Keeping this threat in the files would or should cut down on alot of questions by the kiddies.

I have thought about posting a normal day in the feild, but how in the hell do you do that? I mean with the variations between K-Bay, Pendelon, The Stumps and Lejunne or the type of op and then we have exotic places like Fuji and Oki.

I suppose I could write up a very generic description of what happens in the field. OF course a day in the field is not 1 day since it all blends in with night ops and day ops and no sleep. I'll work on it.

Semper

Jess

Generic day in the field at Camp Pendleton...all depends on what you training you are conducting. I'll give it a go...my last training excerisice on Camp Pendleton...late 2004...

0330: Awake Monday morning, you walk the catwalk, ensuring your Team Leaders are ensuring morning clean up is being done.

0400: Team Leaders knock on your door, to inform you your squad is ready to go.

0415: Platoon formed in the parking lot. Accountability taken. Ensure each Marine has ID.

0430: Step off for Armory.

0515: Leave the Armory after finally drawing weapons...even though one platoon arrived earlier than they were supposed to, throwing off Gunny's timeline. You pull rank, being the senior Sergeant and get your platoon through the line.

0530: Formation back out on the parking lot. Ensure each Marine has his weapon, optics, bayonet, forward grip, sling, etc. Tell them 0600 on the Parade Deck with pack, duece gear, weapon, flack and kevlar.

0600: Formation. Account for each Marine, and ensure Team Leaders have inspected their Teams. Squad Leaders inspect again. Plt Sgt recieves thumbs up from squad leaders, informs Plt Cmdr the Platoon is ready.

0615: Plt Sgt speaks with the Platoon on what will be expected, how we will load trucks, etc,.

0630: Company formation. 1st Sgt recieves thumbs up, Co gives his approval. We are ordered to stand by.

0715: Trucks arrive EARLY as the sonofa%#@$ always do when we got to the field. We load up, get accountability, and move out in 7tons.

0830: Arrive at training site, offload and get in platoon formation. Squad Leaders assure gear and person accountability is good. Plt Sgt recieves thumbs up. We stand by for the Plt Cmdr.

0850: Plt Cmdr having recieved word from the Co. Cmdr, has the Plt Sgt move us to our staging point 100 meters from drop off point.


This is just to get TO the field...

[This message was edited by sundaysinner77 on Mon, 21 February 2005 at 22:34.]

In the field...let's assume patrolling operations are being done. You and your platoon are in a patrol base...

0230: The fire watch awakes you, as you requested. You awake and throw rocks at your Team Leaders to get them up, who in return will awake their Teams.

0245: Tell Team Leaders to stand by, ready to recieve a patrol order.

0300: Your kneeling in front of the Plt Cmdr, who has a map in one hand, a red lens flashlight in the other, and the radio mic in his ear. He gives you a general scheme of manuever...grid checkpoints, timelines, etc. You write down what you need and get any last minute instructions from the Plt Sgt.

0330: You stand in front of your squad and check them over, ensuring accountability for gear, weapons attachments, chow, 1st Aid, etc. You get them in a small circle, give them the order, and ensure every Marine recites it back as you told them.

0400: Depart friendly lines.

0630: Enter friendly lines.

0645: Team Leaders check their teams, you re-check after they've checked. Tell them to grab water and stand by.

0700: Confer with Plt Cmdr, Inform him of anything that happened, points of interest, ideas for improvement. Recieve word from him AND Plt Sgt.

0730: Debrief your squad...negative and positive points, things to work on, ect,...tell them to hit the rack. Debrief the Team Leaders in private. Inform the fire watch when to wake you up next.

1230: Wake up and do it all over again. But with verying degrees of time and difficulty.


Notice how many times you check for accountability?

Returning from the field...late Thursday evening...

2030: Arrive at the Parade Deck 2 hours late, because Motor T...ONCE AGAIN...not only was late, but didnt bring enough trucks. So you had to shuttle back and forth from the training site. You get a platoon formation and inspect your squad to esnure gear and weapon accountability is done. Give the Plt Sgt thumbs up, Plt Cmdr gives his thumbs up to head to the armory.

