Thanks for putting this together, Snow Bunny. I am truly humbled by your efforts. Now I wish I had taken more pictures when I was running around with the USMC!
Scuttlebutt, some of those items are ringingly true! Especially the one about using lost shot records as a means of gaining "cooperation" (never actually had to follow through, though!), and also "you pull out a 16-gauge needle, and some Marine passes out". Not to turn this thread into an exchange of old sea-stories (yeah, right!), but this actually happened to me when I was assisting in the lab at the NRMC on Camp Pendleton, just months after I got there fresh out of Corps School at GLAKES.
The hospital was low on blood, and a couple squads of Marines "volunteered" to donate (I'm sure the prospect of a good meal at the hospital cafeteria had nothing to do with it!). Everything was going well, and one of the last men I stuck was a Marine who was a weightlifter -- he must have weighed 250 lbs., all muscle, about 6'3". One tough-looking SOB. Well, that was until I hit the vein. When the blood started up the tube, his eyes rolled back into his head until all you could see was the whites, and over he went, taking all four chairs (connected underneath by a rail) over with him like a seesaw gone out of control. I barely had time to throw myself under him to cushion his fall, and his head caught me square in the solar plexus. Everyone else jumped to their feet to assist, but it must have taken me a couple of minutes to get my breath back!
Well, thanks again for the memories. I hope this is a fun thread for y'all. If anyone else out there has any good yarns, let's hear 'em!
