![]() This is where the journey begins, where civilians will earn the title of United States Marine. I never had to go into battle or see any of my friends killed in battle but I will always remember my Marine Corp Days with great pride.Marine Corps boot camp begins as soon as recruits off the bus and onto the infamous yellow footprints. We left Paris Island on the Marine Corp birthday with all the pomp and ceremony that day brought. It Oct, so dark you could see every star in the sky. I remember sitting on the firing line on Qualification day. But once you figured out they were not going to really eat you it was pretty smooth sailing. Oh yes it was tough those first couple of weeks. Paris Island for me was the best part of the Marine Corp. We started with 90 boys and of the 90 original there were only 23 of the original left on graduation day. ![]() Always telling stories after we hit the bunk at night that seemed to calm everyone down. I was in Platoon 2002, My senior Drill instructor was Gy David W Sommers, ( later to become Sgt Major of the Marine Corp ) He was very respected among the “boys” of our platoon. is a Vietnam-Era Veteran who lives in Philadelphia, PA. I came to graduate by the “Grace of God,” weighing 165 pounds lean, mean and green, in the third week of September of 1971 as a United States Marine and I will never forget the pride and joy of that graduation day, “OhhhhRaHHHH!!!”įrederick Edward Walters, Jr. I went to Catholic Mass every Sunday during my eleven weeks of Boot Camp at Paris Island and received Holy Communion at every Mass from the Catholic Chaplain. I was a real fighter throughout Boot Camp and would never give up, always being faithful to myself and other recruits and my Drill Instructors and praying throughout my training that somehow God would allow me to graduate a United States Marine. I only came in third that day, but I did complete those push-ups in the allotted time that was given during the competition. proud enough to enter me in a push-up competition with the other battalions at Parris Island. Both hands were full of rope burns, but I did those thousand push-ups while I was in Platoon 365 and made the D.I. When I was training to climb ropes I constantly failed, so toward the end of Boot Camp I had to do a thousand push-ups in order to graduate. Marine, and that I was going to fight to the end to graduate. This extra training I went through made me realize how much more I wanted to be a U.S. They had to sleep at attention every night and we were ordered to wake them up if they tried to sleep any other way. And every night I had to stand guard for one hour over the rejected recruits, who were housed in another building before being kicked out of the Marine Corps Boot Camp for not meeting the high standards of Boot Camp Training to graduate. And I carried around a makeshift steel bugle stick with a coffee can at both ends filled with cement, to strengthen my body. I had celery sticks and skim milk for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We exercised through the pouring rain and thunder and the fields of prepared mud and the hot sand flea-infested, Parris Island, South Carolina sun. I also had to stay in the “Fat Body Platoon” for an extra week to lose more weight and gain more strength and to qualify to graduate as a Marine.ĭuring my stay in the “Fat Body Platoon,” we exercised from the early dawn to late at night with little rest. I was tutored by an expert Shooting Instructor that week and passed as a Marksman. I had to stay an extra week on the rifle training field also, because I couldn’t shoot straight. This always met, going through different platoons in those battalions and different Drill Instructors at every battalion I was transferred in. I went through every battalion, 1st, 2nd, and finally 3rd Battalion, while at Parris Island, being transferred constantly, all through my training at Parris Island that lasted eleven weeks. I weighed about 200 pounds and I was not athletic at all. I was not in great shape when I entered Parris Island Boot Camp on July 6th, 1971. I signed a Marine Corps contract of two years active duty and four years inactive reserve duty, and was going to Boot Camp after high school graduation in what was called the “Buddy System.” I joined while still in high school at Father Judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that same year in May of 1971. I joined the Marine Corps to avoid being drafted in the Army because I was in the last Vietnam War draft pick of the year in 1971 and my number was four, in April of 1971. This is a photo of me from Parris Island Boot Camp-September 1971.
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