Marine Corps Recruit Depot-Parris Island

I became a member of Platoon 211 of the 2nd Recruit Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment on February 1st, 1965. Over the next 12 weeks we had 5 drill instructors governing our existence and I specifically remember Sgt. Johnson, Sgt Mills, Sgt Lankford & Sgt. Goodman (Cpl. Weed was with us for a short time). Sixty-Seven of us became official Marines on April 19th, 1965.

The following are some of my recollections 44 years later:

I remember arriving at Parris Island by bus late a night and sitting at a desk at rigid attention for several hours while our DI's screamed at us. One black kid spoke out and was quickly knocked to the floor by a DI. This abrupt action had a great influence on those of us in the room and we tried to sit even more motionless. Hours later we were allowed to sleep and I ended up on the top bunk feeling very lonely and afraid...at seventeen this was this first time I had been away from home.

In the following day we were processed through the typical induction rituals e.g. pack up all our civilian clothing & personal items for mailing, received military clothing and health care items, haircuts, shots, physicals, testing, receiving our rifles etc....

I remember spending hours on the "grinder" practicing short order drill & the manual of arms, hours in indoor & outdoor classrooms learning Marine Corps history, military conduct, handling of weapons, compass reading etc.

After awhile we had 1/2 or 1 hour of free time at night that was closely regulated to shining shoes or letter writing (no talking!!). On Sundays we we could be marched to chapel, if we wished to attend a religious service. Catholics were called "mackerel snappers" meaning we ate only fish on fridays. Also Sunday was reserved for washing our clothes a long "wash racks' outside. We had been issued a bucket, scrub brush and soap to help in this process.

We had a wide variety of physical training exercises e.g. daily runs, typical calisthenics (jumping jacks, pull ups,push ups etc)..We also frequently ran the obstacle course.

Some of my personal memories:

• The only time I dropped out of a training run the DI made the rest of the platoon exercise because of my failure while I sat and watched them.
• One time I was caught smiling and Sgt. Johnson filled my mouth with shaving cream and another time when I was caught talking the same DI repeatedly hit me on the head with a tent pole while I was at attention. I got a good size bump from this action.
• Another time while serving as a "house mouse" (the person who waited on the DI e.g. made his rack, shined his shoes etc) we ate some hidden cookies and the DI's made a examples of us to the platoon by having us do many jumping jacks under a poncho and the drink a canteen of warm water. We repeated this punishment 2 or 3 times until we vomited and then we fired as house mouses.
• Another time I was present when a DI struck Pvt. Phillips in the mouth for eating "pogey bait" (candy) without permission. The DI's blow caved in Phillip's front teeth.
• I received a letter from my Aunt Phyllis and the stamp on the letter was upside down (in those days this might signify "sealed with a kiss") and the DI made me do 150 jumping jacks.

One of the most important times of boot camp was the rifle range. We moved from our regular barracks out to the range for an intense 2 week period of weapons instruction and marksmenship. The DI's believed our prowess as marksmen was a strong indicator of our overall ability to be an effective Marine. High quality shooting was everything!!

We (3/4 marines) once had a late night "blanket party" for Pvt. Vanasse who was shooting poorly and negatively reflecting on our platoon. A blanket party was usually 3 or 4 marines sneaking up on an unsuspecting marine who was sleeping, dropping a blanket over his head and then beating him with your fists. The theory was that the beating would encourage him to try harder and be a better marine. Our blanket party also included poring a number of canteens of water into his rack while we held him down with a blanket and beat him. I don't think it was very effective but certainly part of our tradition.

During boot camp there was a good amount of discussion by the DIs concerning Vietnam which was an rapidly emerging as a full blown conflict. There was strong encouragement for us to get to the "action" as soon as possible. I remember Sgt. Lankford asking us what do you feel when you shoot someone? The answer was only 3.5 pounds of trigger pull which was the amount of pressure required to pull the trigger on an M-14 rifle.

More to come....

Helicopter Marine Medium (263) 1st Assignment

Sometime in August, 1970 I requested re-assignment to serve as a gunner with a Marine Corps helicopter squadron. My request was granted about 30 days later after passing the briefest of eye exams. At the time I was concerned that my limited vision (I wore glasses) would preclude me from being reassigned. The corpsman was very "helpful" and made broad allowances for me allowing a passing grade as long as I could see the chart on the wall (not the letters)!!! The only other crew member requirement was a .50 caliber machine gun familiarization flight over the South China Sea that required us to shoot at a yellow dye marker.

The day after my qualification I moved in to a bug/rat infested hootch very close to the squadron's runway and was ready/excited to begin my new assignment. I found out that crew members were to report early each morning to an "assignment shack" to find out which ship (helicopter) they would be on, with whom they would fly and what their their mission designation would be e.g. recon insertions, medevacs, troop lifts, re-supply etc.

My first mission involved the medevacing of a number of South Vietnamese civilians who had been accidently wounded by Marine artillery. We flew a number of kilometers away from Marble Mountain and arrived at the outskirts of a small village with a number of thatched huts. I was surprised to find out we were picking up about 20 to 25 wounded women and children. Most suffered from shrapnel wounds although there were 4 or 5 amputees.

The crew members and I proceeded to load the wounded on our aircraft. I carried 2 or 3 people on to the aircraft but will always remember carrying/holding a 2 year old girl whose left leg had been blown off. She was whimpering slightly but otherwise never said a word. It was a very sad moment for me especially as I thought of my 2 year daughter back home. I can remember wondering what the other crew members were thinking but as I looked around everyone seemed busy an unaffected.

There was an older women in the group of wounded who seemed to be dying from the many wounds all over her body. She was swathed in gauze, almost from head to toe, that did very little to staunch the blood that was seeping on to the stretcher. Once she was identified as a vc sympathizer she received no medical attention especially since the corpsman was so busy treating the friendly civilians.

After everyone was aboard our helicopter we flew to the USS Sanctuary, in the Danang harbor, where the ship's medical staff helped us off loaded our wounded passengers.