Does anyone really know why we weren’t aloud to eat the charms from what seemed like decades old MRE’s in boot camp? I vividly remember a night in boot camp on Camp Pendleton. We had just given our nightly report and were in our shelter halves. My good friend and I started enjoying our evening ritual of crCking open a few pieces of charms candy when to our surprise the shelter half was ripped open by the meanest drill instructor to roam the earth. We got yelled at for about 15 minutes straight then he left. We innocently thought that was the end of it but as soon as day-light cracked over the mountains the whole platoon was marching up and down Mt. Mother until we couldn’t stand. I didn’t eat another charm in boot camp and had real reservation when I got to the fleet.
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My BS meter is tacking to the right. I don’t recall boot camp other that Edson range at Pendleton. Even in 1968, while there to qualify, we did not sleep in shelter halves.
Boot Camp and ITR are two different animals.
The only person I recall calling ITR bootcamp was my Mom! Never had an MRE.EVER!! If I remember correctly,some of the C’s had “Chicklets ” hard to chew,just ate it like candy Harry ( I almost gave this guy a pass but my gut calls BS)
Everyone knows boot camp and ITR were 2 different things. P.I and Geiger. At least in ITR we were treated half way like humans. Free time for the first time. I remember on Sundays going to wash my clothes and thinking this was GREAT.
In 1966 at Camp Butler in North Carolina at what was called ITR, we had shelter halves and who knows how old C Rations. The first night the Top Sgt brought out the rations in his station wagon. As usual we were all starving. It was, of course, raining and a raw, cold November night. A couple of us slipped out while the others kept watch and we took a box (12 meals) and all 4 of us got in one tent. We picked through taking the 4 packs of smokes and, especially, the jelly and crackers. We did not eat the Ham and MFers. We disposed of the trash and never heard anything again. Do not know if he saw us and liked our taking charge or maybe we should have gone into Recon. Oh my, the good old days. Semper Fi all.
In ’62 ITR was at Camp Geiger – a part of Camp LeJeune, and the “C” rations I ate was marked May 1945.
Heck, Richard, the rations we had were salt pork, hardtack and hominy grits, in containers dated 11 Nov 1775.
Them weren’t grits….they was sawdust. Dang boot! (LOL. Loved your comment. Semper fidelis)
Absolutely right. Camp Geiger at LeJeune. I am almost 70. I guess I was thinking of Smedley. While I was waiting for my ITR to start on was put on security detail. Stood at the front gate waving cars in. They actually gave me a 45 with loaded clips. Also rode with an MP who was in Recon. Wirey little guy who I would hate to mess with. To keep you from thinking I made it up I did the John Wayne course and crawled under the barbed wire in the mud while they fired machine guns over us at night. Great fun. Semper Fi all.
When I went through ITR at Pendleton in 1959 we spent a couple of nights in the field (the precursor of The Crucible). We did erect shelter halve shelters and eat c rats from Korea (read WWII). The only candy if you could call it that was the chocolate disc in the C’s.
I went through ITR at Camp Pendleton in Oct-Nov 1970. We never had any candy in our C-rats other than the chocolate disks that Herbert L. Shaw mentioned. And, we never pitched shelter halves. The closest we came to that was the nasty, cold night we spent overnight on the mountain. Even then, we slept in the open.USMC 1970-1974 Semper Fi
I ate a lot of C-rats in Nam but don’t recall any charms in any of them. I might have gotten some lifesavers (multi flavor or spearment) in some but that could have been from another source. It’s been almost 50 years.
If MREs were “decades old” when you went through Boot Camp/ITR, you’re sooo ‘boot’ you shouldn’t even be allowed to call yourself “Old Corps” … If your rations didn’t come in cans with a John Wayne / P38 opener, you’re a Boot for Life. I went through MCRD San Diego, graduating 7 Dec 61, and still don’t think of myself as ‘Salty’ …
Sounds like another “wannabe” to me with a made up story. I ate C-Rats for 12 plus months in the Nam and never had “Charms” or any other kind of candy in a C-Rat pack. Don’t these guys who post these fairy tales know that real Marines will call them out on this crap????
Note there is no date attached to this tale. His description doesn’t sound like any boot camp experience I have ever heard about either.
Went through PI in 1965 and Nam 66-67 a field radio operator, ate a lot of c rations and yes they did have Charms in those boxes.Retired in 2002 MGySgt
I ate C-rats 10 of my 18 months in Vietnam but never saw any candy.
Hey Sgt.Sisson ! Did you ever get your VA comp claim straightened out (TOXIC WATER@LEJEUNE)? The Marine I was helping with paperwork got 100% (Bladder Cancer) also received secondary service connection for insomnia and depression. Harry
Hi Harry. I think they are waiting for me to die off. They said I would have to go to Pittsburgh for a hearing in July. Well July is over today.an still have not heard from them. Good to hear from you. Next week I will be in hospital for my yearly cysto check up to see if I am still cancer free. Wish me luck SEMPER FI
SEMPER FI SGT! and GOOD LUCK! Harry
Harry thanks for asking. If I ever do get anything I will let you know when I see you on this web site. Take care SEMPER FI
I wasn’t allowed to talk aloud in boot camp.
I was at Pendleton in 1966 and again in 67 for ITR…we had C rats on overnight stuff…I remember the first one, I said to my buddy in the fox hole ‘what a bitch, this was mfg before I was born’…1945 was the date. Cans of what I can’t remember any longer and a 4 pack of smokes also a small tape of toilet paper. The smokes lasted for about one draw and burned up so fast, prolly had some of the toilet paper in them maybe?? Ah, the memories !
While stationed in Cubic Point NAS, Subic Bay in the Philippines in 1963 we spent time out in the field. All we ate in the field was C-rations…….I was amazed that the date on the side of the case all the meal boxes came in was the same year that I was born “1943” (at the time I was 20 yrs. old). The only candy type thing I recall was a hockey puck looking piece of chocolate (it was pretty hard & did not melt in the 105 degree days). The biscuits/crackers & date bread thing kind of all tasted very similar. Besides the caned fruit I think the best meals were cans of beans & franks, spaghetti & meats balls. I believe it was the beet steak & potatoes they told us not to eat…. just to throw them away. And we had little 4 pack of smokes w/ each meal. I still have my P-38 in my old foot locker. Thinking the above story is total BS!! Semper Fi Marines!
The Marine Corps Newsletter for the Jeb Seagle detachment #1265 in Lincolnton, NC had an article about this. It explained that the Lucky Charms marshmallows are considered bad mojo. The lemon leads to a vehicle breakdown, lime means that rain is coming and raspberry means imminent death. My wife is the editor for the Scuttlebutt, she does amazing research in an attempt to provide our Marines with Intel that is new & interesting to them.
The Marine Corps Newsletter for the Jeb Seagle detachment #1265 in Lincolnton, NC had an article about this. It explained that the Lucky Charms marshmallows are considered bad mojo. The lemon leads to a vehicle breakdown, lime means that rain is coming and raspberry means imminent death. My wife is the editor for the Scuttlebutt, she does amazing research in an attempt to provide our Marines with Intel that is new & interesting to them. This little tidbit is from the war in Iraq, not Nam…the charms were in MRE’s, not C-rats.