Observations From After Boot Camp

Became friendly with a Chaplain in boot camp as he was available on Sunday to us- and I guess I wanted to talk to someone other than the DI’s to keep my sanity. He asked me after I graduated on Graduation Day if I wanted to talk to unfortunate recruits in P O U and the S T B platoons. He explained what the recruits in P O U did all day- stand in skivvies all day- with a corpsman at a desk and D I ‘s ( who were trying to make or break them)- one recruit I was told by the Chaplain – said he could not take it – while on the second deck- ran to a door and out the hatch- went over a railing and fell one story to the deck below- really hurting himself. Spoke to these recruits and I hope I gave them some confidence to get ahead – and try to go back to a unit. Also, visited the S T B- with the chaplain- overweight and underweight recruits were whipped into shape- carrying buckets of wet sand for motivation- or P T to death to get stamina up – tried to instill a little pride in them too- The Chaplain was Protestant – not my religion either- but he had a way with us Marines and motivated me more than I thought he could- as we have to believe in something during boot camp.