2100: This begins the Mad Dash to see which platoon can get to the Armory first...first one ine, first one done, right?...you all start to run, but Gunny screams at you all to be the Marine we THINK we are and MARCH like Marines to the armory. We slow it down and QUICKLY march to the Armory. Once out of Gunny's site....we sprint in formation to the Armory.

2230: after cleaning weapons, you turn them in with enough lubricant to grease an elephants dik with. And tell your squad to head back, by twos, to the barracks.

2300: You head to the COmpany Office to get word.

2345: You inform your Team Leaders to pass on the word for a 0530 formation tomorrow morning, and that ALL gear will be clean by said formation. Inspections by Plt Sgt, Plt Cmdr and SL will commence.

2400: You head down the catwalk to your best friends room, where the beer is flowing and wrestling is on TV. Dont bother taking a shower or wiping the cammie paint off your face...just take off your blouse, untuck your skivvie shirt and throw on some sandals.

Okay Sinner you just described my last operation with the returning from the field post. Except for cold beer I had semi warm Whiskey But they were watching wrestling, Sumo wrestling.

Good Job!

Semper

Jess

I'm bored, I'll give my spiel on a typical garrison day in the Infantry as of late 2004...

0530:...yea right.

0615: Wake up, shave and shower(I call it a rinse)...throw on your cammies.

0630: Platoon formation in the parking lot. Ensure accountability and make sure morning clean up was done. If it wasn't...Team Leaders do it. Recieve word from the Platoon Sgt. You convince him to let the Squad Leaders run PT on a squad level, instead of enduring yet another Plt Cmdr "Let's see how far we can run today" marathon. He grudgingly allows it. Company PT is only done about twice a month...

0700: Company formation. Gunny passes word to Plt Sgts, who then informs us of who needs to go to medical, dental, Company Office as well as the infamous 2 bodies for Gunny's Working Party.

0730: Changed over into PT gear, you take your squad on a 2 mile run, which ends at the football field, where you run sprints. Afterwards, you referee as you let the boys in your squad wrestle each other for a spell.

0830: Return to barracks to clean up.

0900: Classes in the courtyard over patrolling, Call for Fire, CAS, Radio instruction, etc,. Plt Cmdr shows up, where he takes Squad Leaders aside and informs them that next time, he will choose what PT is done for the day, not the other way around. We then get into arguments with the Plt Cmdr over CAS procedures...with him arguing the way the book tells it...and us with the way the Pilots told us.

1100: Chow, where you and others pack into POV's and drive out to San Clemente to pick up Taco Bell....or take a nap.

1300( yep, two hours): Platoon formation, where the Plt Sgt informs everyone that there will be a class given by the XO on donating money to the numerous Marine charity orginizations that are out there. He gives you the notorious SNCO/OFFICER line of, "You don't HAVE to donate, but it is HIGHLY advisable"....No one donates, though.

1400: Plt Cmdr takes the Platoon to the backyard where you conduct walk throughs of patrols, entering and exiting friendly lines, codewords/callsigns and formations.

1630: The Platoon returns to the barracks while the Plt Cmdr and Plt Sgt return to the Company Office for word.


1845: If you are an SL, you've been sitting in your rooms writing up monthly counselings or example Patrol Orders that the Plt Cmdr always ask's for. If you're not, you've been sitting in your room, playing Playstation or jerking off. Either way, you've been waiting for word for over 2 hours when it should have taken less than 45 minutes.

1850: Plt Sgt shows up with word. He passes it, then talks with SL's privately...then gives the Platoon to us.

1900: We pass our own word, give the Marines the finger, and Libbo has just been sounded.

