Boot Camp Then and These Days?

[PFCWellsUSMC]

OORAH!!! First off Semper Fi brothers and sisters. I graduated boot camp on march 4th 2011 and in my personal opinion the Marine Corps has gone soft on the DI side. I would have liked no more than to get punched when i f-ed up as a recruit but change happens and apparently society just doesnt see the USMC like they used to. I agree that they need to revert back to the old ways. I see fat recruits walking across the parade deck on grad day with 3xl kakhi shirts on and they think they earned it. I graduated from MCRD SD and i will say i came out in the same shape i went into bootcamp in and i put out throughout bootcamp. Goodnight and Semper Fi my brothers and sister.


OORAH!!!

[advanced]

Just a thought. Instead of killing all those gooks, if we had had had this pc training back in the 60's we might have been able to just talk it out with them.

Another thought Dave, what if we had been trained under the current conditions back in the day?

[advanced]

I know, it was just a joke. One of the biggest reasons I did not accept OCS out of PI was the fact that after getting the **** knocked out of me all those weeks during PI, I sure as hell didn't want to go through that again at Quantico.

[advanced]

I don't think they do come out the same. And we certainly didn't have any bad attitudes, as you remember we had motivation platoon and the dreaded CCP (turning large rocks into small rocks.) And no one graduated "fat bodies."

As many here know, we were trained to never stop, never quit, never give up. The single most important lesson that I personally learned at PI was that no matter how bad things can get, they can get worse. That's what got me through so many of those days and nights in the Arizona.

I guess that the way they're turning out Marines today might work in this high tech computer age warfare, but I can't see how they would have survived back in the stone-age with us where it just took gigantic balls and the ability to just keep clinging to life like we did. Determined to live even while you knew that there just wasn't no way to keep coming out.

[03Foxtrot]

Reference to Ribbon Creek incident, Staff Sgt. M.C. McKeon, Platoon 71, MCRD PI, April 8, 1956. I think he was responsible and accountable for a tragic accident, not being a sadistic, drunk out-of-control, out-of-bounds Drill Instructor, as portrayed in the press. He was made a scape goat by the Marine Corps who was afraid of too much negative publicity and too much knowledge shared about an acceptable but unauthorized method of teaching recruits until this incident demanded official and public change in training.

[03Foxtrot]

Staff Sgt. McKeon died on Veterans Day, November 11, 2003 at the age of 79.
Platoon 71, was his first batch of recruits after he became a Drill Instructor in January, 1956. It was very common and expected for recruits to be marched into Ribbon Creek for physical and mental conditioning, long before this tragic incident. Also, it was common and accepted that the DI's would and did have drinks at the Enlisted Club, their only respite from long hours and physically demanding schedules. There were also many DI's who were successfully disciplined and busted or discharged for abusing recruits before Ribbon Creek, yet still it was tolerated to a degree.

[Mongoose]

I don't think they do come out the same. And we certainly didn't have any bad attitudes, as you remember we had motivation platoon and the dreaded CCP (turning large rocks into small rocks.) And no one graduated "fat bodies."

As many here know, we were trained to never stop, never quit, never give up. The single most important lesson that I personally learned at PI was that no matter how bad things can get, they can get worse. That's what got me through so many of those days and nights in the Arizona.

I guess that the way they're turning out Marines today might work in this high tech computer age warfare, but I can't see how they would have survived back in the stone-age with us where it just took gigantic balls and the ability to just keep clinging to life like we did. Determined to live even while you knew that there just wasn't no way to keep coming out.

Russ, anyone that thought bootcamp was to rough, should have spent a few wonderful days in the Arizona, right brother?

[03Foxtrot]

The training that Marine recruits endured and accomplished back then has been given credit as one of the reasons that so few Marines were captured during the Korean War and why the conduct of those Marines that were captured was so superior to the many other Americans, non- Marine, captured by North Korean and Chinese armed forces.

[advanced]

Russ, anyone that thought bootcamp was to rough, should have spent a few wonderful days in the Arizona, right brother?

Billy, I've said often that PI should have been 10 times worse to prepare us for where they sent us.

