This may be the single best post on the Hide. God I loved every second of Boot Camp! Even when I was caught eating ice cream at chow and was taken to the gear locker that evening and had the shit beat out of me.
I was in the chow hall by myself one day and figured what the hell, why the fuck not. I competed for and won series honor grad, but was told by the CO of PI that there was no way in hell he was going to put a Lance Corporal into the fleet straight out of boot camp. I was a contract PFC and the Marine Corps has / had an order if you are the series honor grad then you are promoted 1 rank (normally from PVT to PFC). So I was made the Series Guidon Bearer and given a letter in my SRB. So I had extra practice for graduation the week before, hence eating chow by myself. Ha, I now can tell you why the fuck not…