Now one thing my CO did that I loved, was he did what he called "NCO Day". On NCO day, the Marines were given to the Plt Cmdrs and the CO took all NCO's and above enlisted, and took us on runs. But they weren't normal runs...usually they were around 8-10 miles, but they always ended in the pool where we would swim for 30 minutes and then sit in pool bleachers and talk...and they were real talks...b/tches, moans, ideas, suggestions. From Cpl to 1st Sgt, the CO listened to us all....I always respected that. We usually did these about twice a week and if you fell out of the run....the CO ran you himself EVERY MORNING at 0430. It's no wonder every NCO had a 20:00 or better run time.

[This message was edited by sundaysinner77 on Tue, 22 February 2005 at 0:11.]

I was a brown bagger (married Marine) when I was in arty we came in on non Pt days at 0630 and we cleaned the common areas ie: showers and the head area dump the sh*t cans around the common areas and out side of the barracks.

For field day night we did the same thing but two to three would go clean the co's and 1st sgt office.

I had a duty nco and duty nco after I made L/Cpl once every month and yes some times it was on a weekend. The unit I was in the longs was Delta 2/12 in ths unit the morning after you was releaved from duty by the 1st sgt you reported to your work shop and then after noon formasion you was released to go home that was for both non married and married Marines.

It was nice when it was a friday when you only had to a half day.

No one did not get to sleep half the night and then the other one would get to sleep both the a-duty nco and the duty nco had to be up and making rounds we had like four barracks to check on.

This was at Camp Pendleton in Las Pogus.

Man ya'll didn't field day the heads. You emptied sh*t cans and policed butts outside the barracks maybe wipped down the washers and the dryers and then skyed out, just as soon as Big Mo was outta the AO.

I wouldn't mind being in the infantry, but I can't, 'cause woman aren't allowed. I would just love the physical conditioning for it.

Don't they have morning chow anymore? I always made sure the boys had some hot chow in the AM.

Thats what the roach coach is for!

In my unit the only time we ever ate morning chow was in Oki or after a special BN formation.

Oki because our PT started at 0330 and ended about 0500-0600. Figure between cool down time showers and getting dressed it would be about 0700 so we could make chow.

In K-Bay, PT would go between 0530 and 0700, normaly though about 0600 on average and it would be Company PT.

With the PT our Company Commander did to eat chow before PT would be a guarantee to drop. And that would mean remedial PT, adding PTing instead of lunch, and after colors and on the weekends.

Our PT would normaly last until about 30 minutes before the Chow hall closed for morning chow. And with the word being passed and changing over, forget it. Often PT for our company would go well beyond morning chow and basicaly we would cool down, change over and go to noon chow.

Then again most people in our Regiment considered us to be overly extreme in our PT.

A pack run in boots with out packs holding EVERYTHING to include 1 set of libo clothes and running a Hill Called KT and the LOOP was not unknown. <KT think of a paved Mt Muther> The loop, basicaly running out the bases front gate along the pond, along the highway, along the back end of the pond, through the town, through the residential area on the road leading to the back gate, in the backgate, along the road unless you cut through the AMTRAK trail, and basicaly through some of the base back to grunt land

Anyone know how long the loop at K-Bay was? I heard it was 8 or 9 miles. And when given a choice of indavidual PT after calls that was the only option to playing with the Captain. Exhorder and I can tell ALOT of stories about him and his PT.

Basicaly the only time we went to chow was evening chow.

Sunday the NCO Day sounded like a cool idea. A good means of actualy getting a REAL dialogue between the command and what goes on with the guys in the unit.


Semper Fi

Jess

Monring chow consist of grabbing a To Go Bag from the chow hall whenever there is a spare 15 minutes.

Every once in awhile we had 15-30 minutes to spare, waiting for formation, but usually the boys just grabbed the bags and ate outside their rooms.

To tell the truth....not a lot of guys went to the chow hall. Most guys ate out of their rooms...Pop Tarts, cereal, oatmeal. I had about maybe 3, out of my entire platoon, that would normally go.

I don't remember many people actually going to morning chow. If we had a shot at morning chow, most guys used that time to catch an extra 15-30 minutes of sleep.

