Posted on 07/27/2006 7:13:43 AM PDT by ErnBatavia
What I hated about basic training was the late tee-times...
aw, you guys had ALL the funnnn..........
congrats and thanks for the great stories.
here's a nice link for you...
http://www.clermontyellow.accountsupport.com/flash/UntilThen.swf
I'm anxious to get to the firing line story : )
June 1955 basic training at Parks AFB, Ca. Enlisted in Tucson, spent the night in Phoenix and rode a super connie to San Fran with a stop in LA. The stewardess took a few of us to her apartment on the beach and we stayed there a few hours until the next flight.
"...I wish I could thank then-SFC Johnny Anderson and then-SSG John Covert for all they did."
ROTF!!!!
March 23, 1973, Parris Island,,, sometime around 4AM I was introdced to the yellow foot prints....
OOOoooRRRaaaaHHHHH!!!!
Semper Fi
That was the most wonderful sentiment. On that day I was a sweet little girl (some will say, WHAT HAPPENED?!) who had just had her birthday, too - a bit older than you ; ) though.
I completely echo your thanks and eternal gratitude for making it such a lovely, beautiful, free, and priceless childhood full of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Marines make me cry.
1975: I've been in boot camp for almost two weeks and have started planning my escape through the mudflats to the river...
(I am still convinced that if had I tried, I would have made it too using a foot locker and the tides to get off the island)
I hear the only good mess hall on a big east coast base is the one run by Marines. The rest are contracted out.
BTW, in my picture perfect sugar and spice childhood, I was served SOS many a night. While we thought the name was pretty neat,
I gagged every time LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First, thank you and all the other Veterans on this thread for your service to our country.
Your post really brought back memories for me. It was 1969, and my big brother had enlisted in the Air Force. We acutally have home movies that my late daddy took, of the night before he left....hugs to all in the family...tears and pride, and him hugging his highschool sweetheart like he never wanted to let her go.
Mom made me go to school the next day, I was in the 8th grade. That day was pure torture for me, all I could think of was my brother leaving, and not knowing when I would see him again. After school, there was a basketball game, and although all I wanted to do was go home and cry, I had to go through the motions of a majorette routine at halftime. I probably looked like an idiot, standing there twrilling with tears steaming down my face...:)
Our story had a happy ending, my brother married his childhood sweetheart, and he came home safely after serving 4 years in the Air Force. He now is living a good life, working and spending time with his children and grandchildren.
However, I will never forget that day. I was so proud of my big brother, and still am to this day.
Others didn't make it home, and we should honor them everyday, as well as the brave men and women serving to protect our freedoms now.
The mud/sand crabs would have got ya.. :-)
I was lucky enough to be in the first platoon of the our "series" (three platoons made up a "series"), meaning that my platoon ended up in the "forming" phase for nearly a week (IIRC).
Then, after we graduated in April we were immediately assigned to some barracks in the WM part of the island because we all had to be available to testify at the court martial trials of our three drill instructors. (Our DIs were a little nuts and we had a sissy "alligator" in the platoon.)
So anyways, without being recycled, my platoon (at least, the 37 out of the original 60 of us who stayed with the platoon all the way through) spent a solid fourteen weeks on Parris Island.
Happy Birthday!
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