MCRD San Diego (Plt 244 July 2, 1961- Sept 20, 1961) I don't recall yellow footprints, they could have been there. I do recall standind rigid as possible for two days waiting for the rest of the maggots to arrive to form a platoon. I do recall a screaming voice coming from a upper floor of a building close by but how in the devil could they see our eyeballs moving at that distance?? I do recall running completely over the DI from the platoon on the next street over on the mad dash to the head one morning at 0 dark thirty when the lights went on. What was he doing on OUR street anyway at that hour? If I had not been rescued by my own junior DI, I might still be in that s–tcan,he got REALLY pizzed after breaking his swagger stick beating on the lid which was on top of my head. Maybe I should thank him as I think that could have been the start to condition I am now drawing 20% service connected disability for. The 155 SP's running without exhaust hooked up in blg 2000 at the stumps and the Phantoms practicing carrier landings night and day (hitting afterburner ) at k-bay getting ready for nam in 1964 also probably led to my loss of hearing. I was in USO in Hollywood one weekend in 1962 when all 29 Palms personel were ordered back to base,seems a Mr Kennedy was having a disagreement with a Mr Kruschev on the placement of some missles.THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE. I was on a island (San Clemente) off the coast of San Diego (mar 65) unloading LST'S when a second lewie comes out at two in the morning and says put it all back on! WTF,WE JUST GOT HERE. He says shut up and put the shite back on the boats (we had three T's unloaded) we are going back west.Twelve days later we were back in K-Bay getting anything we might have left. 3 wks later we were in Naha,after that was lot of confusion,1st Brigade broke up with outfits going all directions, Carriers, Chu Lai,Da Nang.Iwakuni,Futema,I ended up in Iwakuni (shorttimer I thought) as I had two years outside CONUS. I Rotated back to the World Oct 65 with intentions of getting out and going to school back in Oklahoma. That sort of changed on my way back,the way I had it figured with crossing the international dateline when I got back to El Toro I would have 59 days left so they would cut me loose rather than process me to a new duty station. It seems Mr Johnson and Mr Macnamara had some other plans,they said they had this little thing going on in SE Asia would probably take 3 or 4 months and they needed me for 4 more months. Well f–k it,now I got 6 more months to do,if had known that would have stayed on other side of pond.Only thing to do now is get drunk (and I did) ONCE A MARINE-ALWAYS A MARINE Sgt James B Callis 1930xxx 1341 7/2/1961-5/2/1966 read more
