You were in the Marine Corps.
You were not drafted.
They just volunteered you before you knew that you wanted to be a Marine.
IT'S NOT A CRISIS
- Thread starter PinesAndProjectiles
- Start date
You were in the Marine Corps.
You were not drafted.
They just volunteered you before you knew that you wanted to be a Marine.
No, I was a direct to Corps draftee.
In February 1966, the majority of my Boot Platoon (1966-246) was draftees from the Newark NJ Draft board. When we reported for induction, the first 13 Inductees to pass physical were segregated to the side, and immediately sworn into The Corps. The DI's referred to us as 'Those Mafia Gangsters from Newark, NJ'.
My phone call home to my parents, explaining that I was not going to Fort Dix, was one helluva tense teleconv (Phone hits floor, Dad picks up and says, "Who is this, and what the Hell did you just say to my Wife...?"). Both of my Brothers had gone through Dix, draftees, a decade earlier; the draft had become a family tradition. They considered me the Family Hero because I was a Marine, and had seen the elephant.
No. Just no. Scared spitless most of the time.
I made PFC out of Boot; being the only one of the four original squad leaders who survived to the end of Boot.
I rotated out in Feb 1968, an E-4 with 13 months in grade.
I went back to my job with IBM.
The whole concept of a draftee Marine was very alien to many, not least myself, but it is a reality.
I had originally received my Notice in Oct 1965, but already had valid enlistment papers for the Air Force, four years as a Missile Electronics Tech.
The USAF filed and received three consecutive 30 day postponements on my notice, but was so backed up at Lackland AFB (USAF Boot Camp) that they never came up with a shipping date for me. Because of that, they couldn't swear me in. I was ordered to report Feb 23, 1966.
The rest is (sorta) legend.
After Boot, ITR, Engineer School, I went to Pendleton and became the first enlisted man reporting the reactivated 11th Engineer Bn. in June 1966 (The only Officer was a Butter Bar who was nominally the CO of several new, reforming units).
Arrived in 'Nam (Dong Ha) end of October/beginning of November 1966, and began work building up the 3MarDiv presence in I Corps. We built the combat bases at Dong Ha, Con Thien, Khe Sanh, Camp Carroll, Cua Viet, etc., Air Strips at Khe Sanh, and Dong Ha, and all the connecting road and bridges to those posts in I Corps. For a lot of this were were paired with a Sea-Bee Unit out of Da Nang. I ran the generators at Carroll for a lot of my tour with 11th Engineers once all the physical plant was up and running.
June 1967, my year with 11th Engineers was up and I was PCS'ed to 1st Amtracs in Cua Viet. I was the only school trained USMC electrician on the base, doing all pole line, wiring, and generator duty there, while also pulling guard duty, and occasionally filling in with the First Tracs AmGrunts up in the Z; a busy time.
It was nominally a Navy base (Fuel farm, LST Ramp, PBR's and Swifts.) at the mouth of the Cua Viet River, accessing Dong Ha upstream, but I never met any Navy Electricians' Mates.
We could see North Vietnam from there. They could see us too, and also reach us (just barely) with their 152mm mountain guns up there (Ben Hai Peninsula), 140 and 200mm rockets as well, mostly from inland below the DMZ. The only easy day was yesterday, believe it...; every Day a Grand and Glorious Day in The Corps, every Formation a Parade, every Meal a Banquet... Weird, but fun, too.
We saw a lot of incoming fire, most of it long range arty and rockets, very rarely anything close enough to shoot back at; frustrating.
Looking back, it's not so scary, since we really didn't take a lot of casualties from it. Maybe it's just the fading memory; but it was pretty tense at the time.
I recently found out that my DI lives in Sierra Vista, about an hour away, and holds down the job of Adjutant at his local VFW, the same position I hold in my own VFW Post. Hoping to meet up soon.
I'd like to thank him for saving my life.
Greg
In February 1966, the majority of my Boot Platoon (1966-246) was draftees from the Newark NJ Draft board. When we reported for induction, the first 13 Inductees to pass physical were segregated to the side, and immediately sworn into The Corps. The DI's referred to us as 'Those Mafia Gangsters from Newark, NJ'.
My phone call home to my parents, explaining that I was not going to Fort Dix, was one helluva tense teleconv (Phone hits floor, Dad picks up and says, "Who is this, and what the Hell did you just say to my Wife...?"). Both of my Brothers had gone through Dix, draftees, a decade earlier; the draft had become a family tradition. They considered me the Family Hero because I was a Marine, and had seen the elephant.
No. Just no. Scared spitless most of the time.
I made PFC out of Boot; being the only one of the four original squad leaders who survived to the end of Boot.
