Skip to content
FREE STANDARD SHIPPING! Use code SHIPNOW at checkout
FREE STANDARD SHIPPING! Use code SHIPNOW at checkout

What I Did At Summer Camp

Actually, I started boot camp in mid-september, but it was still so hot during the day at Parris Island, South Carolina ,that black flags flew for several days during the first few weeks there. Black Flag Days were designed to eliminate strenuous physical activities due to the high loss of recruits who would be overcome by heat exhaustion. The Drill Instructors side-stepped this handily. Faced with the herculean task of crammimg beaucoup hours worth of training into an 18 hour day, they simply continued the prescribed curriculum indoors or in some “out of the way” locale. Once you realized that these Drill Instructors were pushing you to the limit so that your chances of survival would be greater in actual combat, their methods began to make sense and, in fact, contained profound wisdom as well as a GREAT deal of humor. Each of us has a funny story or two from boot camp. I’ve been told I should share this one with all of you. There are three phases to Marine Corps boot camp. In Phase 1, they try to kill you, or at least it seems that way. You discover to your amazement that there are a myriad of rules and procedures that MUST be followed at all times. The hard part is that the rules are made known to the platoon one at a time as each is broken by an unsuspecting recruit. (Ask a former Marine what happened the first time someone called his rifle a “gun”.) Thusly, one learns how things are accomplished “The Marine Corps Way”. No recruit may speak to ANYONE without permission. No personal pronouns may be used when speaking, e.g. ” I “, “me”, “my”, “you”, etc. No one may laugh or even smile. (When we were photographed in our half-set of dress blues [the kind they bury you in, we were told] “If you so much as grin, I will break your skull!) Phase 1 lasted the longest of the three, or perhaps it just seemed to. Phase 2 consisted of two weeks at the rifle range followed by one week of “Mess and Maintenance”. Week one was “grass week” where each recruit learned the proper positions for firing an M-14. The essence of these seven days became individual studies on how long the human arm could function without circulation and still survive. Week two was live-fire week ending with qualification day. I fired Sharpshooter on “Qual Day” because I liked the medal. (No Bull) It was a Maltese or Surfer’s Cross with a Marine Corps emblem in its center and was, by far, the best looking medal of the three. Week three found us working in the chow hall somewhere scrubbing pots or peeling spuds. Three other recruits and I were sent to the Close Combat Course where we cleaned, painted, raked gravel, and one afternoon hand-rubbed linseed oil into the stocks of brand-new deactivated M-1 Garand rifles. (They were to be used during swimming qualification as “necklaces”.) The “SWISH” of the tomahawk startled us all but especially the recruit whose head it barely missed as it embedded itself in a nearby oak. “DAMN! I MISSED!” came the retort from the Close Combat Instructor. The recruit nearly fainted. Phase 3 was testing and “war games” in the field. Recruits were allowed to blouse their trousers and retain some hair on the very top of their heads (a “high and tight”). We began to feel “salty” and entertained the thoughts that we might actually make it to graduation. Some of us were wrong but that isn’t why I’m telling you all this. In the field at Parris Island you were taught many things, One of the most memorable experiences was the Day Infiltration Course. You had to crawl under barbed and concertina wire from point A to point B. As combat Marine recruits, we were burdened with 782 gear, pack, rifle, bayonet, and helmet. While you attempted to negotiate this course, an M-60 fired over your head, blocks of C-4 were detonated in sand bagged craters nearby, and Drill Instructors threw sulfur grenades at you to make you “HURRY UP!” All in all, it was a great way to spend an afternoon. When it was Indian Company’s turn, all four platoons in the series were seated in formation and prepared for instruction on the situation facing us. The instructor for the course, a gunnery sargeant with a thick New Jersey accent, took the platform and briefed us on this obstacle and what we were about to learn from it. “Dee traynin’ tuhday is about a classic Muhreen Cohr tactic…a fruntal assauhlt in dee face uv hostyle enumee fiyah”, he began. He went on to explain,among other things, that staying low to the ground was the key to survival. You did this by low crawling toward the enemy while consciously digging a furrow with your helmet. The reason for this was that the enemy fire would glance off the left or right of one’s helmet and although possibly injuring an arm or leg, one could continue the assault. “Ahr dayer any questions?” he asked at the conclusion of his lecture. One recruit raised his hand. “SPEAK!”, commanded the Instructor. “Sir, the private understands the frontal assault and how enemy bullets can glance off of the side of the private’s helmet, but what happens if a bullet strikes the private’s helmet in the center?” The instructor momentarily looked perplexed. It was obvious that NO ONE had ever asked this question before. In the time it took for the gunnery sargeant to spread his feet apart and place his hands on his hips, he had his thoughtful reply. “For our poipuhsez heah tuday, we will not be interested in doz bullets wit yohr name written upon dem. We ahr interested only in doz bullets dat ahr mahkt “to whom it may cunsoyn!”
Previous article Lineage of the USMC Eagle, Globe and Anchor

