Yup- MCRD San Diego- where i spent 19 weeks of fun in the sun in the early 60's- three weeks of that up at Pendleton on the Matthews rifle range- short week-end base liberty after we graduated, went from 83 TURDS- Trainees Undergoing Recruit Discipline- to 51 at graduation.
If you saw the Stanley Kubrick movie "Full Metal Jacket" that was what it was like, except that was filmed at Parris (not Paris) Island of the coast of the Carolinas. R. Lee Ermey, the DI and Gunny Sgt. (E-7) who ended up dead in the head (lavatory to non USMC and Naval personnel) at the hands of Pvt. Gomer Pyle and a M-14.
The training and mind bending was exact, even the mention of USMC (section 8 discharged) Charles Whitman and his devastating accuracy from the Texas Tower tragedy- all Marines are riflemen and 0311 MOS initially, even if they end up in the Press Corps op.s as did the movie character "Rafterman"--
R. Lee Ermey, the Gunny of History Channel's "Mail Call" and "Lock and Load" was actually a DI, 1964-65 and a S/Sgt. (E-6) but billeted at MCRD San Diego.
I can close my eyes and still see the Platoon Commander Gy/Sgt. Dunn and the two DI's- also my PMI on the rifle range that let me wear an eye patch over my left eye on pre-qual and qual days- 243/250 with the M-1. Fair, but not like Gunny Carlos Hathcock, our legendary "White Feather" who dinged in a 248/250 at PI in 1958 and went on in the USMC Match Rifle team to set a record yet to be equalled at Camp Perry 1000 yard range.
We flew out to Lindbergh Field at San Diego, boarded the battleship grey WW11 buses and were driven to MCRD- with the famed yellow foorprints painted onto the grinder-At night, when the DI's were drilling us, the roar of the jets from Lindbergh Field often drown out their cadence calls.
FYI- the actor who played the ill-fated part of Pvt. Pyle in the Kubrick movie now stars as Det. Bobby Goren on Law and Order- Criminal Intent.
Hollywood Marines and PI Marines
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