at night and report incidents like fire. Is this just in the barracks or the whole recruiting station. And what is your gear.

Surely they don't make us patrol in our night clothes. And are we armed or do we carry like some baton or something. Not sure if this is just practicing patrolling or is guard duty a really serious thing (not saying anything in boot is not serious).

I'm sure i will find out when i ship but i'm just curious. The only thing I know is from full metal jacket (and we all know that night watch didn't end well:confused:.)
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile..._8356599_n.jpg

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You will stand at a small desk and study your "Knowledge" book for an hour. You will be in uniform. You will not be armed. No one at boot camp is armed. You will ensure that all weapons are locked properly. It will be just in your barracks room.

I was on base guard duty for a while. We worked with the MP's because we were at Alpha+ threat level. My shift was 10pm-6am, and I carried either an M16 or a M4 shotgun. I was given qualification in Less than Lethal ammunition and was qualified with pepper spray. I did that I think for like 6 months.
Fell asleep a couple times at post, nothing like waking up to a Full Bird in your face screaming, lol

Honestly, it is just one or two hours of firewatch. Who cares.
Just think to yourself that there are Marines in Afghan on their 6th hour of post fighting to stay awake after doing slave labor all day.

What are night clothes?

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Originally Posted by Phantom Blooper

What are night clothes?

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Bloop, I didn't know that they issued night clothes in boot camp now.

Pajamas, fleece, footy-type, with back flap: one each...check!
Blanket, wool, security-type: one each...check!
Bear, furry, Teddy-type: one each...check!

Best thing I loved about fire watch duty was access to the cold water fountain that our DI's refused to let us use.

Maybe night clothes wasn't the best choice of words.:p

During my year at Memphis-62'-we lived in old WW2 wooden barracks.They were a fire trap so a fire watch made sense.We walked throught the barracks for a couple of hours and woke up your relief or anyone else that had asked to be awaken at a certain time.Later while in a squadron if you were given guard duty around the aircraft you carried a pump shotgun with brass cased buckshot empty chamber.If you were Sgt or Cpl of the guard it made sense to let the pouge on duty know you were coming in the dark.Buckshot does nasty things to people.lol

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Originally Posted by cubawatcher

Later while in a squadron if you were given guard duty around the aircraft you carried a pump shotgun with brass cased buckshot empty chamber.

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Brass cased buckshot? Is that to make it easier to find if you use it? Help prevent FOD?

This stuff was ancient-maybe Smedley used it.Shotgun shells were loaded in brass cases years ago I suppose to make them more waterproof.The brass was very soft and after being handled many many times the cases were pretty well dented.I don't know how well they would have fed although with those Winchester model 12 pumps we had you probably could have forced a 20mm into the chamber.Never had the chance to chamber a round and fire it so I'm not sure if it would have touched off.Off coarse a shotgun is a heck of a lot better club than a nightstick. LOL

Bootcamp will just be an hour of firewatch, maybe two if you get in trouble for something. At MCT again an hour of firewatch. Then at my MOS school we did two hours of firewatch at the start of liberty on workdays. Then four hour shifts of weekends.

Standing Fire Watch or Guard Duty is a privledge. While you are doing such, you are the man with the brass balls and nobody has the right to f**k with you.

Back in 1970 about all the barracks were still the old two story wooden things that had been there forever. If they had caught fire they would have burned down in minutes. We done fire watch every night during boot camp and sometimes we were sent out to other sights around the base to do security. You know where you yelled from one sentry to the other to get the message to the Sgt. Of The Guard. But during those days they really needed a fire watch on most of the buildings around there.