Good 'un Joe. The brown shoes were leftovers, I think it was '63 when we had to sandpaper the brown polish and brown leather stain from our dress shoes and redye/repolish them in black. That hurt almost as bad as "putting down" your favorite dog. Of course, if you were rich enough, you could just buy new shoes at cash sales.
The "inside-out" boots were great, rub a few cans of saddle soap into them and they were as soft as a baby's butt and as tough as kevlar. A can of kiwi of each toe and they were inspection ready until the next low crawl scuffed them raw..

quote:

Originally posted by NM11AZ:
Good 'un Joe. The brown shoes were leftovers, I think it was '63 when we had to sandpaper the brown polish and brown leather stain from our dress shoes and redye/repolish them in black. That hurt almost as bad as "putting down" your favorite dog. Of course, if you were rich enough, you could just buy new shoes at cash sales.
The "inside-out" boots were great, rub a few cans of saddle soap into them and they were as soft as a baby's butt and as tough as kevlar. A can of kiwi of each toe and they were inspection ready until the next low crawl scuffed them raw..

Actually, Black Leather was already in by the beginning of 64, and with the shoes they issued us the dye to cover them over, but I hated doing the Leather on the barracks Cover. That dye just did not get in all the corners!

If you can believe it or not, the Newbees never heard of Trops! I remember we were issued a set of trops, a set of Khaki, and Winter Horse Hair, I even had the old Horse hair over Coat. Boy, was that thing warm!

And heavy, had some people on guard duty that wore the "horse blanket" on a chilly night, did OK until it started to rain about an hour into their watch. Damned things weighed about a hundred pounds and smelled like a wet farm dog LOL
I got an Ike jacket off of a guy who was getting out, great jacket for everything save inspections. Got Blues the same way, passed them on when I EASed. They're probably still on duty somewhere...

Does anyone remember spit shining that barracks cover to where you could comb what little hair you had on your head after Boot Camp? And, on your boot leave, the first thing that your GF did was to grab the cover by its bill?

Mixed emotions! Do I punch her lights out, or what? Or, do you remember the first person that stepped on your shoes?

Does anyone remember doing your MCI Courses? Better yet, Do they still have MCI Courses?

Marine Corps Institute, yep, remember the correspondence courses well. Helped me stay reasonably sane and sober (sometimes ).
Took engineering equipment operation, maintenance and repair, came in handy later in the world.
I suppose now you could get a degree at an on-line University just as easily.
Didn't they charge $20 a course?

quote:

Originally posted by NM11AZ:
Marine Corps Institute, yep, remember the correspondence courses well. Helped me stay reasonably sane and sober (sometimes ).
Took engineering equipment operation, maintenance and repair, came in handy later in the world.
I suppose now you could get a degree at an on-line University just as easily.
Didn't they charge $20 a course?

Damn! I don't remember the course cost. I took Operations against Guerrilla Forces, and Explosives and demolition land mine warfare, but I was only making $106 a month as a PFC under two while in the 2nd MarDiv. I don't think that I could have afforded $20 a course at the time!

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Originally posted by 6576414:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike_Tex:


S/Sgt Blum couldn't have been the first and only DI to pull this one.

nope, Sgt. B.J. Wright Plt 263.. 1963

6576414. Your DI has to be the one and only Billy Joe Wright. He was short, stocky and smoked cigarettes like a train. We were Sgts, he was on the "grinder" and I was a PMI at Camp Matthews. We both got commissioned and went on to the Aerial Observers Course at New River in 1966. We also served together at Marble Mtn. Vietnam. He flew with the ROK Marines (ANGLICO) and I with Ist Mar Div AO Unit. Semper Fidelis. Blackcoat.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe_Carey:

quote:

Originally posted by NM11AZ:
Marine Corps Institute, yep, remember the correspondence courses well. Helped me stay reasonably sane and sober (sometimes ).
Took engineering equipment operation, maintenance and repair, came in handy later in the world.
I suppose now you could get a degree at an on-line University just as easily.
Didn't they charge $20 a course?

