MCRD revisited

In 1998, I drove over to San Diego from Phoenix to attend a boot camp graduation of the son of a very good friend of mine.  It would be the first time I'd set foot at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot since I myself was there back in '66.

Very little had changed during the 32-year gap, and a felt a chill up my spine as I parked my car, got out, and started walking around.  It was almost like I had NEVER LEFT.

The great archway..............."welcome, street punks and "tough guys".........all who enter here, leave all hope behind, 'cause your mama ain't here to save your butt!

Walking around, this entire morning was becoming a "flashback".  I found my old billeting area (long since replaced by open bay barracks, but STILL standing.  This is one of the heads (latrines)---(just in time too!)

Our old  quonset huts.  I lived in the 2nd one down on the left as you're looking at the photo.  Directly across from it a hatch was open on one of them, and the eeriest feeling came over me as I walked around in there.  I could still picture squads of iron bunks, footlockers & wall lockers.......the D.I.'s coming through the hatch at "O-Dark-Thirty" turning on the lights throwing trashcans around and screaming at everybody..............32 years later, it still gave me goosebumps.

Actually, the "D.I" voices I thought I could still hear......was about 100 yards from where I was standing!     Even in the modern times of 1998, these guys were still to be respected and feared.  San Diego is no summer camp, (nor is Parris Island in South Carolina).

A FEW things HAVE lightened-up a bit down there though........while looking out toward the Obstacle Course, I watched a platoon running laps out there.  When I went through years ago, we had to run with all of our gear.....packs, rifles, helmets, canteens, the works!

The "sandbox" and the entrance to the first leg of the Obstacle Course.

The "laundrymat" hasn't changed....still scrubbing on the washracks.  In the Depot Museum, I found weapons that WE had used when I was in.  Today they're "museum pieces"............(I don't know what that makes ME!)----note the bazooka hanging on the wall.

In past blogs, you've heard me mention the "pride & brotherhood" we have in the Marine Corps...........at graduation time, there was an old World War ONE Marine in attendance, who was there to watch his great grandson graduate.  The old guy was now relegated to a power chair, but look at the DECAL on the BACK of it..........Semper Fi, brother.  "Once a Marine............."

Graduation........"Pass in Review".........band is out there playing the Marine Hymn and the crowd is at attention .   "OO-RAH!".......it's a Corps thing..............That one Drill Instructor is probably telling the other one......"As soon as this is over, I'm gonna grab that nut from Idaho with the camera and drop him down for 25, so he'll feel right at home!"

I did a little bit of "T-shirt and ballcap shopping" at the PX, and drove OUT of there.  You can't begin to believe how emotional this was, but it was still a spooky place to return to!