Marine veteran remembers a senior drill instructor who was awarded the Navy Cross with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (the “Walking Dead”) in Vietnam and later killed at Con Thien, RVN, in September 1967.
(SOMERDALE, N.J.) - It’s been 48 years since we got off the Greyhound bus at Parris Island. The bus ride from Yemassee, South Carolina to Parris Island went quickly.
Thirteen of us had boarded the train in Philadelphia, after taking the Oath of Enlistment at the Marine Barracks, Philadelphia Navy Yard. We changed trains in Washington. The overnight train from Washington came to an abrupt stop at Yemassee at 0530 on January 26, 1962.
We didn’t have to wait for instructions. Two Marines with no nonsense attitudes boarded the train and in tones that only Marines can mimic, quickly got all 20 of us off the train.
It had snowed in the North and we were wearing winter coats. We had left the North and winter and gone into another world with palm trees and summer warmth. No need for suntan lotion. While waiting for the bus, we sat at rigid attention on bare bed springs in the wooden Receiving Barracks, interrupted by policing (cleaning) the main street of the town. Once on the bus, those of us who smoked tossed our cigarettes out of the windows, after one Marine NCO let it be known you couldn’t “light up” whenever you felt like it. We were becoming quick learners.
Marine Corps boot camp covers a 13 week training cycle. Recruits west of the Mississippi go to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego; while those east of the Mississippi go to Parris Island. The standing joke in the Corps was that “Hollywood” Marines have it easier than those going through Parris Island. Don’t believe it.
Not everyone makes it through Marine Corps boot camp. Enlistment was not a free ticket into the Marines. You had to earn it. We had a number of recruits who couldn’t keep up with the training because of sprained ankles or broken bones. Once healed, they were assigned to another platoon to complete training. I don’t know the “drop-out rate” but you can bet, no one made any calls to their mothers asking to go home.
Marine Drill Instructor RememberedSalem-News.com