I was at Millington for AFUN-P, BE&E and Avionics School from March of '76 to September '76.

So now my Disney World boot camp is gone, my P,B,A school location is gone, my squadron is gone, I have replacement knees, roids, 2 ex wives and a bad attitude.

I vividly remember the earthquake in '76. It cracked the wall in my barracks room. I was in one of those three story squid barracks. We used to climb up in the ceiling above the lockers in our room and quietly smoke a lot of weed.


Robert Stone

Heartwarming story there.....Bob....

Hey, not saying it was the right thing to do, but it was the '70s so it probably could have been a lot worse. I actually took my Navy training, ran with it, and made something of my life in spite of myself. I am still in the same field except that I am an engineer. Sometimes though when I walk into a plant for the first time, I feel like that nervous airman checking in for my first school at Millington. Heck I was from Covington, GA. Millington seemed like a big city to me.

Went to Comm/Nav school in '67. Wife and I lived in Mud Flats, which seems to be gone now. Can anyone tell me when they bulldozed Mud Flats??? We had many a great weekend barbeque. Everyone brought something, beer, steaks, hotdogs. Kinda sorry it's gone.....

John

This message has been edited. Last edited by: VMA131SSGT,

Hell yeah I remember the anchor. Everyone had to drag their butt up to the third floor in the middle of the night. I remember somebody saying "this is it ... there go to tell us we are going to war." I was so tired from being woken up from a dead sleep that it didn't even register at first. I went into the long hallway and fell back to sleep. Shortly after that I was questioned by the mp's and the barracks Sgt's because my room was the last one on the short hallway right next to the fire exit. Apparently that is how it traveled up to the 3rd floor.

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Originally posted by FPSchwartz:
You have the name "Hilton" correct but not he barracks numbr. It's 451 and I was there when it was about 6 mo old. It was an all male barracks and the WM's lived in the tall red brick buildings across from the chow hall. As of now the field in front of 451 is now a building and the majority of the old navy billeting is gone.Bldg 453 was known as the "Holiday Inn"

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Anybody remember "Animal House" barracks S-238?

In response to your question RWO60 I lived at the "Animal House" but the new one barracks #453 also known as "The Hilton" because it was new and hi-tech in 1985 4 man rooms with personal head,intercom service , mail boxes and W.M.s on the 1st deck yes we had a plaque proudly displayed in the t.v. room the read "United States Marine Corps Animal House" ( anyone remember that anchor that wound up on the 3rd deck?)

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Originally posted by usmcr130:
I remember the squid's that went through boot camp at Millington in 1961 only had TWO WEEKS of boot camp. Hell a half dozen smoking lamps and boot camp was over for them. S/F

Having been a JO2 and on "The Bluejacket" station newspaper 59-63, I can assure you here was no boot camp at NAS Memphis!

Buster Evans

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Originally posted by arubaguy:
Does anybody remember Mr. Charcoal in the Jetway shopping center right outside the Main gate?

It was the Charcoal Galley 59-63, and many a night we would stay until the wee hours of the morning drinking the same bottomless cup of nickel coffee. It had its own "secret" recipe for Roquefort dressing that I successfully begged them for after I got out.

wow!!!!after so many years coming here and reading all these posts sure brought back a lot of memories. I went to AE school in 88-89. I believe I was in barracks 414. I still have the briefcase they made us buy to carry our homework!
Week ends were definately great!!

i was there then too fantasma, my 2nd time thru, going to ava and afta, then on to ecm schools at the pit. going there as an nco was waaaayyyy bettern going there as a pfc! lol

Just to update everyone that got to stay in the barracks near the chow hall, they took them down a few years ago, it seems they were "unlivable" due to the amount of asbestos found in them.

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
Just to update everyone that got to stay in the barracks near the chow hall, they took them down a few years ago, it seems they were "unlivable" due to the amount of asbestos found in them.

