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*** Danger Will Robinson! Salty language below! ***

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Leaving for Boot Camp Mart Building - Induction Center (now Robert Young Federal Building) St. Louis Mo. The beginning of my Marine Corps experience. October 31, 1968 Page 1

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You've seen the movies about Marine boot camp, Hollywood style.  There was Jack Webb as "The D.I." in the 50's, Jan Michael Vincent in "Tribes" in the 70's, and Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket" in the 80's.  Lee Ermey was a real drill instructor and he played his part well. Now, you're going to learn a few things about how the real Marine boot camp was for me in the 60's.  The uncensored story. When a movie about Marines is made, the producers have to clean up the language and not tell the whole story in order to get the Marine Corps backing and support

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I left home for the Marine Corps on October 31, 1968.  I went to the Mart Building in St. Louis for my flight to MCRD in San Diego.  I had to be there early in the morning and after that everything was standing in lines all day.  More paperwork in triplicate and quadruplicate, more physicals, take the oath again, and whatever else we did. After a few hours they told us our flight was delayed and we wouldn't leave until the next day, November 1.

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Below is the info sheet we received before we went to the Mart Building to depart for Boot Camp.  After all, we were going to be Marines. They didn't want us to hurt ourselves with a pocket knive or be looking at naked women and getting horny.

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The paper below is the one they gave us when we first arrived at the Mart Building in the morning.  And make sure you turn in your little old pocket knife.  We're going to teach you how to slash and gash with a bayonet.

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Paragraph 10 in the paper above refers to the General Orders we had to learn.  The paper below contains those General Orders.  In boot camp, we were always tested on them and had to know them by heart.  They are a standard set of orders that apply to any Marine standing guard duty anywhere in the world.

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I guess it was about 5 p.m. when the Marines put me and some other guys up in the Mark Twain Hotel downtown by the Mart Building.  That way we would be ready to go the next day.  So, I spent Halloween of '68 in the hotel

One of the guys was Jimmy R. White, long haired hippie type from Illinois and we shared a room. I remember we went into the little cafe in the hotel and Jimmy ordered a beer.  He was only 20 and I was 18.  The waitress wasn't going to serve him and he raised his voice and said, "I'm free, white, and over 21 and you won't bring me a beer?"  She walked away and came back with his beer.  I just sat there in awe.  Humm, it's that easy is it?  Two of the other guys with us were Harold Graham, and Jimmy D. White.  Somehow, Jimmy R. got a key for Harold and Jimmy D's room, because he had left some papers in there or something.  They were in the room right above ours.  When Harold and Jimmy D. were out eating, Jimmy R. said we ought to mess with those two's minds.  Jimmie R. went into their room and opened the window.  He got their mattresses and passed them down to me through the window in our room.  We were on the 5th or 6th floor, so if we would have dropped a mattress it would haved landed on a roof a couple stories down.  When the other guys came back, they went to their room, then called our room, all freaked out about someone breaking into their room and stealing their mattresses. We made like we didn't believe them and went up to their room.  We were both trying so hard to keep a straight face.  We told them to come on down to our room and figure out what to do.  Boy were they pissed when they walked in our room.  We had to pass the mattresses back up via the window and it was a lot harder to do, but we had four of us doing it.

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The next morning we went back to the Mart Building and sat around and waited some more. About 3:30 p.m. we left for the airport and by 5:30, we were headed for MCRD and arrived there about 11 p.m  San Diego time.  There were nine of us from the area on the flight.

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Marine pages My Memorial Pages Begin My Marine Experience Prologue You are here - Before Boot Camp Boot Camp - page 1 Boot camp - page 2 Boot camp - page 3 Boot Camp - page 4 Boot Camp - page 5 Boot Camp - page 6 Infantry Training Regiment (ITR) Basic Infantry Training School (BITS) Staging Battalion (Pre Vietnam) Okinawa (En route to Vietnam) Begin my Vietnam Tour - Hotel Co. Index Various Marine stuff - page 1 5th Marine Regiment Headquarters page Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) page Back to Marde

Back to Sarge T's Vets Index Marine Index Hotel Index Marine pages My Memorial pages Prologue - Begin my Marine tour 2/5 Area of Operations map- Begin my Vietnam tour Various Marine stuff - page 1 5th Marine Regiment Headquarters page Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) page Hotel Roster 5/23/69 Hotel Company Yearbook - 1970 2/5 area recent pics page 1 Veterans in my family My Marine Education and Training

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