You’re All Riflemen in My Marine Corps!
September 15th, 2009 by Jack Orth | FLASHBACKS | | 0 Comments
The Gunny
Five Ring Shirt from Leathernecksquare.com
A Jarhead friend of mine called me, and made my day! “Gunny, my grandson is in the State Highway Patrol after his four-year tour in the Corps. He invited both of us to complete a fire team of four, and head to the police range to ‘lock & load’! Don’t bring Trigger, as he hated the noise last year when we went.”
That was it for me .. I went to the seabag and pulled out my Leatherneck Square
Gave Trigger an extra treat, along with clean water and orders to be on fire watch for a four-hour shift .. then, I’d relieve him of duty. Looked in the mirror, saluted myself, as I looked so damn good in the “Five Ring” shirt, and headed for “Tank” for the ride to the range .. then, I had a “flashback”!
I was back in Yemassee, SC getting off the train to board the “cattle cars” for Parris Island. After our welcome there, we were all speechless, and wondering what the hell we had done when we decided to join the Marine Corps!
Parris Island was nowhere near as bad as we had dreamed .. it was far worse!
The weeks went by quickly though, and we were actually half way through boot camp and getting ready to head to the rifle range. After the short march to the range, our head D.I. let us know right up front what we were there for. “You maggots, if you ever become Marines, will all be riflemen in “my” Marine Corps. You may be an office pinky, a cook, in the M.C. band, motor transport, etc., but that’s not your main job. You’re all riflemen, and don’t even think differently!”
Then, another D.I. let us know in no uncertain terms, that we would all qualify as either Marksman, Sharpshooter, or Expert on qualification day! “You maggots will see platoons in formation around the rifle range, and some recruits will have rolls of toilet paper tied around their neck, or a bucket over their heads. Those maggots didn’t qualify .. they shot under 200 out of a possible 250. We want, and will have, every recruit in Platoon 263 qualify! Do you hear me?!” “Sir! Yes, Sir!”
Three days of “snapping in” .. hours and hours in the prone position, sitting position, and off hand position. Then, live fire from 200-300 and 500 yards. The day before qualification day was perfect. No wind .. sunshine .. the next day, rain and wind! Thankfully, most of us qualified, but we had a few wearing the unwanted badge of a non-qualifier aound their neck!
Got to the police range, and it continued to bring back memories of P.I. and range at Camp Lejeune, where I qualified a year later. Had many comments and Semper Fi’s about the Shooter’s Shirt, and I swear it helped me fire what would have been about 230 at Parris Island! Well, maybe not .. but, we sure didn’t have any “Maggie’s Drawers” waving in the breeze!
Told Trigger all about it over a cold one back at the C.P., and he completely understood that as you get older, it’s nice to feel “macho” again! All ready on the right! All ready on the left! All ready on the firing line!
Semper Fi …… The Gunny
