[Grimmy]

Early 80s, 29 Palms, USMC 2nd Bn 7th Marines (2/7) infantry, maneuver war training.

Sleeping in the dirt. Had a gila monster run right into my face one night.

Wasn’t unusual for a Marine to wake up with a rattlesnake sharing body warmth from the cold nights.

Digging a fighting hole and watching scorpions pour out of the their little tunnels in the side walls.

Yep. An adventure.

[major_gaff]

I was thinking the same thing...did a CAX rotation at 29 Stumps
in the mid 80's...only place worse was MCAS Yuma.
Semper Fi, Brother.

[SamAdams76]

Also early 80s Marine Corp. Third Marine Air Group. MASS-3. Camp Pendleton. I also spent about a year and a half on 29 Palms, broken up by exercises in El Centro and Yuma, among a few other hot places. Got so hot that some of us decided it would be better to sleep outside under the stars in the desert. So we did.

I was involved in communications so I strung a lot of telephone wire. We'd unroll miles of wire off of spools to hook up to a utility pole on a main road.

As for MREs, I will always remember the chicken loaf MRE. I seemed to get that one most of the time.