March 28, 1962

[Texas Turnip]

It was 60 years ago today when I kissed my 1957 Harley good bye and boarded an airplane for the first time to go to boot camp in San Diego, CA. What a 60 years it has been.

I came into this world naked, broke and no teeth and looks like I will leave the same way.

Tex

[larrys]

I came into this world naked, broke and no teeth and looks like I will leave the same way.

Tex

Lets not forget drooling and incontinent.
Thank you for your service. I went to boot camp on Mar 9, 1972.
Larry

[kballowe]

It was 60 years ago today when I kissed my 1957 Harley good bye and boarded an airplane for the first time to go to boot camp in San Diego, CA.

Hollywood Marine, eh ?
 

Semper Fi, Marine !

[Gliderjohn]

In 62 I was just playing in my sandpile.
GliderJohn

[Scout63]

Bless you and all Marines Tex. My dad went through Parris Island in 1950 on his way to Korea.

[guzziart]

Bless you and all Marines Tex. My dad went through Parris Island in 1950 on his way to Korea.

Yep & my dad too.

[John A]

Time goes by fast. I was nine when Tex went off. Dad was a corpsman in the marines who was in Korea when I was born in ‘53, on the base. He got back a few days later and we moved to Minnesota when I was two weeks old. After high school I got the brilliant idea to be a helicopter door gunner for the Marines. Dad talked me out of it, bless his heart

[Texas Turnip]

Correction. I was a swabbie. The Marine bot camp was next to the Navy. We were warned that if we escaped going thru the Marine boot camp that it would be safer to jump in the Pacific Ocean and swim to Hawaii.
Tex

[jcctx]

October , 1961 I was in San Antonio doing basic. I turned 79 last month~ where have the years gone???

[John A]

Tex I think my dad got fooled. He went into the navy and wanted to be a medic and he got transferred to the Corps for basic in a slight of hand as the military does sometimes. He never said he was a marine but was in the navy, attached to the corps. He didn’t much care for it and would tell me some of the foolishness he experienced. When he died in 2001,he was one of the first ones to get planted in a new vets cemetery near Spooner. Right under the Marine Corps flag.

[krglorioso]

Those brother Marines who took basic training at MCRD San Diego are known as "Hollywood Marines" by their brethren who endured the swamps and humidity of the coastal middle Atlantic.  God knows what the Hollywood Marines say about us. 

Ralph
USMC 1958-61

[PeteS]

Correction. I was a swabbie. The Marine bot camp was next to the Navy. We were warned that if we escaped going thru the Marine boot camp that it would be safer to jump in the Pacific Ocean and swim to Hawaii.
Tex

I was at Great Lakes a year later. After boot camp and A school I got a ship out of San Diego. Where were you assigned after boot camp?

Pete

[Iron Cross Junction]

It was 60 years ago today when I kissed my 1957 Harley good bye and boarded an airplane for the first time to go to boot camp in San Diego, CA. What a 60 years it has been.

I came into this world naked, broke and no teeth and looks like I will leave the same way.

Tex

I missed this post until just now.

On that important date in your life, I was about to turn 16 and had love -- OK, lust  -- not the military, motorcycles, school, or much of anything else in my heart.   

Your own experiences on that day are being repeated "as we speak" by young Americans who, in a mere few months, will be better and decidedly different than they are today.

They will, in relatively short order, become soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coasties.  Parents and others will then see, as generations of such folks have seen, often to their pleased astonishment, not uniforms only, but, instead of the boys and girls they farewelled so recently, young men and women.

Your comment about leaving this world as you came into it is vintage Texas Turnipism ... and it fits everyone. 

First, the many here and elsewhere who have admired and learned so much from you sure hope that your "leaving" will be quite some time. 

Moreover, as all -- rich, poor, sinners, and saints -- who leave this planet take nothing except love and memories with them, we will all be naked and nothing more when we cross over to the other side.  That "winners have more toys" quip is funny ... but, as the millions with millions know -- or will know -- in their hearts, untrue.  In the end, love (and not lust as I had hoped back in March of '62  ) is what counts.   

In the meantime, stay healthy and contribute here with your inimitable humor as you have for so long.

Finally, Ken, as that saying goes, "Thank you for your service."  As Kathi always adds when she (really, really) means something: "Truly." 

Best from the top of Virginia,

Bill

[Chuck in Indiana]

After high school I got the brilliant idea to be a helicopter door gunner for the Marines.

A good friend, Lyle (RIP) did that in 'Nam. He came back a drug addict.. still a good friend, though. Probably a good thing that your dad disabused you of that notion, John. 

[blackcat]

My dad and all of his brothers fought in WWII and miraculously they all made it home. Dad never talked about the war, don't even know what he did or where he went but he suffered the war for the rest of his life and we only knew this because of his weekly screams in his sleep that my brother and I were not allowed to talk about the morning after. When he accidentally punched my mom during one of this nightmares she brushed it off but they soon purchased separate beds. Mom tried to get him to go visit relatives in Italy, but his standard response was that he marched all over Europe and he wasn't going back. But when he was in his 70's they finally made the trip.   While my brother and I were lucky to not have had to face the same things our father did, we in a remote way experienced those nightmares; he didn't want us to go, but if drafted there was no way we would have taken any other route.  My wife's father had the same nightmares, with the same orders to not comment and he too suffered for the rest of his life for his experience in the South Pacific.

[Road Rocket]

1962…..4 years before I got my notice from LBJ telling me to report for induction at 19 years old…

[Guzzistajohn]

Ken, In '62 I was still shittin' yeller     But thanks for your bravery and service. You've also been a great source of humor and entertainment over the years, and we appreciate it!