A Letter Home

[Classic Finn]

Thought Id share this with you....


FROM A FARM KID,
NOW AT SAN DIEGO MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT.

Dear Ma and Pa:
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine
Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile.
Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m.,
but am getting so I like to sleep late.

Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and
shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to
split, fire to lay.Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm
water.

Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon,
etc, but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie
and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the
two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till
noon when you get fed again.

It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route marches",
which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks
so, it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as
far as to our mailbox at home.
Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The
country is nice but awful flat.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot.
The Capt. is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around
and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for
shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head
and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home.
All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it You don't even
load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they! call hand-to hand combat training.
You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though,
they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home.
I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in
Deerpoint Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but
I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds, and he's 6'8" and weighs near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get
onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,
Gail.



Classic Finn

[rooster]

Guy, didn't you spend your time with these fellas for a while?

Seems like a place for of those high engery teens right out of high
school. . . .

Jim,

[Larwyn]

Don't laugh too hard ...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Growing up on a dairy farm, hauling hay, and doing ranch work before joining the Air Force back in '68, for me, that was a pretty accurate account of what basic training was like (rest and relaxation, and a chance to show up them city boys.... )

Don't get me wrong now, I am speaking of Air Force. I know the Marines had much harder training to endure.

[Guy]

Thank you, Heikki. It still gives me goose bumps.

I would not have minded getting to wrestle with some women when I was in boot camp. However, back then in the politically incorrectness of the day, women Marines were called BAMs, Broad Assed Marines. Today I qualify as one of those.


One of the great well known differences between Marines trained in San Diego and those, like me, who trained at Parris Island on the east coast was that city boys on the west coast had drivers licenses by the time they were 16 and never walked long stretches., city boys on the east coast never used to get their licenses early and were used to walking long distances. You could always tell who had been driving since they were at the end of the pack.

I have met a lot of the women soldiers and Marines from Irag and Afghanistan and I would have been as proud to have them besides me in Vietnam as I am of them now.. Guts, determination, courage, and honor do not have ANY limitations.

[Kevin A]

Thank you, Heikki. It still gives me goose bumps.

I would not have minded getting to wrestle with some women when I was in boot camp. However, back then in the politically incorrectness of the day, women Marines were called BAMs, Broad Assed Marines. Today I qualify as one of those.

Sorry Guy, I just gotta This thought brought a horrible image of a certain thong to my mind, my day is RUINED....

One of the great well known differences between Marines trained in San Diego and those, like me, who trained at Parris Island on the east coast was that city boys on the west coast had drivers licenses by the time they were 16 and never walked long stretches., city boys on the east coast never used to get their licenses early and were used to walking long distances. You could always tell who had been driving since they were at the end of the pack.

I have met a lot of the women soldiers and Marines from Irag and Afghanistan and I would have been as proud to have them besides me in Vietnam as I am of them now.. Guts, determination, courage, and honor do not have ANY limitations.

[Steve_Cox]

Sorry Guy, I just gotta This thought brought a horrible image of a certain thong to my mind, my day is RUINED....

THANKS KEVIN, I HAD COMPLETELY ERASED THAT VISUALIZATION, Now that was a BAM if there ever was one.

[Guy]

What on earth are you guys talking about???????

[goldcoop]

Guy-

Are they talking about YOU in a thong?:roll:

Hey I didn't think you looked that bad in one!

Cheers,

Coop

[Ira]

My oh my:

What a DELIGHTFUL story from country folk making fun of city folk!


(HAPPY, Guy!?)

[Henry]

For Historical information only- In the mid 70's we called WAC's Crack Troops Then I married one. She couldn't outmarch, out shoot, or out rank me, but what she could do with a pencil and a 201 file scared the crap out of me
Henry

[ALAN GEDDES]

TRUE STORY: As a young Sgt in Germany in 1969 I was called in to the 1SGT's office and told to straighten out one of my men. It seems he was way overdrawn at the bank and writing checks like crazy. Took the man aside to talk about the problem. His answer was this. " Gosh Sgt; I still have checks. " He did not understand the banking concept of having to put money in there and balancing a check book. He was from the hills and his Army issue boots were his first NEW pair in his life. Nobody in his family had ever had a checking account.