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....