Those barracks were not "unlivable" because of any asbestos, but because open windows and 36" mounted fans were the only "air conditioning" in the heat and humidity of Memphis. I remember that nobody wanted to live on the second deck of those barracks, because the heat just rose up and made it a very wet, sticky oven for 88 guys!

Alas, thanks to the trial lawyers, there is a knee-jerk reaction whenever the word "asbestos" is mentioned. There is asbestos and there is asbestos. Most of it presents no problem, and that which does can in many cases simply be encapsulated. It does, however, provide a convenient excuse for bureaucrats to pump more money out of the taxpayer. After an earthquake in Southern California, a university tried to get $200 million out of FEMA to build a brand new building to replace an old, delapidated one they could not afford. They claimed the earthquake loosened the asbestos and made it dangerous. I brought in several scientists who inspected it all, and said that type of asbestos was harmless.

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Originally posted by RBEvans:

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
Just to update everyone that got to stay in the barracks near the chow hall, they took them down a few years ago, it seems they were "unlivable" due to the amount of asbestos found in them.

Those barracks were not "unlivable" because of any asbestos, but because open windows and 36" mounted fans were the only "air conditioning" in the heat and humidity of Memphis. I remember that nobody wanted to live on the second deck of those barracks, because the heat just rose up and made it a very wet, sticky oven for 88 guys!

Alas, thanks to the trial lawyers, there is a knee-jerk reaction whenever the word "asbestos" is mentioned. There is asbestos and there is asbestos. Most of it presents no problem, and that which does can in many cases simply be encapsulated. It does, however, provide a convenient excuse for bureaucrats to pump more money out of the taxpayer. After an earthquake in Southern California, a university tried to get $200 million out of FEMA to build a brand new building to replace an old, delapidated one they could not afford. They claimed the earthquake loosened the asbestos and made it dangerous. I brought in several scientists who inspected it all, and said that type of asbestos was harmless.

I'm not sure what barracks you are talking about because the one I lived in back in 95 had AC and was 4 stories, just like all the other barracks that surrounded the chow hall.
As far as the asbestos debate, I agree with "there's asbestos and there's asbestos."
But I live in Memphis and as an architect I personally know the engineer that condemned the buildings which according to his report said that asbestos levels were above safe levels.

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
I'm not sure what barracks you are talking about because the one I lived in back in 95 had AC and was 4 stories, just like all the other barracks that surrounded the chow hall.

OK, you were further to the north in the new school barracks of brick that surrounded the Navy chow hall.

I lived in the World War II stick and frame barracks that were around the Marine chow hall (it had one wing for Navy personnel who got the burnt or undercooked "food", and where the milk always ran out without being replenished.)

Those ancient barracks were "reserved" for ship's company, the restricted barracks, and the brig.

Yep, you guys were livin' in tall cotton, and envied, especially in the hot and humid summer!

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
the one I lived in back in 95 had AC and was 4 stories

I forgot to mention that I lived ensconced in the lap of luxury in S-145, S-146 and S-148 from 1959 to 1963.

Buster

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Originally posted by RBEvans:
OK, you were further to the north in the new school barracks of brick that surrounded the Navy chow hall.

I lived in the World War II stick and frame barracks that were around the Marine chow hall (it had one wing for Navy personnel who got the burnt or undercooked "food", and where the milk always ran out without being replenished.)

Those ancient barracks were "reserved" for ship's company, the restricted barracks, and the brig.

Yep, you guys were livin' in tall cotton, and envied, especially in the hot and humid summer!

You must have been there along time before me. I believe we are talking about the same barracks now, but when I got there, there were even newer barracks, they not only had AC they had carpet! Of course those went to the avionics students, us ground support guys got the old concrete block barracks that had tile floor that had to be buffed every field day.
Those barracks you stayed in are actually still there, last time I was out there they were offices for civilians.

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
Those barracks you stayed in are actually still there, last time I was out there they were offices for civilians.

No, I'm afraid the satellite photos show only the ghost outline of them and the old administration building.

