Best Friends 1) Enlisted in the 120-day Delay Program with a HS friend, Jim Hamilton, on 12 April 1964. Jim appears in the Platoon photo you can find in my gallery. Jim is in the front row, standing, #7 from the right. I'm in the top row, #7 from the right. Timed the signing to ensure we would be home for Christmas. Jim was assigned to 3rdMarDiv out of boot camp. I was ordered to Camp Lejeune. Met up with Jim in 'Nam when I was going in, and he was a few days from rotating to CONUS. Haven't seen or heard from him since...
Best Moment 1) Rifle Range. Shot '205' on the 'A' Crs, Marksman/M-14, 25Sep64. Other than shooting rats on one occasion at the city dump with a .22 rifle, I'd never shot a rifle prior to this. Woe be it to those who did not qualify on the range. They really were made an example of. And to add to the problem...I was a left handed shooter. 2) Graduation! 3) Was to be assigned to Mess Duty for the standard 2-week cycle (or was it a one week cycle?), but due to an illness in our Platoon we didn't have to. Myself and another guy were assigned to Base Maintenance, mowing and so forth. On occasion the civilian crew leader would bring us poggie bait...a whole cake one day and we choked it down during the course of the day. 4) The Classification Tests. I remember being given a paper to fill out on which you could indicate your first three choices for MOS. I didn't have a guarantee, just go in and take whatever you got! If I had that to do over again.... Anyway, I remember putting down, 1) Infantry, 2) Tanks and 3) Artillary. Jeeze was I dense. There were only rumors of war at that time, we weren't yet into the mix although there was some talk from the DI's they might cut our training short. They didn't. At this same time I took a typing test...they must have asked if any of us knew how to type. I obviously wanted to be honest so told them I could. Not necessarily trusting me, they gave me a typing test which I sort of remember taking. Must have passed it, because when the DI got us together just prior to being sent to ITR, he read off the MOS and duty station of each recruit. Caldwell, Camp Lejeune, 01. Looking back on it...I truly was blessed.
Worst Moment 1) Polishing the brass at San Onofre Rifle Range. It was new and we were the 1st or 2nd group to go through. 2) While at the range a HS friend (also USMC) tried to make contact, called the DI's and told them he was my brother. They made contact with me and I wasn't too sharp I guess because I told the DI I didn't have a brother. I caught some serious hell over that. 3) Several platoons went to the Theater one Sunday for services. When we got back the DI's had intel that a couple of our brethren had managed to get some candy out of the machines in the lobby. They had stuffed the candy bars up their pant leg. The candy was found and we suffered as a group over that. 4) Watering those damn ice plants! You certainly can't drown them, I tried. 5) Swim Training. I was UNQ at this. Very UNQ. Had to go to the Base Pool periodically for swim training, but I never did learn how, still don't know how to swim. Never went swimming prior to Recruit Training so it was a brand new experience. Fortunately, at this time anyway, failing swimming didn't get you recycled...or I'd still be there!
Instructors 1) Here are my DI's: GySgt R.L. Tucker, Series Gunny SSgt G.E. Johnson, Plt Cmdr SSgt J.E. Scaggs, JDI Sgt R.E. Cundiff, JDI Sgt D.J. Anderson, JDI Appreciate hearing from anyone who had one or more of these DI's when you went through and what happened to them if you know.
Other Memories 1) Living in the Quonset huts. 2) Platoon Street! Setting on our buckets, shining shoes/boots, writing letters, doing whatever. This was our gathering point...'All On Platoon Street!', created a scramble to line up at attention waiting on a change to our world. Or doing pushups if we hosed up something...which we did on a regular basis. 3) Training commenced 13Aug64 and we graduated on 29Oct64. I was with a small herd that arrived late on the 12th from Chicago, but once we hit the sack recruit training started the next morning, there was no lag time between arrival and commencement of training which was a good thing I was soon to discover. 4) First cattle car ride. 5) One of my recruiters was Sgt Carl V. Marsh - RSS Lafayette, IN. 6) Ordered to Active Duty from USMC-RS Indianapolis, IN., as directed by Capt. Larry T. Ingels, Ass't OIC., effective 12Aug64. 7) Didn't realize saying 'You' was a reference to 'ewe', a female sheep per the DI's. I was constantly getting 'cuffed' until I figured it out. I was a slow learner and a little hard of hearing today as a result :-) 8) Being called, 'sweet pea' by the DI's. Wasn't everyone? 9) SgtMaj Leonard F. Horan, was the SgtMaj at USMC-RS Indianapolis when I enlisted.