Boot Camp memory

I was flipping through channels and the Military Channel had a bunch of guys marching along in formation and that triggered a memory.

When I joined the Navy I went thru boot camp at RTC San Diego. I'm not sure how the Great lakes and Orlando did it but in San Diego you were assigned to a company in a division and every division had one drill company.

I was in a drill company (913 SMCS Reddish).

Drill companies supplied the band, the color guard, the flag team, and the rifle drill team, in addition to our normal boot camp duties we performed in parades and other functions. Drill companies did the first 4 weeks side by side with the normal companies then when they were in service week we switched over to drill division and started training for all the extra stuff.

On the night you switched you marched across the base with your seabag and your garment bag to the new barracks and you want to put on a show. We did.

One of the things about san Diego that I never saw from Great lakes or Orlando alum was the heartbeat. Digging in your right heel while you march so that it made kind of a slapping boom on the concrete. 913 did that better than anyone.

That night we were marching to the new barracks our heartbeat was so loud that people were coming out of the other company barracks to see what was going on. It was awesome. The other companies were blown away. Some people were actually cheering us. We sounded like the SS marching into Nuremberg it was so loud. My company went on to become the first drill company to be the flag company for a division. Also out of all the graduations we performed in we were the only division where the staff was in dress whites and that was at the insistence of our Company Commander.

Anyway just a fals from the past.