Sgt Grit,
I was reading the comments about the Women Marines having male Drill Instructors in recent Newsletters and I am here to say "I was One".
After putting thru 14 platoons at MCRD PI in January 1971 to March 1973, I was transferred to OCS Quantico for the summer programs but as luck would have it The Printing Shop at Quantico was civilianized that summer so i had to spend the rest of my tour as an Instructor at OCS and also at the SNCO Academy. I was the NCOIC of Casual Plt for some time. After SNCO Academy and as my last duty before receiving orders back to my MOS, I was sent to the OCS Women Marines Company where I taught drill to the last Company of Women Marines before they were to begin training with the male Marines or so I was told.
I taught ALL basic drill movements and then the 2 Women Marine Platoon Sgts would take over and drill them to perfection. My duries consisted of teaching other subjects such as Rifle Salutes, Customs and Courtesies and awards and metals.
I was to have no further contact with the female candidates unless I was accompanied by another permanent personnel female from the company.
While I was at Parris Island one of the Senior Drill Instructors of one of my first platoons went over to the Women Marine Battalion to teach drill to all the women recruits.
I will say it was very rewarding and an experience to be able to train the opposite sex and to know you taught them the same way the males were trained.
I attended the 24th Annual Drill Instructor Reunion on Parris Island in May and would personally like to "Thank You" for the donations you made to the success of the reunion. It was a wonderful reunion and one of the largest I have attended. While there i did take pictures of Battery Creek where the recruits were drowned in 1956 and thought i would send along a picture or two of the location and what it looks like today. All the Oleanders that used to be alongside the causeway has been removed and now there is a better view of the swamp areas around Parris Island and much easier to see if there are anything out in the area alongside the road besides alligators. HAHA
Semper Fi and keep up the good work you and your Staff are doing.
MGySgt Billy J. Russell Ret'd
1962-1985
Once A Marine, Always a Marine