Comments

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  hugh g. whiting February 19, 2010 at 1:05pm

  I was in company 430 from aug. thru oct of 1965, graduation was one of the happiest days of my life, never thought i`d see the outside world again.
  cc was SM 1 lester caldwell, whose foot seemed to have a magnetic attraction for my ass. wasn`t very good at that close order drill, but improved enough to avoid the shoe eventually.
  started out at camp barry, then the wooden firetraps at moffett, final phase in undress blues at camp porter.
  i went out there in jan 2005 for my son`s boot graduation, brought back
  some old memories
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  Ed Arnold February 18, 2010 at 10:16am

  I went through RTC in July of 1971. I returned in 1989 as a CC. That was the greatest job I ever had in the Navy. I pushed 3 company's and worked as a Navlead instructor before I retired in 1993. My companies were 156,253, 039. I had a great time there.
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  Darrell A. Nelson ENC Retired February 16, 2010 at 9:34pm

  I graduated from Company 483 on Dec. 22, 1958 and never looked back. My CC was a GM1 J.W. Cofield, I'll never forget him.
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  Tony Sawyer February 8, 2010 at 10:10am

  I went through Boot Camp from July to October 1983. I remeber that we had to sit around for more than two weeks waiting for the company to fill up! I was in Company 182. Our CC's previous company was a color company with all the flags you could get and then there was us. He was SLIGHTLY disappointed and showed us constantly!! LOL.
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  John B Atkinson December 1, 2009 at 8:13pm

  I WENT THROUGH GREAT LAKES 6/5/58,CC WAS MM 1/C SHORT,I RETIRED 12/7/77 ENI,JB ATKINSON
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  airman , retired, johnson November 14, 2009 at 1:37am

  hello all again,, i have seen alot of interesting stories and comments, glad for all the participation, that is part of life, making stories and telling them. spcially when they can be funny to others lol.
  onlything to make things better, is those that can know your stories and either add to them, or add history to them and still laugh about them.
  i have to admit i will skip a few things to address a few things brought up,,, and i am not immune to those things either. when i had joined me and my fience at the time were not doing so well,, ie. join the military and they will help with everything, so said recruior lol.
  shortly after i left service, i looked for all my letters that i had sent home, ironically they were in a bundle, as i left the house, i thought i should have taken them, as in a way they were mine. that was my diary of things i went through in boot. again like any man i figoured i would be able to get them back, shows how much i know now, as i still do not have them lol, let alone copies of them.
  it is amazing how sometimes one will say something to remind one of what you had forgotten so long ago.
  allso people had mentioned the dreaded top rack,,, seemed to be my curse to allways be top rack.
  never fell out, but sure as heck tried a time or two lol.
  we used to hit the racks with the red lights on, as it was supposed to get us used to us being ship board and to train our eyes to see things. ahh to be honest i think the only they do that is so we can write home at night in our note books. and so we can find our way to the head in the dark without peeing on someones bunk lol.
  we had 1 hour of free time on sundays,, that was either church time, or write home time,, after that we cleaned,, cleaned alot, church people were given about 15 mins before and 15 after to hit the barracks, just cus it took that long to get them all in order again. so you went to church or you wrote home. allso letters from home were given out in this time, so you had to write fast lol. i think we all wrote letters in the dark, i would send my fience home pages of things,, allmost books of the daily things we had to go through.
  took till we got to the new barracks till anyone could actually write home at night, coffin lockers that would allow us to slide our books under them during night inspections, and when it was done pull them back out when they was gone.
  ohh i was skipping the coke and a smoke thing lol,, yeah right lol.. we were not allowed coke, and deff no tobacco. that was long gone before i got there in 05, we got juice, and food service by convics.
  no i am not kidding the people servign and cooking our food was from the local prison and homeless shelter. soda machines were shut off for us recruites, so it was orange juice, water, or milk, well if we was lucky milk.
  now anyone that has done time in recent years knows that you old timers did alot harder time then us new kids have, we all really do love and support you all for your sacrafices, and thankfull that you are around to tell the real horror stories of the day.
  while i would hate to leave this on a bad note, i would like to remind others and myself of a cheap way to get about 5 mins of extra sleep when on guard duty.
  depending on ones shift we would pull our smurf over our uniform and rack out on top of our rack,so when it came your time to take watch, just pull off smurfs, dust off uniform, 30 seconds tighten up the rack and off to watch you went lol.
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  Andy Lindgren November 13, 2009 at 9:16pm

  I was actually at your graduation as a spectator. I had a friend who I was supposed to go in on the buddy system with, but I was delayed because of a minor medical problem, so I went in August instead. I forget what his company number was, I'll find out though. Also EM2 Al Sears pushed another triple threat company when I was going through as well and AMS1 Williams who was my CC pushed a company with your grad group.
  
  Comment by Keith Gopsill on November 18, 2008 at 1:30am
  Company 921, Triple Threat (Choir, Band, Precision Drill Team) Feb-Apr 1993. EM2 (SW) Sears Company Commander.
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  Andy Lindgren November 13, 2009 at 11:35am

  I remember "Shark Attack" as well. Wasn't done in the water. It was used during "Cyclling" when you got in trouble. Also 8-count body builders and self destructs.
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  Andy Lindgren November 13, 2009 at 11:32am

  Went through boot camp at Great Lakes from August of 1993 - October of 1993. Company 219. CC was AMS1 Richard Williams. Wish I could find him to thank him for what he taught me. He was a great CC.
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  Bud Stilwell BT Snipe November 13, 2009 at 4:13am

  Flutter Kicks and Shark were the same just called by a different name. The SEALS were really mean during swim training. I remember the Tower. If you couldn't pass the basic swim you went to the shallow end to pratice and then tried again. If you didn't pass the second time you had to go to swim class till you passed the basic swim and get rated as a 3rd class swimmer.