And Scott, how many of us came home as POW's from the Nam - grunts I mean. They just F---ked our guys up and killed them. They hated us and for good reason.

[03Foxtrot]

Russ,
I don't think very many people still know the particularly difficult war that the Marine grunt fought in I Corps, whatever province it was. I am in no way trying to say or insinuate that we were better or more courageous or more important than any other American fighting man in that war. I am saying that our part in this war of attrition was extremely detrimental to both body and soul and that we did take most of the casualties and inflict an extraordinary amount of death and suffering on our enemies. I can't help but notice what a long and popular thread on here, the one called, "Do you remember Dog Patch" is. My thread would be, "Do you remember No-Name Island and Go Noi Island and the Arizona and Dodge City and An Hoa Combat Base and Antenna Valley. These places, each with a heartache and much blood from we and our brothers, who paid the price in this war of attrition, these are the memories that we carry and this is why my boot camp experiences pale in comparison to what actually happened a short time after.
Semper Fi Bro

[advanced]

Russ,
I don't think very many people still know the particularly difficult war that the Marine grunt fought in I Corps, whatever province it was. I am in no way trying to say or insinuate that we were better or more courageous or more important than any other American fighting man in that war. I am saying that our part in this war of attrition was extremely detrimental to both body and soul and that we did take most of the casualties and inflict an extraordinary amount of death and suffering on our enemies. I can't help but notice what a long and popular thread on here, the one called, "Do you remember Dog Patch" is. My thread would be, "Do you remember No-Name Island and Go Noi Island and the Arizona and Dodge City and An Hoa Combat Base and Antenna Valley. These places, each with a heartache and much blood from we and our brothers, who paid the price in this war of attrition, these are the memories that we carry and this is why my boot camp experiences pale in comparison to what actually happened a short time after.
Semper Fi Bro

Thanks Scott. Yes, my year in the fun and the sun took me to all those places you mentioned including Hue and the Hook and Happy Valley (really bad one there). My home was An Hoa. I learned to love like never before and I learned to hate deep down in my core. That Marine Corps, the one we were in, was totally formidable.

Then one day they came and told me I was going home. So I turned in my weapons, said good by to my brothers that were left with tears in my eye, and I went home and lived happily after....except for.....

[TheReservist]

Funny thing is, Marines today are doing multiple deployments fighting a multifront war while helping to clean up Japan, standing ready for Libya, fighting pirates at sea, training foreign militaries and are ready for whatever else comes down the pipe.

Boot camp is just a small first step to make a basic Marine. Then that Marine gets even more training to involve "hyperrealistic" training with simulated VBIEDS, IEDs, medical treatment for amputations and a month long exercise of mojave viper (or whatever it's called now for afghanistan).

[03Foxtrot]

Russ,
I too went from a full immersion in war to civilian life in what seemed almost overnight. And like you brother, I lived happily ever after, that's the official story anyway. You and I and Billy and countless other survivors share much my friend.
As far as extra training, the only school I went to, in country, was Mine, Demolition and Booby Trap School and I believe it was for only three or four days. What really taught me what I needed to know about such devices was walking point. As you know, if you can't see or smell or hear or sense the enemy or a booby trap in time, you quickly become a statistic and I saw many a good man pay the price for walking the grunt way instead of having the luxury of riding.
Take care gentlemen, Scott

[Mongoose]

Funny thing is, Marines today are doing multiple deployments fighting a multifront war while helping to clean up Japan, standing ready for Libya, fighting pirates at sea, training foreign militaries and are ready for whatever else comes down the pipe.

Boot camp is just a small first step to make a basic Marine. Then that Marine gets even more training to involve "hyperrealistic" training with simulated VBIEDS, IEDs, medical treatment for amputations and a month long exercise of mojave viper (or whatever it's called now for afghanistan).

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.

[m14ed]

***We/my boot platoon/ had a recruit who didnt like the way he was treated when he screwed up. Wrote a nice letter home to his mother/family, She contacted one of her political representitives....,,,,,Friggin crap rolled down hill......seems the only complaint from the platoon was from that recruit.....the rest of us hadnt seen or heard anything of the kind.....Never did hear that he graduated.....his name was Petit...one of them things you remember for a lifetime i guess.