Comments

Daniel Miller - April 23, 2020

Daniel Miller, Plt.3105 SD 9-74 to 12-74; ITS 12-30 to (Last day I don’t remember); India Co. 3/4 3-75 to 4-76; Golf Co. 2/5 5-76 to 9-76; Honorable Discharge 4-80. Thanks for the entertaining story for it brought back many fond (and a few not fond) memories. When we went to the rifle range, Edson range at Camp Pendleton, all I wanted to do was qualify so I didn’t get sent back to another Plt. so I qual’d Marksman (Toilet seat or pizza box). When I arrived at The Rock in ’75, all us “Newbees’” had to re-qual. I was able to settle down and do some shootin’ and qual’d high expert. I got out of the Corps in ’76 and, after screwin’ around for 10 years, I pursued my life’s ambition and became a Law Enforcement Officer where I have qual’d high expert EVERYTIME I’ve had to shoot (Thanks to the United States Marine Corps). Now with retirement looming ahead in less than a year, I can STILL qual expert at 62.5. Semper Fi to all and to all a good night. Be safe, keep your powder dry, and watch your six!

Ed Fryzel - April 23, 2020

Parris Island is just outside Beaufort, South Carolina. As I arrived there, a jeep with a drill instructor was headed in the opposite direction obviously looking for someone. As I was being put into boot camp I saw the jeep coming back with the recruit and the DI who had caught his man. I wondered, “what have I gotten myself into?”.

BRENDAN MCCARRON 1st MAW VIETNAM. DANANG 1966—1968. TET VET. - April 23, 2020

EVERY MARINE KNOWS WHERE PARIS ISLAND IS. WHY INCLUDE NORTH CAROLINA?? SOMETHING SMELLS IN YOUR LETTER. CLARIFY OR SHUT UP. GIVE ME SOMETHING I CAN VERIFY AT THAT TIME??. AGAIN IF I AM WRONG SORRY. SUCK IT UP MARINE OR WANT A BE. HAPPY NEW YEAR LEATHER NECKS, BULLDOGS, SHITBIRDS, ETC ETC.

Ed Fryzel - April 23, 2020

Brendan, I became an english major at the University of Georgia on the GI bill. Yeah,we probably pounded the same ground. Didn’t mean to offend, just wanted to tell a true story for a good laugh. Be well, sir. Ed

BRENDAN MCCARRON 1st MAW DANANG 1966—-1968 TET VET. - April 23, 2020

WHOEVER YOU ARE YOU SURE WAS NOT IN MY USMC. YOU WROTE LIKE A PHD. REAL MARINES DON’T TALK OR WRITE LIKE THAT. WERE YOU IN THE FAT PLATOON?? WE ALL DID AND SOME OF WHAT YOU WROTE. YOUR’S STINKS FOR SOME REASON. MARINES LIKE YOU MUST HAVE COME FROM YALE. WERE YOU REALLY IN NAM OR JUST “A WANT A BE’ ??? IF IT SMELLS LIKE SHIT THEN IT MUST BE SHIT. SORRY IF I AM WRONG PAL. JUST DOES NOT SOUND OR TALKS LIKE ANY MARINE I KNOW OR KNEW.

Harry - April 23, 2020

Wow ! Thanx Ed.You just told me what I needed to know. Harry

Ed Fryzel - April 23, 2020

Hi, Harry! I got TAD’d out of Iwakuni and ended up in Danang and eventually on Monkey Mountain. Paperwork said I was with 3rd division. I was 20 and pretty much scared to death. Oh well, I guess we all were. I got to see the Rock Pile and went all the way down to Hoi An. I thought the South Vietnamese Marines were Bad Ass fighters…Oh, that was the end of 1974 and the beginning of 1975.

Sgt James D White 72 -76 - April 23, 2020

Went thru PI July – Oct 72 when we went thru the gas chamber the recruit across from me didn’t get his gas mask sealed. I remember seeing snot and tears running out the sides while it looked like he was running in place but they would not let him out until we all went out. I’ll bet from that time on he made sure it was sealed I know I thought about it every time I put mine on. When we went thru the infiltration course something happened to the recruit in front of me so I had to go around him. When I did my helmet got hung up in the barb wire I like to never got it unhooked if anybody saw me they are probably still laughing today the way I was squirming and twisting around to get it unhooked

Harry - April 23, 2020

Hey Ed where did you go? You have provided a lot of interesting info don’t quit now. Just want to know what your unit was in Vietnam and what year you were there Thanx! Harry

Harry - April 23, 2020

Hi Ed, What unit were you with in Nam? When were you there? Harry

Leave a comment

* Required fields