I rotated out in Feb 1968, an E-4 with 13 months in grade.
I went back to my job with IBM.
The whole concept of a draftee Marine was very alien to many, not least myself, but it is a reality.
I had originally received my Notice in Oct 1965, but already had valid enlistment papers for the Air Force, four years as a Missile Electronics Tech.
The USAF filed and received three consecutive 30 day postponements on my notice, but was so backed up at Lackland AFB (USAF Boot Camp) that they never came up with a shipping date for me. Because of that, they couldn't swear me in. I was ordered to report Feb 23, 1966.
The rest is (sorta) legend.
After Boot, ITR, Engineer School, I went to Pendleton and became the first enlisted man reporting the reactivated 11th Engineer Bn. in June 1966 (The only Officer was a Butter Bar who was nominally the CO of several new, reforming units).
Arrived in 'Nam (Dong Ha) end of October/beginning of November 1966, and began work building up the 3MarDiv presence in I Corps. We built the combat bases at Dong Ha, Con Thien, Khe Sanh, Camp Carroll, Cua Viet, etc., Air Strips at Khe Sanh, and Dong Ha, and all the connecting road and bridges to those posts in I Corps. For a lot of this were were paired with a Sea-Bee Unit out of Da Nang. I ran the generators at Carroll for a lot of my tour with 11th Engineers once all the physical plant was up and running.
June 1967, my year with 11th Engineers was up and I was PCS'ed to 1st Amtracs in Cua Viet. I was the only school trained USMC electrician on the base, doing all pole line, wiring, and generator duty there, while also pulling guard duty, and occasionally filling in with the First Tracs AmGrunts up in the Z; a busy time.
It was nominally a Navy base (Fuel farm, LST Ramp, PBR's and Swifts.) at the mouth of the Cua Viet River, accessing Dong Ha upstream, but I never met any Navy Electricians' Mates.
We could see North Vietnam from there. They could see us too, and also reach us (just barely) with their 152mm mountain guns up there (Ben Hai Peninsula), 140 and 200mm rockets as well, mostly from inland below the DMZ. The only easy day was yesterday, believe it...; every Day a Grand and Glorious Day in The Corps, every Formation a Parade, every Meal a Banquet... Weird, but fun, too.
We saw a lot of incoming fire, most of it long range arty and rockets, very rarely anything close enough to shoot back at; frustrating.
Looking back, it's not so scary, since we really didn't take a lot of casualties from it. Maybe it's just the fading memory; but it was pretty tense at the time.
I recently found out that my DI lives in Sierra Vista, about an hour away, and holds down the job of Adjutant at his local VFW, the same position I hold in my own VFW Post. Hoping to meet up soon.
I'd like to thank him for saving my life.
Greg
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good job buddy, my daughter the same. she is going to an 8 month dental tech school first, so she can make better money while going through school to become an art teacher. and staying w my ex wife
Not to imply I know anything about art.
But if you were employed as a dental technician you could probably just do your own art in freetime and Sell it.
I don't think an art teacher will get paid well and will have other admin bs to deal with.
Money and time spent to teach art could be spent doing it if that's what you love. Open her own studio?
A conservative art gallery. Lol
But if you were employed as a dental technician you could probably just do your own art in freetime and Sell it.
I don't think an art teacher will get paid well and will have other admin bs to deal with.
Money and time spent to teach art could be spent doing it if that's what you love. Open her own studio?
A conservative art gallery. Lol
George Bush took your slot at Lackland that fucker. The stones referenced this in their song no?
A LOT of this debt, if not most, is held by those who fell for the daytime TV ads for "school". They weren't really schools, they were loan centers to get you a student loan and then you could attend their school. They would assist you with everything in the financial aid, i.e. .gov backed student loans. They once you're in, they keep you in by giving you passing grades and encourage you to take more loans to continue your "education". As you might now know, that bubble popped a couple years ago when the .gov pulled most of their accreditations which didn't qualify their students for .gov backed student loans, i.e. easy money, and they literally closed their doors the next day leaving many students holding the bag with student aid debt and credits that weren't worth shit in the real world. These kids were taken advantage of for financial gain by not so savory people. You and I could see this but many saw it as a way out of poverty. You don't see as many of those commercials during daytime TV anymore. Just more accident lawyers.
Not sure what they can do about it. I don't believe .gov backed student loans are eligible for bankruptcy. Which is interesting in itself.
Not sure what they can do about it. I don't believe .gov backed student loans are eligible for bankruptcy. Which is interesting in itself.
I hope all these "smart" people starve to frikken death, clean up the gene pool, I want these loans paid back by stupid fucks or they can join the marines and work off the debt as cock holsters for Squids and whatever else marines do.
