MCRD ? San Diego

[Crusader]

MCRD San Diego . Maybe some of you fellow Marines will verify this for me . This looks like what we called (Boot Camp---Sep 1965) "The Big Grinder" at MCRD San Diego . If memory serve me right , I use to get homesick as hell gazing through the fence over the airport at San Diego , watching the big planes taking off and landing . I have Mega Scenery Southern California installed . In Sep 65 all we had were quansot huts with the old oil stoves . Damn , this brings back some bad memories. I saw every inch of the "Big Grinder" on my hands and knees , bellie and back .
Right guys ? Other pic is MCB Camp Pendleton and I saw every damn inch of that base too !

Semper Fi ,

Rich:ernae:

[Scratch]

Yes indeed Devil Dog, I remember it well. Those H shaped buildings are the squad bays now. There are still some quonset huts there that are used as classrooms. Looking at those freedom birds certainly did make me homesick at times, but I got slapped back to reality by the squid boots on the other side of the fence diddy bopping around hurling taunts at us. I guess that was the reason for the fence:icon_lol:
Last time I was at MCRD was two Novembers ago to watch my nephew graduate. Funny thing is that as soon as I got on base I felt like I was home even though I couldn't wait to get out of there over 20 years before:ernae:

[Crusader]

Hey Scratch , remember this well . One of the psychotic , sadistic DI's we had was a Sgt(E5) that was around 5'9" and weighed around 145-150#'s . This was his favorite disciplinary move(flat ass torture LOL). He would make us get into the front leaning rest position with our M-14's grasped in our hands stretched across the asphalt for a looooooong time . When we jumped up in the position of attention out knuckles would be bleeding . Oh yes squat thrusts in the sand along side them damn ice plants . I remember it well !

Semper Fi

Rich:icon_lol:

[gera]

you guys sure had fun there.!!!!!!......great fun.

[Mikrco]

Sir, Yes Sir!

Feb '65 alum of MCRD here. I remember the quanset huts well with their grass front yards (Ice Plant) and the long drills on the grinder. Oh!, and don't forget the CMC readiness test done with 60 lb field transport, pack M-14 rifle, and ending with the 3 mile run. I still have my yearbook-gonna have to dig it out now and have a look.

They just don't make marines like they use to - it's a shame.

Semper Fi

[flyinjake]

I didnt go to San Diego but there are days I want to go back to Parris Island....just to visit.

Semper Fi

[BananaBob]

Looks too Hollywood, LOL, J/K, Parris Island here, nothing but swamp and stuck on an island with one way on, 3 months in heck, LOL :ernae:

Semper Fi

[Crusader]

Lets not forget two more from my favorite DI . He would shove our foot lockers in front of our wall lockers(And against them). We would then step up on the foot locker and place our elbows on top of our wall lockers , he then slide the foot lockers away leaving us hanging on top of our wall lockers .:icon_lol: Remember the wash racks(Big long cement rectangular structure with a bunch of fossets on it .He liked to have us place our feet on top of the wash rack and our hands down on the ground in the front leaning rest position . (you ended up being in a 45 degree angle pointing towards the ground)

"Get down and give my 50 , puke(or was it maget?)" I could say something else but this is a family forum .

Semper Fi ,

Rich(Oh yes , it was fun wasn't gentlemen ?)

[Crusader]

Looks too Hollywood, LOL, J/K, Parris Island here, nothing but swamp and stuck on an island with one way on, 3 months in heck, LOL :ernae:

Semper Fi

Hay Bob , ended up stationed at MCAS Beaufort , SC about 6 or 7 miles down the road 68 & 69 . "Shrimp boats and Forrest Gump" but ended up lovin it .It was a good duty station . Great seafood !

[BananaBob]

Hay Bob , ended up stationed at MCAS Beaufort , SC about 6 or 7 miles down the road 68 & 69 . "Shrimp boats and Forrest Gump" but ended up lovin it .It was a good duty station . Great seafood !

Yeah, if you can stand the humidity, LOL, beautiful place otherwise. Lots of our brothers here! Semper Fi! :ernae:

[flyinjake]

I remember digging on the quarter deck and or the sandpits. Lets not forget the sand fleas! I was there during the fall so we would go from hot to cool and back. Beat being there in the summer time though. Hello company, platoon 3317, 1984.

[flewpastu]

Still remember my platoon, 1st Bn, platoon 1001, best day of my life when I graduated Paris Island.

Bill

[flewpastu]

I stand corrected, 1st Bn, Bravo Co. , Platoon 1001, had to look it up.

Bill

[BananaBob]

Platoon 1065 in June 1988, couple days after High School graduation. :ernae:

[Scratch]

Plt. 2133 1984. Hit every thrash pit on MCRD in one day, three times!!!

OOORAAH!!!!!!!!

Got some bad news for you Crusader, they got rid of the thrash pits awhile back. When I went there a few years ago I wanted to see some Privs getting thrashed, but my nephew said the Corps buckled under pressure to 'Mothers of America'. Stupid wenches can't let a Marine have a little fun:angryfir:

[flyinjake]

Got rid of the pits?! Thats not right as they were excellent training devices.

[BananaBob]

They'll have us using tasers soon, locked on stun only. :kilroy:

[Scratch]

Got rid of the pits?! Thats not right as they were excellent training devices.

Sometimes I miss the good ole days that tested your manhood without reservation.
Semper Fi Devil Dogs.

