Boot Camp Then and These Days?

[TheReservist]

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.

And our generation learned from yours, especially as the senior officers were from your era. My generation is lucky to have the technology that it has today, fire retardant suits so that you didn't get burned alive if the IED didn't burn you up, systems nowadays to tell you where mortar fire is coming from (although the enemy knows the way around it), and better armor in general.So nowadays instead of spending a month without taking a shower, it was down to about 2 weeks

[AdminAssassin]

Those field showers are nice I will admit that. The quality of life you have in bootcamp now depends on which drill instructors you get, some will hit you and some will not. They mess with you alot, I'll give an example: My kill hat took 10 of us down to the sandpit and made all of us fill every pocket on our cammies with sand, take it back up to the third deck where my squad bay was and spread it all around the back half of the squad bay. Then the whole rest of the platoon did it, and after that we poured all of our aqua velva stuff on the floor to make it a "beach". In conclusion, we "island hopped" to all the sandpits around the battalion(1st Bn) to put the sand we had back out. All because I said something about a beach trip after graduation, which was still 9 weeks away lol. I would have loved taking a punch to the gut or the face than doing all that stupid crap. We got smoked regularly anyways, as we were the booger platoon the whole time.
1st Bn, Company B, Plt 1042

[AdminAssassin]

To add to my previous post, one thing still bothers me about boot camp. We had approximately 5 recruits that did not make it 100% through the Crucible and they still got to graduate with me. ****es me the f**k off actually and come to find out you only have to finish a certain percentage of the Crucible. One guy barely made it halfway before he lost too much sodium and kept cramping, matter of fact he couldnt even be at the ceremony to graduate as he was in the hospital even a week after he fell out. They should have been recycled and finished the Crucible, sorry for ranting.

[thebigticker]

From one who respects all who've gone through Boot Camp then and now.

If Boot was today what it was then...the Corps would quickly graduate from "The Few the Proud" to "The VERY Few the Proud".

The world has changed and it will till the end.

The liberties, freedom and success of this Country you fought for has afforded this generation the luxuries it has...and it seems we are somewhat spoiled for it. I suppose that is a hard thing to swallow recognizing the cost of it and our current society's willingness to squander it.

I'll own up to the fact that it becomes the parents of this next generation to instill an appreciation for that.

From my own experience my family was closest and appreciated things the most when we had the least. What becomes difficult is to still appreciate them when we become accustomed and are blessed with those things we never had before.

[HAWK0331]

I suppose that most have seen this at some time or another but here it is again, just in case.

Dear Ma and Pa,
I am well. Hope you are too.
The Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 5:00 a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late.

Tell brother Walt and brother Elmer that all you do in the Marines before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad -- there's warm water.
A Marine Corps breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit between two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon, when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.
As Marines we're expected to go on "route" marches, which the Platoon Sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat. The Sergeant is like a schoolteacher. He nags some.
The Captain is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bullseye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move. And it ain't shooting at you, like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ol' bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. He joined up the same time as me. But I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and weighs near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Tammy Gail

[That1guy221]

I just graduated a week ago and I'll say what I said in my own thread, my entire platoon got hit, tackled, choked, etc on a daily basis, every other word out of a DI's mouth was f*ck, my first week we we're kept awake by the firewatch screaming their report while the DI's scream at them "LOUDER!!!!", we were IT'd the dogsh*t out of for no reason a lot of the time, and just about everything I hear people say doesn't happen in boot anymore because it's "PC", happened to my platoon. Sh*t, the officers would curse at us!

[That1guy221]

My DI's would always sit us down and explain to us how that sorta treatment was necessary in boot camp and we all agreed. I mean, isn't that what we thought we were getting into anyway?

[m14ed]

I just graduated a week ago and I'll say what I said in my own thread, my entire platoon got hit, tackled, choked, etc on a daily basis, every other word out of a DI's mouth was f*ck, my first week we we're kept awake by the firewatch screaming their report while the DI's scream at them "LOUDER!!!!", we were IT'd the dogsh*t out of for no reason a lot of the time, and just about everything I hear people say doesn't happen in boot anymore because it's "PC", happened to my platoon. Sh*t, the officers would curse at us!

Maybe there is hope for the free world "afterall"

[bausmc87]

I understand the PC BS in the world today and it is very frustrating. the object is to build Marines from the ground up. Take the private/recruit who thinks his crap does not smell, break them down and rebuild them. Take a weaker private/recruit and build him up. the part that really bothers me is when they write home to mommy and their Senator and tell them they took a jab to the rib cage or worse (probably) deserved for screwing up. been there done that. Did I complain? No I took what was deserved and carried on as ordered. The wussification of this country need to stop.

[Cardboardbox]

I understand the PC BS in the world today and it is very frustrating. the object is to build Marines from the ground up. Take the private/recruit who thinks his crap does not smell, break them down and rebuild them. Take a weaker private/recruit and build him up. the part that really bothers me is when they write home to mommy and their Senator and tell them they took a jab to the rib cage or worse (probably) deserved for screwing up. been there done that. Did I complain? No I took what was deserved and carried on as ordered. The wussification of this country need to stop.

I believe we are still the only branch that's allowed to physically touch recruits without permission. I'm doing MOS school with the Air Force and they told me that their MTIs had to ask permission to touch them. I was baffled at that, but that just shows you that the USMC is the most disciplined branch and always will be.

[Old Marine]

You cannot make an adjustment on a Pvt. without touching them. Adjustments are made constantly during drill and teaching Pvts how to salute. Unless a Marine has been a Marine Drill Instructor there is just no way that a non Drill Instructor would understand the basics of teaching each and every thing that a Pvt needs to know before graduating from Recruit Training.

The most rewarding and best job is the Corps is being a Drill Instructor.

[Old Marine]

By the way. Since there are a few of us on this board that went through Boot Camp before the ribbon creek incident which changed the whole training concept of Recruit Training, I have too say that Boot Camp has changed. It will never return back to the way it was before McKeon stepped on his crank. Those who went through Boot Camp before ribbon creek know what I am talking about. Each and every day for me was an eye opening experience that I will never ever forget. On the bayonet coarse we even used real bayonets. We had smokers on Sunday where Recruits beat hell out of each other. At San Deigo we never saw the big grinder until final drill day. When we were marching we had better dig our heels in and make them pop to get a good cadence. It was very seldom that our Drill Instructors ever had to call cadence. There was no such thing as heel contusions or Special Training Branch. Never had the crutch brigade following the platoon around. Never wore tennis shoes in Boot Camp. Wore boon dockers and boots and upon graduation had to have new heels installed as the heels were worn out.

These were the good ole days of the Corps.

[FistFu68]

You YoungBucks still give out BLANKET PARTIES Or were ever on tha Receiving end of One?

[SWRIGHT0321]

i went to bootcamp 3 years ago. physically was not hard. I went to SERE earlier this year and i kept seeing similarities from being in a prison camp to being back at bootcamp. Though bootcamp might not be ask physically hard, it still gets the job done. all the marines there handled it just fine and the navy acted pathetic.

[ridingcrops]

I hope the change is for the better but I have my doubts. I had a young guy answer me about it once saying the Marines don't need to shoot anymore since they fight wars with laptops. So if you find yourself in a nice rear area and they attack do you throw your laptop at them?