re: Marines who went through Parris Island in the Vietnam Era- question

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I went through AF basic

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Was the ice cream handed out before or after the massages?

AF basic training

I went through Navy boot camp and I ain't even going to say that our boot camp was even close to marine or army boot camps especially in the 1970's. Our company commanders at our boot camp weren't allowed to touch us but I did have a t-shirt ripped off of me by a CC for failing an inspection.

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Fort Jackson, SC in 1981

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I went through Fort Benning, Georgia in 1981 for Infantry OSUT (11B). I would say that my experience was just a notch or two below what you saw in FMJ. They definitely had my attention.

I was in San Diego MCRD late 60's the DI's were exactly like FMJ. There's a method to their madness as they take a platoon of young, diverse civilians and eliminate the "me" thinking into "we" thinking. At root it's how you survive in combat.

FMJ didn't show the two other junior DI's who do most of the verbal abuse and some physical back then, nothing serious maybe an occasional love tap to get your attention. Had my rifle slammed hard into my chest once when the DI inspecting said it was dirty. It of course wasn't but that's the game, everything is done for a purpose.

The head DI plays good cop when needed, mine was one of the most impressive mental and physical individuals I've ever meet then or since and I remember him to this day. He cared about his recruits and his lessons later on saved my life. Great man.

Out of boot you feel invincible, you're not but you feel that way. I remember boot camp as if it was yesterday, as all former Marines do with great fondness. It's where we became Marines.

S/F brothers.

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I went through AF basic in 1999 and accidentally bumped into a little punk arse Puerto Rican TI and he talked shite and asked if I was gay...


Are the two of you still together?

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Now that shite is funny no matter who you are.

Excellent answer. I was at MCRD in 1967. S/F.

I went through MCRD San Diego in August of '88...it was still very similar to what you saw in FMJ, minus any racial epithets. My senior drill instructor was black and had two other black drill instructors. But the way they talked to us and thrashed us was pretty much the same.

Had one particular recuit that I actually went to HS with that was a complete frick up....non-athletic, ran his jibs when he shouldn't have and generally all of us had to pay at times because of him. Well one day about 10 of us are getting thrashed in the back of the squad bay circled around this guy while he sits Indian style. Drill instructor tells us to begin bends and mother fricking thrusts. We start doing it and he's like "no...turn around and do them....closer boys, closer". We get the idea and all unleashed on that guy kicking the shite out of him til we were told to stop.

After that we learned to police our own. Blanket parties were carried out a couple times after that. 13 weeks of hell while you're going through it, but lots of shite to laugh at afterwards. Understood why sometimes the drill instructors would have go inside their duty hut to keep from laughing in front of us. Great times and remember damn near everything about it some 30+ years later.

Some of my best friends that I talk to almost daily through a large group text are my fellow Heavy Machine Gunners from our time spent together overseas during Desert Storm. Semper Fi Marines!

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Harmony Church

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Sand Hill (or Sand Hilton as we were often told by our counterparts )

There was a Tank Brigade literally 200 yards from our barracks, was cool to get to watch them during evening platoon PT..

Helped distract the mind from brutal lactic acid.

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How accurate is the first 30 minutes of Full Metal Jacket?

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Close to it.

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Specifically the drill Sargent?

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Would frick up your day PTing the shite out of you and everybody else. One dude got caught smoking, DI's put everybody in a big closet. Then lit some Crat heat tabs that put out a gas like tear gas and put that in the closet, closed the door. 60 of us stacked on top of each other.

After about a hour, DI called for smokers on the road. Then call for everybody else to give up their smokes. 120 packs. DI then sent that out to the smokers and made then smoke all packs. And yes, I was a smoker.

Back then, everybody got two packs if you smoked or not.

DI's would call you every name in the book. They suppose to NOT touch you, but they sure did.

USMC, 1975-1979