My blog from boot camp

[Pwork703]

Great stuff man, thanks for such a good inside look.

-Poolee Workman

[leprechaun9544]

Warcrazy, have read through your blog and found it interesting and extremely well written and presented. You indeed have a talent Marine, hope you keep it up.....Oooh-Rah

[USMC2571]

Extremely well done, and good foresight in even thinking to write letters as a kind of diary. I still have my letters to my mother, written when I was 17, got to PI two weeks after turning 17, and the letters are hilarious. You would have thought I was a whole Marine company by myself, combat ready.
Your blog should just about be required reading for all poolees, too. That would answer a lot of questions they have.
Thanks for your post.

[Visor15]

I hope this is the right forum for this.

I'm a fairly fresh Marine, been in for a year and a half now. I noticed before I joined the Marine Corps, when I was searching for information on Boot Camp and the School of Infantry, that there really wasn't much to go off of. Just small stories and some advice here and there. So while at boot camp I decided to write a journal where each letter would detail the past few days (what had happened, how I was feeling, things that surprised me, etc.) I mailed these letters to my girlfriend who posted them to a blog.

Here is the link bertroche.blogspot.com To go to the beginning, kindly scroll down to the bottom of the page, click "Older Posts", then scroll down to the bottom again.

This is mainly intended for poolees (although I know Marines love to have a nostalgic day every now and then), which is why I wanted to post it in the poolee forum as I noticed the testimonial forum isn't as frequently inhabited. Either way I'm glad to finally be able to find a place to post this.

Enjoy, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Sir, I must say that your blog was the most personable, and descriptive tale I have yet read of what it's like to go through boot camp. Seriously, I would like to applaud your writing skills.
It's the first source I have read details of what the experience is like day to day, both emotionally and physically. I think the emotional hardships you painted a picture of are the things that scare me the most. Although I have to say I nearly **** my pants, with both laughter and fear, when you described what its like to be IT'd by the DIs.
Thank you for this.

Screw becoming a shrink. You should be a writer. You've got the skills.

[SPhiladelphia]

That blog was an awesome read. Hopefully, I can make it through Boot Camp like you did!

[Tennessee Top]

I'm surprised you did not spend much time mopping. We spent at least 2 hours every day making sure the head was spotless.

Also, thank you to everyone for you support and comments. As always, feel free to message me with any questions.

You missed the point. We don't "mop" in the sea services, we "swab". Have not read your blog so don't know if you missed the class on naval terminology.

[YLDNDN6]

Joseph...Everything you described in there was right out of the Recruit Training Manual or something. The substitutions, Daddy withdrawing his love and calling us the garbage platoon, everything! Sounds like they still go by the book with Boot Camp. Although, if we had ever laid hands on another recruit or jumped line for any reason in the chow hall our bodies would have never been found.....great blog and I am sure very helpful to the up and coming hopefuls.

[NCEstey]

Fantastic, Congrats!

[Balty]

This should be required reading for poolees, fantastic

[Apache]

OUTSTANDING MARINE
Thanks for sharing

[jjaxs]

Nice! I really enjoyed reading your blog about boot. It really answered some of the questions i've thought about as a Marine Corps Poolee. Thanks again, Semper Fi.

[jp2usmc]

The good thing about holding your M16 at arm's length is that you can put them down as soon as everybody is holding theirs up, too.

Gotta love that one!

[Ray Merrell]

Congratulations Visor15 on your journal writings, they will be a forever keepsake that you will appreciate having many years from now. Very nice! Gung Ho, Ray

[ameriken]

Great blog, I loved your description of Sgt Ponce, which almost exactly described Sgt Reed in my platoon back in 1976: "Sgt. Ponce is our little pittbull. He's always in someone's face screaming and cursing at them. The best part is he's about 5 feet tall and never runs out of energy." That is Sgt Reed to a 'tee'. Short, mean, extremely energetic, and always in our face screaming and cursing. I think everyone in our platoon would agree he was primary DI that molded us back then. And actually, your description of your other DI's fit ours as well.

Good work, you'll really love this blog in another 20 or 30 years or so.