Marine Corps Bootcamp is not the ideal situation for establishing friendships. Acquaintances yes, friendships not so much. Ed and I were assigned to the same platoon in Boot Camp, Consequently we were housed in the same Quonset Hut barracks. That means we knew each other but there was minimal opportunity for fraternization. Arriving in Camp late September meant a December 15, graduation after twelve weeks of training. The Marines, in their wisdom, sent us home on a two week leave whether we wanted or not. The next stop after Boot Camp, for all Marines, is a four week assignment to Infantry Training Regiment (ITR). (All Marines are combat eligible, so chaplains, corpsmen {medical aides}, doctors, etc., are Navy personnel.) Likely they didn't run ITR over the holidays.
This was in 1959 before plane travel became ubiquitous so Ed and I found ourselves on the same bus headed to Omaha from San Diego. That was a 48 hour ride giving us significant time to converse. It didn't take long for two farm boys, one from Iowa and the other from South Dakota, to connect.
Again the Corps came through for us assigning us to the same Company and the same office after ITR. Consequently, my entire enlistment was spent with Ed. This long term friendship is a gift of the USMC. Then the church came through with a call for me in Davenport, IA, about 20 miles from Ed's farm. This allowed Ed's wife, MaryJane, the famous MJV, and Joanne to become fast friends.
This week I'll travel to IA, for what I call my 'annual sponge off my Iowa friends trip' which I've been doing since 2007, to see Ed and MJV. New memories will be made, USMC memories recalled as well as memories from 65 years of friendship. Fifty years after we finished Boot Camp MJV urged a visit to San Diego and Marine Corps Recruit Depot. The four of us had a delightful trip.
Thank you, USMC, for these gifts of friendship.
Takk for alt,
Al
Ed and I in a hotel room in Tokyo, 1961. We were in Japan for cold weather training and had a weekend off,
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