I lived for a time in the NATTCenter student barracks. Although I had been a working reporter since I was 15 (i.e. 6 years), the Navy made me go to Memphis for AT School. I did not want to go, and had given it up and was on my way to catch a greyhound out of San Diego. The new editor of the paper, a WAVE YNC, knew nothing about newspapers, and caught me on my way out the gate. She had sweet talked RAdm. Fitzhugh Lee into changing my orders to work with her. So, I wound up in the cruddy barracks.

Buster

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No, I'm afraid the satellite photos show only the ghost outline of them and the old administration building.

OK I must be thinking about the wrong building this time. They had these buildings near my school (first set of buildings on the left as you came in the back gate) that were supposedly barracks at one time. We were threatened by the senior chief and our gunny if we didn't keep our barracks clean then they would put us in them.
I was sent to Memphis straight from San Diego, I had lived in Caly all my life and somehow I ended coming back here, as they say fate can be fickle.

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Originally posted by gsemarine94:
OK I must be thinking about the wrong building this time. They had these buildings near my school (first set of buildings on the left as you came in the back gate)

Back in the days of wooden ships and iron men, the original school barracks were at the intersection of Navy Road the the street that crossed over to Northside. There was no "back gate" at the time, only the one across from the Navy Exchange gas station, and the one that connected Southside and Northside.

I was also sent straight to Memphis from my home and bootcamp in Southern California. I had been to college a couple of years, knew all about the
South and hated it. For two years, I was a sailor out drinking, carousing and molesting their womenfolk, so the South had no love for me, either. Then I bought a little Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite, lived with a UT pharmacy student in Memphis, belonged to Memphis sports car clubs, and had civilian friends in town. I realized I didn't know anything about the South, but loved what I did know. When I got out, it was my intention to just visit my folks, then return to Tennessee to settle down. Unfortunately, I got shanghaied into taking over as editor of a Southern California newspaper, then became a cop, then went back to college to get my degrees and taught history at Cal State Long Beach. Except for vacations, I never did get back to Tennessee. Now, my daughters and their families are moving to East Tennessee.

The six four deck barracks to the west of the chow hall are gone amoung others. Had some good times and bad times in that barracks. About 3 weeks before graduating from school and the weekend of my birthday we failed field day. We all had to refield day Friday night and had a Charle Insp the following day while the barracks where being reinspected. As in all commands there are Former DI's someplace, well they found them to be the Inspectors. After a couple hours they ahd there fun and fill of us and said we just barely made but we better inprove in the coming weeks....The ironic thing was we had a DI just off the drill field on our floor and his room failed as well. This DI was in the series behind mine....

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Originally posted by TomHansen:About 3 weeks before graduating from school and the weekend of my birthday we failed field day. We all had to refield day Friday night and had a Charle Insp the following day while the barracks where being reinspected. As in all commands there are Former DI's someplace, well they found them to be the Inspectors. After a couple hours they ahd there fun and fill of us and said we just barely made but we better inprove in the coming weeks

I learned the secret about "inspections" long before I left boot camp. I was already older than the rest in the company, and W.W. Welch, QMC, made me the company MAA. The big job, of course, was keeping the barracks squared away and standing by for inspection, and I took my job seriously.

Basically, I rarely went to classes and stayed back in the barracks keeping busy, or sitting around drinking beer with him.

One day, we were sitting in the office, each with a bottle of Bud and our feet up on the desk, "When he told me, "Evans, don't take these barracks inspections too seriously. Ain't nobody gonna fail an inspection when an inspector wants you to pass. 'Course, ya ain't gonna pass if it ain't your turn, too."

For the next four years, I never took inspections too seriously.

Incidentally, when I went back to Memphis for a sports car reunion a few years ago, I went back on the old base, no longer a Naval Air Station, but a seemingly civilian outpost of the Navy. OK, 45 years had past, but there was very little I could identify with anymore. Thomas Wolfe was right: "You can never go home."