Damn! I don't remember the course cost. I took Operations against Guerrilla Forces, and Explosives and demolition land mine warfare, but I was only making $106 a month as a PFC under two while in the 2nd MarDiv. I don't think that I could have afforded $20 a course at the time!

I don't remember MCIs costing anything?
edit,(from 81 to 89 that is)

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

quote:

Originally posted by dennismorrow:
I don't remember MCIs costing anything?

I know they didn't cost anything from 1998 to 2005!

MCI's are still free and I know have been at least from 1990 to now. I'm not sure if they ever cost anything.

Possible they did way, way, way, way back when...

Like I said, we didn't make the BIG bucks like you guys do today, so I am pretty sure that they did not cost us anything.

But, does anyone remember cutting a tie in half and sewing it together with just a stitch or two so that when it was pulled in a fight it just came off? I remember that I had to hide the damn thing each time we had a junk on the bunk.

quote:

But, does anyone remember cutting a tie in half and sewing it together with just a stitch or two so that when it was pulled in a fight it just came off? I remember that I had to hide the damn thing each time we had a junk on the bunk.

Carey,,,what are you smokin? I read an earlier post about the sharpening the belt buckle to use it to fight with. That is an old salt sea story from the days of the China Marines through WWII. Now the neck tie b/s is new on me....and I did serve with a lot of WWII and Korean vets. Did you put razor blades in the toes of your shoes too?
Lowball

quote:

Originally posted by lowballfred:

quote:

But, does anyone remember cutting a tie in half and sewing it together with just a stitch or two so that when it was pulled in a fight it just came off? I remember that I had to hide the damn thing each time we had a junk on the bunk.

Carey,,,what are you smokin? I read an earlier post about the sharpening the belt buckle to use it to fight with. That is an old salt sea story from the days of the China Marines through WWII. Now the neck tie b/s is new on me....and I did serve with a lot of WWII and Korean vets. Did you put razor blades in the toes of your shoes too?
Lowball

Oh come on now! While we were on the Med Cruise and other such activities back in the 60s, we had to go on Cinderella Liberty in our uniforms in some very Solcialist and Communist populations in Europe. The carrying of weapons was most streniously prohibited, and the Officer of the Deck would usually check us before we left a ship for anything of the like.

For someone to grab that tie, which we wore with both Summer and Winter Service Class A, meant that they had you at a disadvantage. For the record, we learned these things from the Old Salts that were still in many a unit back then. Our weapons in a fight were our hands, our feet, our belts, and our ability to get out of the grip of someone that meant us harm.

We walked the back allies of Europe. In Catania, Sicily, I saw Mafiosa hits over Whores in the Red Light Districts there. Myself, Don Kennedy, and Danny Daughtry (Those two went with me to Ft Meade Barracks after the Med) personally witnessed a shooting in one of those alleys not more than a few feet in front of us by a small man in a black overcoat and he ran right at us when he fled the scene. We immediately went for our belts that were rigged to release quickly by the prying of the hooks that held the belt to the catch on the other end of the belt and I don't really know what we would have done had the man not stopped and raised his weapon and pointed it at us, but instead turned and run up another alley to the left of us.

There were bar fights in the French Riviera with Sailors off of other ships from other countries that carried knives on them, and that for the most part knew we were unarmed.

It was defense, and yes, we did do those things, Fred, for our own protections in foreign posts-o-call! The world was still a very dangerous place to be a memeber of the US Armed Forces, even in those days!

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

Joe, when were you stationed in Europe??

your profile doesn't show that??

unless i'm missing something, it says you were

in from 64-67??? mostly in Nam.....

quote:

There were bar fights in the French Riviera with Sailors off of other ships from other countries that carried knives on them, and that for the most part knew we were unarmed.

It was defense, and yes, we did do those things, Fred, for our own protections in foreign posts-o-call! The world was still a very dangerous place to be a memeber of the US Armed Forces, even in those days!

