In His Own Words - September 13, 1943 : USMC Boot Camp

RDMCB San Diego Circa 1940's

The days of "living it up" had come to an end.  September 13, 1943 brought the arrival of Daddy and the other future Marines to San Diego, where they were transferred to buses and brought to R.D.M.C.B (Recruit Depot Marine Corps Base) in San Diego.
From the January 25, 2002 interview:

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Q: OK, I have from an address book that you had that you were sworn in on August 27, 1943...you were in active duty September 10th, and you...it says San Diego September 13th, 1943 and you were at Camp Pendleton for how many weeks in San Diego?
A: Oh no, I was at the Marine Boot Camp first...for 49 days...7 weeks.

Q: Do you remember arriving and what it was like?
A: Rude awakening!  49 straight days of no leave...no nothing...but strictly Marine Corps.
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Q: Tell me about your boot camp training experiences.
A: Well, we had 7 weeks of solid training...no leave, no time off, no nothing.  We had one Drill Sergeant that was a Gunnery Sergeant and two Corporals that assisted.  What I remember most of all was that the real Drill Instructor would notice somebody...we lined up to do everything in the Marines; to eat, to shower, to do what have you.   And this main Sergeant would be off a little ways from the group and hear somebody talking or chewing gum or smoking...he wouldn't just single them out; he'd get us all up at 2 o'clock in the morning with everything we owned...M1 rifles and packs and seabag and get out there and have to do close order drill in the loose sand.  I don't know how many times we did that; we didn't do it every day, but we did it a lot.

Q: So, people didn't like your Drill Sergeant very much.
A: I wouldn't say everybody disliked him, but most everybody did.  Of course, we had him for 6 weeks and then he disappeared and we didn't see him again.*

Q: So how many people probably in your original boot camp went with you [overseas]?
A: I would say 6 or 8.

Q: So, how did you get through this experience?
A: By doing what they told me to do.

Q: You never got KP or had any problems?
A: Nope.

Q: So you were in San Diego for 7 weeks?
A: 7 straight weeks.

Q: And this was your first time you'd ever seen California?
A: Right.

Q: And really been away from home for that long, right?
A: Oh yeah.

Q: So, why did you enlist instead of going to college?  You just felt it was your...
A: I was afraid it'd [the war] be over before I could get in it!
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* For whatever reason, Daddy did not go into details during this interview about the plans he and fellow "boots" had for their Drill Instructor after boot camp.  As he told it, several of them made a pact that after the war, or even overseas, they would find him and "take care of him" and this thought kept them going during boot camp.

More to come in the following weeks on some stories he told about boot camp...unfortunately he didn't elaborate on them during the interviews.