BaseCommCLNCdaw's Album: USMC - 1960-1964 Camp Pendleton & Camp Lejeune

USMC - 1960-1964 Camp Pendleton & Camp Lejeune

These photos were from a period of relative quiet for the Corps, long after Korea and pre-Vietnam.

I spent virtually all of my tour in the Corps in "Garrison," in Camp Lejeune, whether at MCB headquarters, or the Second Marine Division in the Second Shore Party Battalion, an offshoot of the Second Service Battalion.
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Some of the events that were in our "collective consciousness" in the first four years of the 60's were Francis Gary Powers U-2 recon plane shot down over the Soviet Union (1960); The Bay of Pigs invasion fails, the Berlin Wall is built (1961); The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962); JFK is assassinated by USMC "personal non grata," the president of S. Vietnam is assassinated as a misguided tool of US foreign policy (1963); The N. Vietnamese reportedly attack our patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin and Johnson gets the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed through congress escalating the action in Vietnam.
  1. Preparing to fire the M-1 rifle for qualifications. DI Sgt Kling instructs a member of the platoon on safety and loading OF the magazine. Up to the...
  2. Marine Corps Boot Camp (recruit training) at San Diego, California in late summer 1960. 
 
Company Commander's rifle inspection, the first three...
  3. Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California.
  4. ITR at Camp San Onofre at Camp Pendleton. The view is the company street, from one row west of my QH, over the top of the rifle bench towards Horno...
  5. This is Camp San Onofre part of Camp Pendleton California up against the Horno Ridge a part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a weekend afternoon in...
  6. Location of Camp San Onofre and the Quonset huts in a large valley between Horno Ridge to the S. West, and the Santa Margarita Mountains to the N....
  7. The view from the top of the large hill (a small mountain) our Quonset hut was up against at Camp San Onofre. This North-easterly view overlooks a...
  8. A view from the same hill top overlooking Camp San Onofre. This view is towards the S.W. (about 210º) towards the Pacific Ocean over the top of the...
  9. This is the WM Barracks at Camp Lejeune Main-side. In appearance this was a typical barracks just like all the others of the period. Next to the WM...
  10. Typical current  barracks buildings that replaced the old college campus style.  I visited Camp Lejeune, a couple of times (1999 and 2000) and most...
  11. Here is a detail small part of the Main-side map of Camp Lejeune, the Central Area. It's the location of the sub-commands of the Commanding General...
  12. Three of who made up the majority of the Second Service Bn, message center on a field exercise at Camp Lejeune, on the coast of N.C. in 1963.  As a...
  13. Saunders and two WMs Base Comm CLNC Mid Watch 
This is a scene during a mid-watch at Base Comm, and shows a small part of why I consider this the...
  14. This is a copy of the incoming (TTY)TELETYPE message from President Johnson passed through the Secretary of the Navy to All Naval bases and...
  15. Another part of the competition during the "field day" This was between platoons, fully equipped with field packs, combat gear, and rifles (but no...
  16. USMC organized Field Day Grab Ass: 
This type of activity is a part of the competitive fun, a "tug-of-war," the day of our "field day" on the Fourth...
  17. A truck-load of Marines loaded into a one ton open truck heading back to the company area after a "field day" of competition & celebration! We were...
  18. This is just before some of the guys grabbed the major, our commanding officer for his obligatory dunking. The officers are hanging together in the...
  19. Field day - Healthy camaraderie and brotherhood over the beer keg after the competition. All that's left to do is to grab the battalion commander,...
  20. "Field day" After the competition comes the celebration; gathering around the beer barrel. The cooks and mess-men are among those who came to work,...
  21. This is an image of my last liberty card, which somehow I didn't end up turning in before my discharge August 19, 1964.  One of the good things about...
  22. The Battalion Commander, a Major whose name I can't recall, seems unpertured by his dunking in a very dirty backwater at Camp Lejeune.
  23. The moment of truth; the commanding officer is placed gently in the water.  I took the picture, but it's not an activity I would've taken much...
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