[strikehawk]

Hate to break it to all you Jarheads but when I have to be in San Diego on Navy "business" (retirements,CoC's,DRUNKEX's) or taking my girls and grandson on a vacation I get rooms at the Q. Best hotel in SD, and the price is good, last trip was $60. You Marines know how to run a great inn :salute:

FLY NAVY

[Reddog]

2Bn., George Co., Plt.251 PI 1953.
MCAS Beaufort (state side duty station between oversea tours 1957-1973.) ATC:salute:

[wbuchart]

NAVY NTC Boot camp, or as I called it, Camp "Hollywood" I used to look at the same airport wishing I'g get the heck out of bootcamp. NAVY bootcamp was most inconvenient to my lifestyle.....
:icon_lol:
Our CC (Marines called them DI) said if we ever hopped the fence to go AWOL we'd end up in the MC boot camp and they would be allowed to kick our asses to death! I always did and still do beleive that would be the case. :salute:

[FSX68]

I was as Camp Holly wood back in '63. After we washed our duds (by hand with #9 rock/ actually with a kaiki brush) up with clothes stops.
A clothes stop is a small diameter cord about 12 inches long with metal ends to keep the cord from fraying. This short cord was used to tie laundry to a clothes line or other convenient object for drying. Every recruit was issued a length of clothes stops in boot camp instead of clothes pins. They ceased to be issued in 1973.
Anyway, we were told by our CC to hang our Dungaree trousers with the fly side facing MCRD.

Come to think of it, When I visited MCRD many years later, I never saw a spec of paper on the grounds,.... anywhere.
MCRD was meticulously kept free of any debris. Think it must of been the recruits that kept their base spotless.

[rayhere48]

Oh yes I sure do remember July 1965 and MCRD.

[strikehawk]

NAVY NTC Boot camp, or as I called it, Camp "Hollywood" I used to look at the same airport wishing I'g get the heck out of bootcamp. NAVY bootcamp was most inconvenient to my lifestyle.....
:icon_lol:
Our CC (Marines called them DI) said if we ever hopped the fence to go AWOL we'd end up in the MC boot camp and they would be allowed to kick our asses to death! I always did and still do beleive that would be the case. :salute:

I remember being told that too, one guy could not stop looking at the jets leaving Lindbergh Field, the CC's gave him some binoculars and put on a dumpster in the 'dead cockroach' position for about an hour. The guy never did look at another plane. When I was in SD for a friends retirement at the end of July I took my wife to see where I went to boot camp. Not much left of the RTC/NTC side of the base, the NEX Commissary is now a Von's, Worm Island looks to be more or less intact and the Never Sail is still standing. At least the Marines have some sense of history, I may joke about MCRD's being a great hotel but when I'm there I swear I can feel my uncle's presence. He was a Marine before Pearl Harbor and was a Wake Island and POW camp survivor, so for our family MCRD is 'sacred ground'.

[ColoKent]

The best movie I've seen that really seems to capture a lot of MCRD San Diego is the 1970 movie "Tribes"...(Jan Michael Vincent, Darren McGavin, Earl Hindeman, etc.) Mind you, I'm not a Marine (29.5 years of AF).

Grew up around the Marines however (Camp Pendleton, MCAS (H) Tustin, and El Toro), so I take more than an average interest...

Kent

[Scratch]

I was using a search engine to try to locate an old Marine buddy of mine from Michigan who I went to boot camp with when I saw this old thread. I hope Banana Bob is well.

[fxsttcb]

Semper Fi, Marines.

1st RTBN, Co C, Plt 1037, MCRD San Diego, Calif.

Though I Love the Corps, I hate that place. I lost my best friend to that fence and the temptation of that GD airport.
We were in the 4th week of training and he got a "Dear John"(Fittingly, his name was Johnny). We were quartered in different quonset huts, so, I really didn't know how badly it had affected him. We had started Guard Duty that week, and they posted him on that friggin' fence.
Later, at Duty Muster he was UA.
The next morning they found him in New York, dangling from an airliner's nosegear bay, strapped into it with his 782 belt.
The really remarkable thing is, that Flight originated at LAX, so, obviously he had survived an unknown flight from San Diego to LA.
Tough little sh*t made it that far! Probably on sheer determination. Amazing feat nonetheless.
I'm sure nobody knew, or even had a clue, as to how distraught he was. Tightlipped as could be.

Devastating as that loss was to me, the Corps and the US Congress needed a scapegoat, and took the situation to the limit.
Imagine a 5th week recruit, being grilled by a Bird Col, with 2 Congressional aides taking notes, with a stenographer for the record. I was terrified.
Our JDI had been pretty tough on Johnny for UA smoking the prior week, and the JDI was their easy target.
The JDI had physically roughed Johnny up, and that was, according to my view of the investigation, all they needed.
We were from the mean streets surrounding 8 Mile and Van Dyke, and Johnny was tough. Real Tough.
The punishment he received was diddly squat compared to the kind of stuff ya got from street fights back home.
He had actually laughed about getting knocked around by the JDI afterward.

Needless to say, the poor JDI, doing exactly what every other DI there did(at that time), got the shaft. Big Time.
That is, sincerely, too bad. He didn't deserve to lose his career(2nd enlistment) over it.

Of course, that all occured long before obscenities and corporal punishment were deemed much too extreme for the "Ladies".

Here it is forty some years later, and even though I think about it often, this is the first time I've ever put that down in writing.
I'm the soul survivor of our "Buddy Plan" foursome, so, RIP Johnny, Joey, and Wes...Don

[Scratch]

Man that's a hard story. I've been looking for my friend for years now. With a name like John Murphy it isn't an easy task. He was an officer in the Army and resigned his commission to enlist in the Corps. He was a lot older than the rest of us, but he hung in there with the best. Got to go to infantry training school with him too. While on liberty I taught him how to drink whisky, he didn't do so well in that. Those were some good times.