I went to San Diego MCRD for boot camp, and one day the Drill Instructor yelled smoke break, but for the non-smokers We had to continue doing what We were told to do. So one day I requested to speak to the Senior Drill Instructor and inquiring why if you smoke you get a break, but if you don’t you have to work , (of course I didn’t use I or You, that would be hell to pay) but the Senior Drill Instructor stated from this time forward, during smoke breaks all Marines would get a 10 minute break. Also We were wearing Satines Uniforms the ugly ass forest green ones, and after boot camp the Marine Corps upgraded to camouflage Uniforms, for which I had to pay for. A lot has changed in the Marine Corps, but once a Marine always a Marine! Semper Fidelis OooRah!
Hey Ric – I’m really surprised you lived to tell the tale. Just curious, what does this story have to do with the title “Military Police?” Semper Fi, Top Pro!!!
Not sure what kind of drill instructor you had ,but if anyone in our platoon ever questioned why the drill instructor did something, they would be paying for it for a long time! No one questions the DI!
I was not a Marine … but I can share a similar tale.
When I was in Navy boot camp at Great Lakes IL in the summer of ‘83, our Company Commander (the Navy’s version of a Drill Instructor) would give us “Smoke and Coke” breaks in the barracks break room. If you didn’t have a cigarette in one hand and a can of soda in the other then you didn’t get a break.
By the time our boot camp company graduated, some 90% of the company were nicotine/caffeine addicts. I too was smoking a pack of Marlboros each day!
I pretty much quit cold turkey about a year later when I started coughing too much …
I remember after the rifle range one of the DI’s gave out Rum Soaked Crook cigars to anyone who wanted one. We had to stand in formation on Platoon Street and smoke them by the numbers. (Inhale, exhale, ash them) of course ash them meant in your hand.
I also remember there was a four pack that came in our C-rations when we were in Vietnam.
I have heard the military has now gone smoke free. Is that tire?
You definitely qualify for “balls of the Corps” award. In 1969 no one would of considered requesting to speak to the DI for that. That gives me chills 51 years later. But glad to see you survived to tell your tale.
Semper Fi
I would not speak today if I saw one of my D Is MCRD 69
At Paris Island, we didn’t get smoke breaks or any kind of break and questioning a DI would have been very painful
What year were in Boot Camp. No one
spoke with a Drill Instructor in the
manor in my error. Also, our platoon
had a Platoon Commander and 2
Drill Instructors not Senior Drill Instructor. April- May 1967.
I was Military Police in the 70’s and we loved the Satines
Way better looking then the camouflage
Why would a MP be complaining about boot camp 45 years later?
Lucky you survive complaining to the SDI
SF
Satines were the sharp pressed and starched spitschined and fresh starched cover oorah it sucked when they took them away from us .
I went through PI (platoon 2063) in 1981 and no one requested to speak to the DI unless it was to make a Head Call or they had a major, personal issue. Can’t imagine it has changed much now, if at all. However, I can’t believe that back in the 60’s or 70’s anyone had the raisins to ask a DI why they were doing anything and if they did, were they still left standing? I don’t know.
So all Marines would get a break? Since you were not a Marine at the time, but a lowly recruit wannabee, guess you and the rest of the recruits didn’t get a 10 minute break. I remember the 4 pack in the C-rats. Used to trade my gum for the cigarettes to the non smokers. After a week in the field I had enough cigarettes to last me the weekend until we went to the field again. And when I was in the Gulf, tobacco was hard to come by so a lot of us wrote home and our relatives sent us cigarettes. Where there’s a will there’s a way. But yes, coughing got to much for me so I finally quite for good in 1995.