Comments

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  John F. Dillon July 6, 2013 at 2:34pm

  I've been writing about my Navy experiences, especially Boot camp in Camp Moffet July 1948.  You can read them here:  http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?61697-J-Dillon-11-years-...

   

  Just scroll down a bit to where the boot camp stories start.

  Mixed in the previous yarns are other sea stories as well as Navy yarns some aboard the USS Coral Sea CVB 43

   

   

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  steven richmond March 20, 2013 at 11:47am

  I remember getting the bicillin shot in both ass cheeks.  It's the day I found out I was allergic to penicillin.  I was in a coma for three days, my joints swelled to twice their normal size. They were going to asmo me when I woke up and pleaded with them not to asmo me. I stayed with my company, #408.

  asmo = Assignment Memorandum.
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  francis mickey doyle March 19, 2013 at 6:32pm

  the funniest thing i can remember about boot camp(02/15/1963) is when we got the bicillin shot all the guys thought they were crippled when they got out of their bunks  the next morning.a few black guys from new york were the funniest.they were really scared.when we went out to fire the m1 rifle it was so god damn cold you couldn`t take your gloves off the wind was blowing so hard off the lake you couldn`t keep your eyes open.damn that place was cold. mickey doyle co.69 1963
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  steven richmond March 7, 2013 at 8:13pm

  Bobby E. Cammer,  

  I loved reading your recollection.  
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  Bobby E. Cammer March 7, 2013 at 7:46pm

  We arrived late December 27, 1950 at Great Lakes RTC and it was very cold.  The PO in charge of our group tried to get us dummies to march to the gate.  We did not do well. When they finally let us in the gate we were marched about 50 yards.  There we halted, did a right face and listened to some officer explain that our demeanor was not appropriate for the Navy!   Butt chewing the first day!

  We finally marched (sort of) to some big building and were issued standard mattress covers (fart sacks by any other name) and pillow casings.  They marched us to a barracks and said "find a place to sleep".  My mother always made my bed at home so what am I supposed to do with this great big cloth bag.  The consensus was to flatten it across the mattress (now mattress is an exaggeration) and tie the little strings to the head board.  That done, another person arrived and screamed that we should "fall out" for chow.

  It was late and evening chow had come down about three to four hours earlier.  We were served wieners cooked in water, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  The wieners were water logged and spewed water when you tried to cut them.

  Sleeping on top of one of those old metal racks with a two inch thick mattress with a cloth bag over it just was not my idea of the Navy.  The trains ran by all night and each passing shined light into the barracks and my eyes.

  Some time before dawn I had this big shock in my head!  What is that noise. The lights were on and some person was standing in the middle of the barracks with a trash can lid playing the cymbals on the trash can while shouting revile, revile, revile, all hands on deck.  Fall out (they keep saying that) in five minutes for chow, clean shaved and ready to go.  Man I could hardly get up, take a leak, get dressed and brush my teeth in five minutes let alone shave.

  We arrived at the chow hall with about five hundred other people ready to eat.  We were the newest and therefore were the last to line up to eat.  Now if you are from that part of the country you know that snow starts in September and finally melts about June.  That meant that there was an abundance piled on either side of the pathway leading to the entry hatch (door to you land lubbers) to eat this delectable meal.  Colds and coughs were part of the "uniform of the day" so needless to say there was lots of spittle and phlegm crusting the icy snow banks.  Don't look down was the thing to do unless you have a cast iron stomach.

  The breakfast was actually pretty good.  Being the youngest of four depression era siblings I knew how to get my food and stuff it down quickly lest someone else would get it.  That was an asset especially when they came screaming for us to , you know the drill, fall out! 

  We next got our physicals and uniforms  We took the uniforms to another big building where other (service week) boots painted our name all over them.  I always knew my underwear at home but they insisted that they put my name on them.  Even my socks and my best clothes.  After several other rituals we were marched across the road and delivered to another barracks.  Welcome to camp Moffett and Company 9.  Take the ladder to the upper deck and clean the place.  The Chief Petty Officer who would be our Company Commander explained that he wanted the place CLEAN in no uncertain terms.  This big hall like room had not been cleaned or occupied since my brother was there during WWII.

  He said "hang your Seabag (the big white bag full of my painted clothes) on the Jackstay (a big steel pipe that ran down each side of the barracks) and strip down to your skivvies (another name for my painted underwear) and prepare to scrub the deck (the floor) with those tiny little brushes that they gave you and tossed into your Seabag!

  This was home for the next nearly nine weeks.  More than 60 years later I stil remember those days.
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  Kenneth E Krosky Jr March 7, 2013 at 4:34pm

  Reported September 24th 1976 can't remember what company but i believe it was 297. Went to ET "A" school across the street after that. What a cold winter.
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  Richard Houston February 12, 2013 at 9:58am

  I went to Boot Camp from Sept.'67 to Dec '67. I could not believe the cold air blowing off the lakes. When we hand washed our dungarees, we hung them up on little strings, and when you went out to hang another piece of clothing within 2 minutes, the other hanging clothes were frozen solid. We were told by our Company Commander not to try and bend the frozen clothes as they would have snapped in two... By the way, do you remember what is was like trying to hang your heavy wet clothes on those damn strings in the freezing cold with only your skivvies on... Whippy, Whippy don't look down, your discharge papers ain't on the ground... One Two, One Two...  (;
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  Kenneth C. Shee September 1, 2012 at 9:55am

  When I was in boot camp at Great Lakes I spent service week in the frozen food lockers.Trailer loads of food came in and chow hall trucks took it out.Some times a box of orange popsickles or some other delicacy would hit the deck and break open.Of course it had to be consumed or go to waste.
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  Stick August 19, 2012 at 8:52pm

  In 62' Camp Barry was where I was sent..Mar 62' at Gt Lakes might as well been Nome,Alaska...Got like 4 hrs sleep ...Revelie goes off..and it was ALL downhill from there...
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  Kenneth C. Shee August 6, 2012 at 8:28pm

  I was in camp Moffet and camp Dewey.One was old ww2 barracks and the other was almost new in 1961.I can't remember which was which.