Skip to main content

Kill, Kill, Kill: A True Marine Boot Camp Story

After Marine Corps Boot Camp and ITR (me on left, my sister, and my adopted brother Little Joe).
On leave (age 20) right before we went to Vietnam in 1967. We survived,
but we believed back then we would probably die in Vietnam.

Kill, Kill, Kill
I had been in boot camp at San Diego for probably six weeks. I'm not quite sure how long because the constant torment days ran into each other and one was like the next. I had even gotten a Dear John letter from my girlfriend about the third week into boot camp and I just shrugged and tossed it. I was in enough trouble just trying to deal with boot camp. I couldn't worry about what might be my last relationship before getting buffed or shot up in a war. 


We were running for miles close to dusk, as we usually did. I hated running. The DI would count cadence by chanting and making us answer or repeat what he said. That was a constant. 
His favorite was the "What are we going to do to the Viet Cong?"
We would yell in unison, "Kill, Kill, Kill."

This never stopped as we ran. This helped us prepare for war. On this day, I was sick of yelling the same thing so I thought I would change it up. It happened without thought or I would have probably not done it. 
The DI said, "What are we going to do to the Viet Cong?" 
I yelled, "Kill, Kill, Kill," like a high-pitched little girl, and it stood out among all the low-pitched voices.
"What the hell?" Sgt. Pollock said, halting the formation. "Which one of you twinkled-toed, peter puffing little girls said that?"

No one said anything. Every Marine close to me bit their lips to keep from laughing.
"I'll PT your asses until the sun comes up unless the scumbag who said that comes forward."
No one said anything or even glanced at me.
"All right, you fucking maggots. You've got a long night now."

We began running in formation, back toward our quonset huts. I had put us all in the hurt locker, and I would be in trouble with the other Marines.
"What are we going to do to the Viet Cong?" the DI said.
I saw the platoon glance at each other, and in unison, the entire platoon of 80 Marines chanted "Kill, Kill, Kill," like little girls with high squeaky voices.
The DI stopped the formation. We were all laughing. We just couldn't help it. I thought I saw the DI half-smile.
"So you girls want to play some more."

I couldn't believe it. The other Marines, all of them, went along with joke. We were all responsible.
Sgt. Pollock made us do push-ups and squat thrusts for ten minutes before screaming at us to get into our huts. We were exhausted, but we all thought it was worth it to get one over on our drill instructor.

And that was a big deal in 1966 because Drill Instructors were one step below the devil, and I could have been in real trouble for pulling such a stunt in boot camp. He could have kept us up all night standing at attention in between exercises.

To this day, I believe the thing that saved all of us from severe punishment was that we had worked as a team. The drill instructors loved that we had bonded as a platoon and would work as a unit. We were becoming Marines.

I never pulled a stunt like that again. Well, not in boot camp.



Comments

  1. lunatic Randy7:12 PM

    The social awakening of the 60's had a little irreverence built in and I think that is a good thing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vietnam: The Liberty Bridge

(This entry has had a lot of comments, and I'm glad it can help bring Nam vets together or to help find each other. If you have a comment, please attach your name to the comment or from this point forward it won't be published. I've received many comments that are phony and obviously made up, submitted by anonymous submission. I do screen all comments. Click the photo to enlarge. Semper Fi.) This is the Liberty Bridge (click to make larger) in Quang Nam Province in Vietnam during July of 1968. Of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 were killed in Quang Nam Province. (Figures in comment section show a little under 7000 KIA in Quang Nam.) This was late in my tour on July 2. The bridge had been blown once again by the enemy to isolate the Marine base at An Hoa. I was a 50 caliber machine gunner on a convoy to resupply the An Hoa Firebase. I called this the River Styx because it had a ferry boat. Once you crossed the river you entered a nightmare hell on earth cal
249 comments
Read more

The Jesus Moth

Photo taken through a window screen. I had just gone over the first print copy of The Bad Season on July 22, 2006. I walked over to the window and saw this moth on my outside air conditioner unit. It was the most bizarre thing I had seen in a long time. I retrieved my digital camera and snapped a picture through the glass and the window screen before going outside in a failed to attempt to capture the moth. I contacted a moth expert. He told me what kind of moth it was, but added that he had never seen one with a cross on its back like this one. I call it the Jesus Moth, the Crusader Moth, or maybe the Infidel Moth. The syndicates wanted me to give it to them for free. They said they don't take pics from non-employees because "we would actually have to pay you for it."   Hmm, what a novel concept, getting paid for something. I offered to swap for a syndicated story about my book. They refused. So I copyrighted the entire pic (the one below is a fragment from that p
28 comments
Read more

The Old Corps: Marine Corps Boot Camp 1966

BLT 1/3 USMC 1967 Vietnam Boot Camp Hell I recently saw a video of what I assume was the current Marine Corps Boot Camp. It mentioned recruits reporting any abuse right away and the DI was trying to be tough (and he did sound tough to an extent), but underneath it all you could tell the old Corps was gone in the civilian desire (political desire by people who never served) to make things easier and less traumatic for the boots. They never mentioned abuse to us in 1966 because we were abused 24/7. I'm an old Corps Hollywood Marine (that's an inside Marine joke about the difference between boot camp in Parris Island or San Diego.) The boots in Parris Island claimed they had it rougher because they had swamps. The Hollywood Marines had mountains. I would rather walk in water than climb mountains so I disagree. I entered the Marine Corps on August 10, 1966. Marines had been in Vietnam for over a year. All of us would probably go to Nam. For some of us it woul
Post a Comment
Read more