Sixty-six years ago, Ed and I were into two weeks of Marine Corps Boot Camp, San Diego, CA. We were wondering what we'd gotten into. Two weeks down and ten more to go of Boot Camp, and then what? Both of us were housed in the same quonset hut barracks. (They have now been replaced by two story, concrete buildings.) Some memories remain even after all this time.
Before our enlistment there had been fatalities in a night march at the Boot Camp in Paris Island, S.C. Following that incident the rules were changed so that Marine recruits could not be disturbed by drill instructors between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. Reveille was at 6:00 am via a recorded bugle call.
That doesn't mean that we slept until 6:00. Awakening in the dark we dressed without lights, made our bunks to specs and fell out for roll call, fully dressed, promptly at 6:00. Our first morning we made the mistake of staying in bed until reveille. A drill instructor burst into the hut and found a recruit still lying on his top bunk. He grabbed the recruit's mattress and threw the mattress and recruit to the floor. We quickly learned not to dawdle.
Ah, yes, that was the life!
Takk for alt,
Al
One of the things we learned was how to leave the ship the hard way!
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