[GunnyGene]

Looking thru some old stuff and ran across my old boot camp album. Thought I'd share some old memories with the other fossils here ..
MCRD San Diego, 1963, Plt 220

Stack Arms:

Camp Matthews Range - Earned my first Expert badge :

 

[carver]

Boot Camp, what a boot, huh?

 

[Airborneguy]

I wish they allowed us to take some pictures in basic training. We were able to purchase some generic video at the end, but there's not a single second of me in it.

 

[millrat]

If we had ever had something in a breast pocket.....I hate to think!

Son took me on a tour of the place last time I was down there and he needed to pick up some stuff. Wouldn't recognize it now....

 

[WHSmithIV]

Gunny - the black and white picture - why would one of the recruits have a lighter color uniform?

 

[GunnyGene]

Gunny - the black and white picture - why would one of the recruits have a lighter color uniform?

There were still a few of the old herringbone uniforms that were issue up till 1960 or so and were being handed out at the time (early '63) to clear them out of inventory. Typically they would be a slightly lighter color. Also notice the visible buttons. I had a set myself. They were highly coveted.

Same goes for the Garands. M-14's were already in service, but there were a lot of M1's still in inventory that served well for training purposes. Same with a lot of other old stuff, left over from Korea or WWII like BAR's, .30cal water cooled mg's, rifle grenades, flame throwers, etc. The new stuff went to the fleet. We were still being issued late '40s C rats in Nam in '65. The Corps uses stuff till rots.

 

[GunnyGene]

If we had ever had something in a breast pocket.....I hate to think!

Son took me on a tour of the place last time I was down there and he needed to pick up some stuff. Wouldn't recognize it now....

Smoking was popular back then, and sometimes the recruit Squad Leader was permitted to carry one pack for his squad for when the lamp was lite. Usually it would be accompanied by the command; "Smoking lamp is lite for 1 cigarette; Pass it around." A single pack might last the squad 2 weeks or more.

 

[millrat]

Just noticed except for the PC and probably DI's, everyone in the route step has unbloused trousers as well.

Funny the stuff that jumps out of the memory.

 

[MSGT-R]

Camp Matthews! Wow, that doesn't exist anymore, I think it's now east Miramar (MCAS), and nothing out there but slabs today.

There is, however, a new electronic rifle range that went in a few years back.
The only thing left of the old range is the butts, out to the 200 yard line (The Navy used it), right next to the 163 freeway, which renders it unusable.

 

[JLeòdhas]

Nice pics of days gone by.

 

[Fatstrat]

Grew up shooting my dads. Who owned it back to my earliest memory. Purchased it in early 1950's. A completely correct 1943 Springfield. I own it now.

 

[dad2thebone]

Things do change over the years. No more tustin or ElToro. mirimar isnt fighter town now.only thing i remember was that little Cafe across the freeway that had real SOS.

 

[armoredman]

We still had Garands in Boot Camp in Great Lakes, 1986...but we squids weren't to be trusted with REAL rifles...they were all demilitarized...