Duck for dinner

By: Frank Gonzalez

I entered the Corps on February 3, 1970, Parris Island, Platoon 218, A few weeks into training, I was introduced to “duck for dinner.” At first I thought wow wonder how these cooks are going to F _ _k up this meal. No not the case at all, the term means, that because the training schedule was tight, the platoon would “rangewalk” through the chow line and what ever each recruit could grab and eat and drink on the way to the exit was what you had for that meal. Our Drill Instructors would herd everyone through the process. What ever happens you wouldn’t want to be the last recruit to make formation. The Drill Instructor would take a quick head count, call everyone to attention, RIGHT FACE, forward march. At this phase there were 82 recruits, the entire event took under 25 minutes. I tell people about “suck for dinner” many can’t believe stuff like this happened.