All the letters about boot camp and DI’s have me on memory lane of late. Of course my favorite is waking up after the late arrival at MCRDSD. I’m guessing we hit the rack about 3:00 AM and reveille was at 4:00 AM. My first thought upon waking was I’ve really messed up this time, only messed up was not the exact term I used. Funny, I remember thinking the same thought before we hit the rack.
The DI’s lined us up in platoon columns and we half azsed marched over to this little yellow building where the DI’s stopped us. The platoon discovered that this building will be forever known as the head. The command that the DI gave will forever be engrained in my brain. “Platoon 3059 get in the sh-tter” I don’t think it registered with us right away but after the usual “Sir, Platoon 3059, get in the sh-tter, aye, aye sir” (which we screwed up a few times before we could say it in unison). Suddenly 75 guys are sprinting to the head, trying like h-ll to fit the entire platoon into those double doors. Ramming and jamming each other we were on a very urgent #1 or #2 mission.
Finally, we were all inside for maybe 20 seconds trying to complete our mission when we heard a call from the DI outside “Platoon 3059, get out of the sh-tter”. We looked at each other with that WTF look on our faces as half of the guys hadn’t gotten their mission accomplished. Again, 75 guys ramming and jamming through those double doors to get into formation.
That, my Marine friends will recall, was the start of the first day of 8 weeks of an experience we will never forget.
Kim B. Swanson
9th MAB
RVN ’67-’68
Great memory Kim, my memory is the fact that I couldn’t take a crap, probably,for days!! Other words,totally shitless!!
Oh man, I had a huge pucker for days! Nick
And the grunts that were last out, get to rec an order the shit house! Before Mess hall. LOL!
Try 3 weeks….I went to the west end dispensory and got my little bottle of GI Blues….drank it ….and it hit when the platoon was as far away from our “house” as you could go without leaving PI….double time, high port…huh!!! I made it …. !!!!! Pride goeth after doing ….. OUTSTANDING Recruit !!!!! 3 weeks….made the entire contingent of DI’s armature proctologist’s…?
Of the many photos which I have accrued, I don’t think I have one of a genuine USMC shit house. I guess now I do, Thanks Kim!! Semper Fi!! Top Pro
August ’67, MCRD San Diego. The command to all of us, was simple. “You,……(fill in the blank) have 20 minutes to Shit, Shower, and Shave.”
Being 19 years old with, a very thin chin growth, and not having eaten very much, because of a lack of appetite, made it a bit easier for me to do my personal business, even with all the elbows and assholes crammed into the head. Delightful.
MCRD SD Aug 64, that was it all right. Doing bends and m…f on full bladder was no fun.
Early May, 1957 – your account was accurate even back then. They lined us up shoulder to shoulder and the DI announced that NONE of us any longer had a first name but that EVERYONE would immediately inherit “PRIVATE” as a first name! Then he announced that he was going to come down the line and stop in front of each of us and at that time, we were to “sing out” our “NAME AND HOME TOWN”!
I grew up in a little town in Iowa – Lost Nation – and my last name is “unusual” – so when I “sang out” “Private Butt, Lost Nation”, he slowly looked up at me and said “You GOTTA be Sh*tting me!” It was the very first time I realized my name was “different”!
GOOD TIMES!!!
3093 August 8, 1971. Same here. Gunny Garcia stood 5’6″ maybe. Met him two days later. He looked like a baby gorilla in uniform. Body Hair popping out over his collared shirt. His sleeves. Comes up to me and says, “Hernandez. Yeah i slept with your sister.” I did everything to keep from laughing.
I went through P.I. in 1956. My ancestors came into the Country around 1730 from Germany and my last name is Germanic. For some reason My D. I. thought my heritage was Italian and accordingly called me everything that could possibly insult a good son of Italy. Of course it wasn’t my sister he slept with, it was my mother and her sister! Semper Fi.
LOL!
Wow! As they say UNFREAKING BELIEVEABLE! Your name no problem (butt) when you told the DI your city or town name I can only imagine.
Semper Fi!
Platoon 2023 May 1966. Thanks for the memories, and not all good. It is just as I remembered,
I remember these from Camp Geiger 1966
How about this one “hey pass the shit paper”!
It was 12 weeks for us in 61, LOL, and 4 weeks of 2nd. ITR….
Yes sir wow it still is in the mind now I take all the time I can still remember the pee running down my leg thank God our uniform was a dark green you know wouldn’t change a thing I become a man in boot camp
Oh man, you just brought back some bad memories. I do recall sneaking out at night to hit the shitter in privacy. And to think my grandson is going in in a couple months. Think I’ll leave this aspect of boot camp a surprise for him. Platoon 3027 – June 68
In ‘53 that’s almost exactly what we went through. After being in receiving barracks for one and a half days. Needed to have a least 75 “people” before a DI came to get us. Difference was our arrival at about 6:30 (1830). Which gave those in command of the barracks plenty of time to enjoy putting us through hell. Kinda like they were getting even for their “indoctrination “. “This is my bucket ? “. Well you get the message!!
I remember on the rifle range,I miss the target [Maggie draws].My rifle range instructor tried to push a 7.62 mm round thru the palm of my hand. PI 2057
Arrive at airport at 2AM 31 March ’64. DI’s that picked us up had a field day with one guy in a DA and “fairy boots”. Got our junk, hair cuts, racks and chow by 0630. Didn’t get sleep until that night. Formed Plt 332 the last in the 329 series on 1April (April Fools day). We were called the Chicago Plt since nearly 1/3 of us were from around there. In 11 weeks we took all 5 banners. We were THE show Plt. Ssgt Radmil, Sgts Coen and Teson. Then 4 weeks at Pendelton, November Co. Life was good!
Sept 1956 PLt 2039 Been in the M/C 17 days and on my 1st night of grd duty standing at parade rest between the shower bldg and the Head at O3oo I hear a car stop in back and a car door close and then A
marine with 2 stars on his piss cutter is standing next to me and starts asking ?? and I am still at parade rest it went down hill from there , it was Maj Gen Wharnan himself asking how long I had been in the USMC and I took the time to mentally count the days to be correct and then he asked if I could recite
the Gen. Orders and not to be tripped up I told him the truth that I did not and there was more but he
finally left and when the D.I. Showed up to relieve me and ask about any happenings I forgot to tell him
about the General stopping bye.
Well said! No wonder we were all constipated for a minimum of 2 weeks.
It is funny now but sure not funny when it was happening then. USMC 1972-1974
Ah Yes! Fond memories of the first few days at MCRD San Diego. Probably can’t tell a story that’s already been told so I’ll leave at that………Thanks for the laugh and memories that I can now laugh at but weren’t all that funny while experiencing them. Semper Fi
I was in plt 3059, I didn’t take a sh#@t for 10 days! What a relief!
Squeeze them off!!!
Our DI’s had some compassion, They would call “Lights out, head calls in order.”
That meant we could take our time to get our duty done. The only words spoken were “Give me some
shit paper.”
Never knew why we were called Private, there was nothing private about Boot Camp.
Notice the encrusted urine overflow trail on the deck. It seemed like a week had passed before I was able to utilize the “facility”. In the interim (& many times afterwards for that matter), if you ran your mouth in the head we ALL (2 squads @ a time) were put on our faces on the deck doing pushups while splattered pee & “Baby Ruths” floated past our eyeballs!
Yikes!! Nick 0311