Boot Camp 1951, Sailors to be are dropping like flies!

[oneighty]

It is graduation day for many boot companies. I am in the marching band playing trombone. We are at parade rest while lengthy speech's are taking place from the Officers, comfortable on the reviewing stand.

It is very hot in the late summer. An odor of garlic and onions drifts heavy across the green grass parade ground brought to us from the nearby paper factory. Here and there a sailor to be drops to the ground, his mates rush to the rescue. The heat and the long wait is oppressive. The grass in front of me is moving, swirling about. I think I am going down too, but I don't.

Finally the talking is over, the band strikes up "The Stars and Stripes Forever" And away we go. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of young men march briskly in review. Flags are flying, the band is playing. Parents and sweethearts able to attend the ceremony are somber,and tearful and proud.

So was I.

180

[commander bunnypants]

1. I was a six squad leader, so I was the point man for the company.

Boy did I screw it up. Kept curling my toes to keep standing. It was March for me. Kinda chilly that day.

DDQM

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. Great Lakes?

sounds like the only BC that would be cold in March.

[commander bunnypants]

3. was noy that bad. Wool can be very warm

DDQM

[oneighty]

4. Yes Great Lakes!

180

[commander bunnypants]

5. Boot camp

then corpsman A school. Than SanDiego for three years at Balboa Naval Hospital.

DDQM

[oneighty]

13. Corpsman School

At Great Lakes? What year?

180

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. Chicago in summer can get real hot and humid.

The day I graduated from Northwestern (mid-June, 1971), the temperature was 97 with similar humidity. Some of the grads wore nothing under their gowns -- literally nothing.

I wore a very loose dress with pockets for Kleenex to mop up the sweat. The ceremony was indoors, but un air conditioned. Ended up with a pounding headache.

[PsN2Wind]

11. Guess you don't remember

that into the early fifties there was a Navy boot camp in Sandpoint, Idaho.

[XNASA]

6. I was in a "900" Company in Navy Boot Camp.

I was one of the "Regiment Officers". Or whatever we were called. I forget. We would sing out the commands to the Battalions.

Seems so long ago.

[commander bunnypants]

8. we never won the big chicken banner

jes the small chicken


DDQM

[oneighty]

10. Mine was Company 665.

Boatswains Mate First Class Crater was our Company Commander.

I just came across 'The Picture' Boot 180 with Crater. Boy I was a child. We all were in retrospect.

Sigh..180

[commander bunnypants]

12. I dont remember the boot company number

but in school I was 03Alpha.

I got a pic of me in dress uniform in my cube. damn I had hair

DDQM

[commander bunnypants]

14. just remebered hell week

deep sinked for seven days on four hours of sleep. But I illegally smoked in the steam of the dishwashers.

:)

DDQM

[PsN2Wind]

9. Company 172, USNTC San Diego 1957

As pleasant as the weather is in San Diego at almost any time of the year it gets hotter than Hell out on "the grinder" in August.