OK Carey...I made the Med in '55. The only grunts who made it over there were usually from the 6th Marines (they wore the French fouragere' (sp?)). Sure there were places you could get into trouble...like the Arab quarter in Marseille..at night. But that was true in any port of call. We pulled into Cannes & Niece twice. I don't recall many other ships being in there except sometimes an occassional Limey boat. Realistically, if the ports of call were as dangerous as you say, the Navy didn't go in there. Were there fights?Yeah usually dome drunk Marines fighting with a swabbie, etc. And I recall one night in some port we were on the 2nd floor of a bar and a drunk Marine from my outfit challenged all the swabbies that he was claiming the floor for the Corps. That was put down pretty quick. We got out of there before the SP'S and local gendarmes showed up. I honestly don't recall being warned that when we got liberty we must be aware of the dangerous natives we were going to encounter. If you wanted trouble you could find it. I never heard about any sailors from other countries attacking us, with knives, etc. In fact we spent more time in ports then at sea. They wanted the 'locals' to be aware of the presence and power of the US. Looking back, that time in the Med was a great cruise.
Lowball

One more thing I forgot Carey...when we went on libo, all I did was request permission to go ashore while saluting the OOD, then saluting the colors, etc. I was never frisked for a weapon, or asked if I had one.
The only time we got 'searched' was when we were coming back AFTER liberty.
One particular event I do remember. While coming up the ladder, a Marine who was a couple of men ahead of me had a shoe box. When he got to the OOD, he was asked what was in the box. He immediately threw the box into the drink and replied "Shoes Sir, but they didn't fit anyway."
Semper Fi Marines
Lowball

Well, gentlemen, let's go down the list:

I was never stationed in Europe. I was with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines in 64 and 65. There was Steel Pike I, a NATO exercise in Spain that we took the USS Guadalcannal (LPH-7), there was the Med on the USS Traverse County (LST 1160), and from the Med we went on another NATO Exercise in the Arctic Circle about 11 Miles from the USSR.

Ports-o-call? Naples, with a trip to Rome, There was Catania, Sicily, there was Izmir Turkey, there was the Riviera, there was Isla de Majorca, as well as landings on Corsica and Sadinia. There was Portsmoth England and London England, Breast France, Edinburgh, Scotland, and some others here and there.

I was Seventeen years old for most of those times, and I turned 18 doing Guard duty on the Fantail of the Traverse County in the Port of naples, and when the old-timers told you to do something to protect yourself, you did it, and there were fights a plenty to be had, and I was in them, and I had a ball in those fights!

So, knock yourselves out ladies! It really happened!

Oh! And it depends on the Ship's CO as to whether or not the Officer of the Deck checks out the people going ashore, and Spots like Naples was perceived to be rather unfriendly at times, and often in port were ships from other countries, as well as Breast Portsmouth and Edinburgh, and you can add Izmir to that list as well!

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

quote:

Originally posted by lowballfred:
One particular event I do remember. While coming up the ladder, a Marine who was a couple of men ahead of me had a shoe box. When he got to the OOD, he was asked what was in the box. He immediately threw the box into the drink and replied "Shoes Sir, but they didn't fit anyway."

Now that guy had to be a frickin' boot.

Us old salts would find a drunk sailor,decide to look after his general welfare and get him on the launch to the boat.

We'd then shove whatever contraband we happened to be smuggling not declaring aboard.

Always had front of the line priviledges,little screening,and absolutely no idea he had that many bottles of rum on his person if questioned further.

Usually, we'd get to a passageway,take our possessions and leave him laying in the passageway.

I do sometimes wonder if some hung-over squid ever woke up and wonder how he got there and why he was on a carrier instead of a fast frigate....

Carey...you need a good dose of ex-lax or a suppository jammed up your *** to get some of that bullshit out of you. You are full of it my man! You may have a Bronze Star, etc. etc. but your are still full of it. Thats all I got to say about that.
Lowoball
ps...I ain't apologizing either.