I arrived at Lindbergh Field San Diego on Sunday 27 December 1972. No one was there to meet or greet me so I found a SD policeman and asked him how to get to MCRD. He told me to wait out front of the terminal and he made a call to MCRD. I waited for about an hour and had several of the long haired types drive by and try to get me to “get the h_ll out of there” before it was too late. After waiting and wondering for the hour or so, a green Dodge van pulled up and the driver was the finest looking female (WM Sgt) I had ever seen and would ever see in my career. She told me in a very nice manner to get in the van and I did. While driving over to the base we talked about all types of things I would soon experience. She let me “burn a couple” (Marlboro) , but as we approached the gate to MCRD she told me how to field strip the butts and get rid of them. She dropped me off at Receiving Barracks and I saw my first YELLOW foot prints. I was directed to by the Sgt. to go inside and wait and someone would be with me in a little while. I proceeded to lean against a wall, and soon had a short and very angry SSGT jump up in my chest and proceeded to tell me to get the (deleted) off his bulkhead!!! Well I wasn’t too dumb and I figured real fast what a bulkhead was and stood at what I thought was attention. And I learned I wasn’t doing that correctly either. To cut to the chase now, I and a whole bunch of young men that had arrived on Saturday (I was the ONLY arrival on Sunday) were moved to a barracks and assigned a bed that I soon learned was a rack. We didn’t pick up or get picked up by our Drill Instructors until 2 January 1973 so we did a lot of swabbing and cleaning of the barracks. We were issued our sea bags and clothing, told to box up our personal clothes, got a haircut, etc., during that time. If memory serves me correctly, Our DI’s, Sgt. Schweigler, Sgt. Van Bibber, and Sgt. Jamieson picked us up very early on the 2nd and all h_ll broke loose. I don’t have any horror stories to tell about our 12 weeks in their care, but I was jacked up a few times for failing to do EXACTLY as told. All my DI’s were VN vets and they taught us well. They said they didn’t know if we would go to VN but they were going to teach us to survive if we did. I didn’t go to VN as I was a reservist (about half of our platoon was I think) but they made me a better person anyway. I do know that Sgt. Jamieson was a “short” American Indian and I had never seen any one his height jump straight up in my face and give me “love-tap” like he could. When we went up the road to Edson Range we were issued M-14’s and I learned to love that weapon. In fact I have the M1A now cause I loved it so much. I shot expert every pre-qual string but on qual day I blew it and got a toilet seat. I still insist that it does snow in Southern California cause I froze my young butt off that day. Shivvering doesn’t help in qualification with a rifle!! Anyway, I could go on for a while and I suppose I will close this out by asking anyone out there that was in Platoon 3156 to holler back. Oh yeah, Plt. 3156 took final drill comp and we were herded over to the mess hall and told by our senior DI to “drink the soda machines dry!!!”, and we did………then paid for it by doing bends and thrusts until the DI’s got tired.
Good story, James Renfro! But I’m curious about why you were issues M-14’s for the rifle range, and about the soda machine in the mess hall. Were you billeted in the new barracks, or quanset huts? Not doubting your validity, just curious. Semper Fi!!!
Prompted by this story to remember Plt. 1041, MCRD, SD, Sept.thru Dec. 1956. 65 years and still vivid..
I arrived on 27 December 1970 – 2nd Battalion.
We were issued M-14’s also in 1969. Platoon 3206, San Diego. That was & is a superb rifle. Qualified sharpshooter & went on to be an 0331 humping an M-60 in Nam. The M-60 fired the same round as the M-14 & with authority. I liked the M-14 so much I went out & bought a 30-06 Remington 742 & I’ve been hunting deer with great success using it since 1974.
Cpl. John P. Sitek
Lima 3/7 & Kilo 3/5
Ross/Baldy – 70/71
Qualified with M-14 in March 1972 at PISC; issued M-16 upon arrival in RVN.
Hey….Weeee were Reservist … not “Front Line Troops”….Now here is the straight poop…Weee, that is the entire Reserve Component of the Armed Services, were committed to “save” Europe from the Soviet Hoard. M-14’s @7.62/51 were NATO’s favorite caliber… I had just gotten out as this Marine was going in (’64-’70, E/5)…and I did nearly the same thing with qualifications as he did. I shot expert the day before qualifications and Sharpshooter on qualification day….a couple of months later in summer camp I got back to shooting expert at Camp Del Mar…Amtracs you know…and my first interaction with a WM was a very fetching, very fit, fairly loud, and always Proud, blond corporal…I mean she was goood looking and I was gooooood at looking….Reckless Eyeballing et/al….hmmmmmm……!!!! I’m 6’2″ and she was lucky if she hit 5’2″….always wondered what happened to her….I can hear it now….”What did you do in the War, Grandma……????” Semper Fi….
I qualified with an M-14 and 1911 .45 in 1976, just before I was discharged.
James Christensen
SSGT retired
Anyone out there from MCRD platoon 258? August 1958, the senior DI was SSgt. Perch and the assistant DI was Sgt. Erzen. The series recruit was PFC. Custer also of platoon 258.
I always thought they were called bends and motherf**kers. I was there in February 1971. I was lucky enough to qualify a toilet seater also. My platoon at MCRD was 2027.
Sgt Bach….You may have “bends and motherf**kers” confused with “ham and motherf**kers that came in C-Rats as “ham and limas”. Bob 1381, Vietnam 66/67.
I qualified with the M1 at Camp Matthews in 1960. I shot 219. Platoon 363. I just bought a brand new M14. It is now called the M1A. Exact same rifle that we switched to in 1963. Its in .308 caliber which is the same as 7.62 millimeter which I did not know. I haven’t put a round through it yet but I will in the near future
I have read over this several time and the only thing that I don’t really understand is why they waited until your platoon went to the rifle range to issue the M-14. I went through MCRDPI January-March 1966, Platoon 215, and we were issued the M-14 within a couple days of forming. By the time we went to the rifle range we had learned the manual of arms, drilled with it, disassembled, cleaned and reassembled it almost if not daily. Also just curious…..Bob 1381..Vietnam 1966/1967.
I arrived at MCRD San Diego in January 1972, Platoon 1015. We qualified with the M-14 also. And I also missed Expert by one round, Maggies’ Drawers”. I swear to this day I fired the wrong target (and my Drill Instructor agreed) because the target next to mine had one more round than needed.
Our bus arrived at MCRD SD 12/04/1972 at approximately 1930. Needless to say the receiving DI’s were not happy about dealing with about 30 of us pukes at that time of night. It pretty much went down hill from there. We slept in quonset huts for about 2-3 weeks before we moved to the “hotels” and did various assignments including some mess duty before we started training as Platoon 3149, on 1/2/73. We were generally f’ed with all the time and I am confident what we endured was not as bad as those before but certainly would involve court martial for those that entered after/now. We qualified with the M14 as well. Our Senior DI was relieved of duty and arrested for utilizing the laundry bag over the head moto beatings dished out at the rifle range. That event only intensified the use of pt as motivational punishment throughout the remainder of our time at boot camp. Side straddle hops, Up n Arm Shoulders with rifle, Bends and MFers, mountain climbers, 4 count push ups and Monkey F@&!ers. They certainly had creative names for calisthenics.
Semper Fi