MCRD Parris Island August 1975. About a week into boot camp my left foot swelled up one night after taking my boots off. DI sent me off to sick bay the following day and I was told that I had cellulitis. Wound up in the hospital for about a week or so till the swelling went down. Transferred out to another platoon. No issues with the transfer other than feeling out of place with the new group. A few weeks went by and my foot started acting up again, and again I back to the hospital for recovery. Spent a few weeks there healing and was again transferred to another platoon. Same as the previous one, no issues with the transfer other than feeling out of place. The pain in my foot returned. It was a really sharp pain and hurt worse every time I took a step. I did close order drill, PT and everything else in boot camp but it hurt like a s.o.b. Pain got so bad that I had to go back to sick bay. Got a young doctor to look over the x-rays of my foot. He came over to me and showed me the x-ray and said “see those lines across the bones of your foot? those are cracks in the bones!” By this time I was in 3rd phase and the doctor put me on light duty – no PT or drill. I continued on with training but no PT or drill. With about a week left before graduation my Senior DI threatened to send me back to day 1 because I could not do the final PT because of my light duty status. I was able to get permission to return to sick bay and convinced the doctor to take me off of light duty status so that I could complete final inspection and the PT test. Doc didn’t want to, but I told him I’ve been on this dam island for almost 4 months and I suffered through a lot of training with a bum foot, I think I can handled one week. He took me off and I was back to regular status. Came time for the final PT and I ran the 3 miles in 21 flat. DI started screaming at that if I hadn’t wimped out with a bum foot I probably would have run faster.
Many times we must endure some pain to gain. Understanding that possibility being sent back to Phase 1 is no joke. The Corps was and always will look out for government property assigned to them(you included). You did Outstanding to earn the Globe, Eagle & Anchor. Simper Fidelis Marine. US Marine Vet 1972-74 MOS 2531 Whittier, CA
I know it’s tough to experience such physical and emotional pulls while undergoing action in a stressful environment, and I also know that sometimes these old Marine Corps saws can be nerve grinding, however, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going,” and you proved your worth and gumption by hanging in there to graduation. That was your Drill Instructors message, you earned that Eagle, Globe and Anchor, Marine.
I find it really hard to comment on being set back and being assigned to another platoon in order to complete boot camp, other than that I knew it happened quite regularly. Luckily, it never happened to me regardless of the number of times I got thumped. I remember one of the serious issues that affected a lot of recruits was picking the scabs on their ears when the sun burn would break the skin open and bleed. They would return from sickbay with ears bandaged completely over. The DI’s would call them Mickey Mouse, and some Minnie Mouse. Semper Fi!!!
I too, experienced a set back. I’ll just give you the highlights. Went to San Diego in Sep, 89. I didn’t know at that time that there’s a right way, and a wrong way to run. Long story short, I developed, (as I still remember the doctor putting it): “The worst case of shin splints he’d ever seen.”…taking 2 different sets of x-rays, and finally a nuclear bone scan at Balboa Navy Hospital to diagnose the problem, (eg: he initially couldn’t tell if they were stress fractures, or shin splints from just the x-rays). Automatically dropped from training. Spent the next 81 days in MRP, (with a nice case of Bronchitis thrown in for good measure). Little side note: when in MRP, you’re there because you’re either really sick, or injured, or both. Consequently, the DI’s in MRP can’t punish you physically when they’re pissed at you, so they punish you mentally. And they are good at their job!!!! 3 different times, they offered to let me go home. Eventually, I took a voluntary 2 week drop in training and repeated 1st phase to go back to training. I also felt strange with a new group of recruits. They never really did accept me. Successfully completed training the 2nd time around. Rifle expert with the M16A2. 1st class PFT, and perfect scores on my prac. ap. exams. Picked up PFC, and our platoon got top marks in final phase drill and inspection. The Marine Corps Times, and the Marine Corps Gazette both did articles on me, and the MCRD base commanding general wanted to meet me at graduation. 2nd company in Marine Corps history where everyone wore Dress Blues. Total time in boot camp: 6 months. Spent the entire holiday season in boot camp. Also, I and 2 other graduates went to visit the platoon of recruits who were being processed to go home, (for any number of reasons), and after we spoke with them, almost every single one of them went back to training and graduated. So the 3 of us got a pat on the back for that one as well.