Category: Marine Corps Stories

Yes, I was a Hollywood Marine. In 1967 I was a Junior in College. I dropped out 1 semester to earn money for the next submester. Like most here, I was drafted. Being from San Diego, raised on a farm in the mountains east of San diego. Having worked on a farm I was physically fit. Don’t you know, I was drafted in April 1968 and also was “said to have volenteered ” to the Marines. This was because my DI advised that the Marine Corps never drafted anybody. Boot camp was somewhat easy for me. When asked if I would volenteered for OCS, I told them no. When asked why I told them that my was a retired lifer Marine Major & was a ***hole & I didn’t Dixie to be one. After sitting in my D.I’s chair and being pted the rest of the day. When I graduated I made PFC & Expert rifeman. Now ITR was much more of a harassment than Boot camp was. Being PFC I was constantly singled out for examples of what not to do. Having spending most of my in country career at Camp Pendleton, I never once see any recruit making Lcpl out of boot camp. I did however saw 2 Lance Corporal coming from MCRD. One was a reserves activated and one had former military in the army. read more

Served from May 1961 – May 1965 (went through Parris Island MCRD) – when the DI’s were allowed to swear and smack you around a little if you needed it – and run your ass off – all night an all day if THEY so Chose – loved every minute of it. There was even the “Fat Man” Platoon – but I’m sure you can’t say that now – or it would hurt someone’s feelings of a “weight-challenged” individual. Now all the bleeding heart liberals in Congress – most of who are a bunch of pussywimpass non-vet Cowards have banned all such behavior on the part of DI’s who are trying to prepare Boys to be Men and to possibly go into combat if needed. Hey – if a Marine now encounters the enemy swearing at them or calling them names – are they supposed to report the incident to some State Side Military Lawyer and wait for permission to fire their weapon? Happy Horseshit we use to call it. Good luck to all who now go through the politically correct restrained “babysitting” MCRD experience. read more

In 1969 I was living in Minneapolis at the time the first draft lottery cam to be. For those who don’t know about this, it was 365 dates in a large fish bowl. This was news, and was covered by all the television stations at the time. Everyone who was eligible for the draft was watching because if they pulled your birthday you were guaranteed to be drafted and had a direct line to the Army or so I thought. Well I arrived at the induction center several weeks later. After we had been tested for a variety of things we were all gathered in a large room. A representative from the Air Force walked up to a podium in the room and asked for “volunteers” to serve two years in the Air Force since they had not reached their quota for the month. Everyone raised there hand, but only six people were actually chosen.
This same process continued through the Coast Guard, Navy and Marine Corps. When the Marine approached the podium he asked for three volunteers. No one raised their hand! The Marine asked again with the same response. The Marine then announced that he had other ways to get three volunteers. The Marine went on to remind us of the tests we had been taking for most of the day and said he had decided that the people who scored the highest, middle and lowest overall test scores were his choice. My name was one of the three and I was immediately moved to a Marine Corps van in front of the induction center for a short ride to the airport. I was taken away to the MCRD in San Diego. The first couple of days there were much like the person who wrote about “Motivation” article. Mass confusion, no sleep for close to two days and many berating encounters with the Drill Instructors. The next few weeks proceeded much like the first two days but we were allowed to sleep. One of the things we were required to do was “PT” physical training! Doing set ups, push ups, a variety of other things including running were part of the agenda. I was what would be called a nerd today and a weakling back then. I weighed 175 pounds and was six feet four inches tall and had never participated in sports of any kind. After a couple more weeks with me always being the last one to complete all the physical exercises I was move to a place called the “Motivation Platoon”! If I thought it was rough in regular boot camp the Motivation Platoon was ten times worse. There was never a minute of the day that we were idle except when we were studying the Marine Corps Manual, at Church, or sleeping. When awake were either doing exercises of some type or we were running. We ran and ran and ran, nine miles a day, rain or shine. Three miles before breakfast, three miles before lunch and three more before supper. The Motivation Platoon was originally formed to help recruits that were over weight to loose the weight and gain some muscle, then return to complete the rest of their boot camp experience. Since I was the skinny weakening I didn’t have any excess weight to loose, all I needed was muscle. When we went to the mess hall for chow the rest of my Motivation inductees ate greatly reduced rations, while I was forced to eat double rations. And I gained the weight, lots of it. I returned to a boot camp platoon weighing 250 mean lean pounds. Boot camp was a breeze and I also made the rank of Lance Corporal at he rifle range by shooting in the top five recruits. After that I was trained as a radio relay operator and was on my way to Viet Nam! The rest is a whole another story. read more

As a child from the age of seven to 14 or so Grandpa Gene was bulletproof ,and as a kid we knew his handshake would crush your hand. I remember him telling me stories of World War 2 of the Japanese digging tunnels and pulling his buddies underground, but as a child my brain did not believe. He passed away in 1996 when I was 16 from cancer, and I never knew what he had been through. One day in the summer of 2010 I decided to watch Flags Of Our Father, and HBO’s “The Pacific” and it gave me a good kick in the pants. I have never felt like such a fool in my life, and was so oblivious to what he and all of you go through for me. How could my education not show this to me? WHY didn’t we cherish all of you more? read more

I’ve heard different stories about the hit on 3/7 on Good Friday of 67 at Duc Pho. My recollection we started taking incoming about o200hrs.I was w/H&S Co We were at the base of the hill and about the middle just above the J4 fuel dump.We were taking small arms, rockets and some 57 recoilless rifle. What hit the fuel dump I don’t know, but let me tell you that was a sight to behold. Best fireworks display I’ve ever seen. I talk to some Marines later at Chu Lai said they could see the flames from their. I was about 75 meters from the dump. Does any other Marine remember being their that night. Semper Fi , my friends read more

Soon it will be 50 years since I took the oath to become a Marine.10 Oct 1967 I walked down the sidewalk of my home,got into my Dads car and left for the Federal Building in downtown Pittsburgh and ,along with four other recruits was sworn in.That same afternoon we were on a plane headed south.The first stop was the airport in Charlotte NC. While there we met a Marine that just finished 0311 training and,was heading home on leave then on to WestPac.We went to a bar in the airport and had a few beers while listening to his stories and advice about bootcamp. Some of the stories turned out to be true some not so true.Our next stop was the airport at Charleston SC. We were sent to a kind of staging area of some sort. There we met up with a bus load of other recruits and headed for Parris Island.On the way,someone started passing around a couple bottles of Jack or Jim can’t recall which.By the time we reached “The Island” I had a pretty good buzz.When the,I think,the driver announced that we were approaching gate the bus became a little quieter.Everything after that is a little fuzzy I do remember getting off the bus and standing in some sort of formation,Were there the “Yellow Footprints” maybe I can’t really remember. read more