Grunts are the tiredest (is that a word?) sons of b**ches who ever lived. Any opportunity to stop moving for a while and half of the platoon would go to sleep. You generally work your d**k into the dirt so any chance you get to grab some rest, you take it.

Sinner's account of a day sounded a lot like a day at the stumps. The only difference was that we, with one exception, NEVER got to ride in trucks. The ONLY time that we ever got a truck ride was on the way to some hole in the earth training area at 29 Palms. We started out on a 20 mile hump and then someone determined that we were not going to get there in time so we got picked up in 5 tons. Man that was SWEET! Of course, there was no hurry to get back so we rode our leather personel carriers.

I asked one of our troop handlers in SOI if humping EVER got to be easy. He said that it NEVER gets easy, you just get used to it. Truer words have never been spoken.

Morning and noon chow formation in 3/6 was mandatory for about my entire time there. You had to march to the chow hall and either get in chow line or gaggle back to the barracks. They later relaxed this SOP but only for lunch. Top ramen and canned chicken cooked on a upside down iron, ummm.

Eh, that was just an example. The only time we would hump out to the field is if we were heading to the Ranges over in Horno.

200 Series if my memory is correct?

But anything past that and we were riding out there.

Glad I did do all that hiking....I know I was humping a lot in Iraq.

Reagenera...how about grilled cheese with an iron?

quote:

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Originally posted by sundaysinner77:
Reagenera...how about grilled cheese with an iron?

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Oh yea, throw some ham on mine would ya?

Ah and now we come to two of the three things that are near and dear to a Grunts heart.

Since this is the kiddie forum I will omit one of them to keep it G rated.

But food and sleep and how to get them. <which also means getting out of or getting on the rare working party>

Barracks cookery,

And what about all of the cool things you found out you could do with mac and cheese?

Nothing like mac N' cheese with a can of viena sausages, chicken, ham, tuna or chili. Damn, I know whats for dinner tonight!

-Ramen Noodles cooked in a microwave.

-2 day old, cold Jack-N-Box Ultimate Cheeseburgers.

-No cheese for a balogna sandwich, so you grab an old packet of MRE Cheese Spread and use that.

-No BREAD for a sandwich, so you grab the MRE Wheat Bread.

-No MEAT for a sandwich, so you grab an MRE Ham Slice.

-Oreo Cookies and Strawberry Milk.

-Cocoa Pebbles cereal with water.

-KFC Chicken...eat the skin off the chicken for breakfast and the actual chicken at Lunch.


Etc...

quote:

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Any opportunity to stop moving for a while and half of the platoon would go to sleep.

---

Reminds me of a funny story...

I had just gotten to the fleet and was out with my company doing my first "training" exercise in the field. For about my first three months or so, all the "training" consisted of humpin all over Mateo and beyond, nothing else. Well, we did dig in every night too.

Anyway, so it's getting dark and we've done nothing but hump all friggin day, tactically, by the way. Everyone was beat. Can you really hump tactically? Company size patrol I suppose. I digress.

Since we're being tactical, everytime we stop it's using hand and arm signals, get in the prone face outboard...you know the rest. At one stop, my squad ended up in a draw. A deep draw, where it was darker, warmer, soft sand instead of rock. You know where I'm going with this.

Every one of them azzholes in my squad, except me of course, fell alseep.

And I was in the third squad, third platoon, which meant we were picking up the rear. Oh my GOD what a nightmare that ensued. For me, then them. Then it never happened again.

Ah yes in the grunts you even learn about the softness of rocks, dirt and sand. Some are after all softer than others. Or are we just so tired?

Hell one time I remember I had a section of MRE case sleeve to sleep on. It at that time was better than a kingsize bed. Something warm and dry and well not having slept for about 72 hours.

LOL Sinner you sick bastage! And its so true!!! Ever make MRE nachos? Run out of cheese dip for the corn chips, the ball game is on there is still plenty of beer and half time is not even close? MREs to the rescue!

A couple packets of MRE cheese, some tobasco and there ya go! Of course we were living large we had a hotpot.

Damn the good ol days!