[USMC Chuter]

The high points for me were chow, mail call, and lights out. I remember thinking "I just have to suffer until noon chow.." followed by "I just have to suffer until evening chow" followed by "I just have to put up with this until mail call", etc.. As for the training itself, I didn't mind the classroom stuff if I could stay awake and not get slapped on the back of the head for falling asleep..lol Combat boxing and line training (pre MCMAP) training was relatively fun, as were pugil sticks.. Drill was ok at times if they didn't keep you on the grinder forever. Unfortunately they usually did.

Low points.. I hated reveille! I hated getting the shit thrashed out of me on the quarterdeck or in the sand pit, which happened often. I hated my feet going numb on the parade deck during drill.. I hated "deck towelling" the deck (wet towel, push up position, bear crawl) rather than using a swab. I hated having my stuff thrown into a pile with everyone else's in the middle of the squad bay, only to play silly little games trying to recover it in an unreasonable time.. I remember how disoriented and, yes, scared I was when I first got there-barely 18 and thoroughly clueless. Ah, the memories.

The lesson that stands out the most is that you can suffer through just about anything if you know that the guy next to you is just as miserable as you are. Misery indeed loves company. I learned that the only way to relieve that kind of misery is to work as a team. Individualism causes more pain.

The instructor who I found to be most inspiring was Drill Instructor SSgt McCall. He was an ornery little black dude, the junior hat of the team. His job was simply to enforce discipline. He was absolutely uncompromising and humorless and was single-handedly responsible for more sweat and tears in that platoon than any other DI. He never cracked once. He was THE epitome of Marine to me. I ran into him a year or two later on Okinawa, in civvies, standing in line with his wife and kid at the ATM machine. He remembered me and was extremely cordial and encouraging. He left a lasting impression through example.