“Pickle Meadows” Cold Weather Training Days
September 29th, 2009 by Jack Orth | FLASHBACKS | | 0 Comments
The Gunny
Midweight Pullover Hoodie
A Marine I served with on Guadalcanal–so he’s no spring chicken and I’m not either–called me recently from his C.P. in Houlton, ME. His last checkup by the corpsman, I mean doctor, wasn’t that great, so he said, “Gunny, pack your trash and come on up so we can lie to each other about how we won the war in the Pacific! Bring some warm gear because ya never know up here in northern Maine what tomorrow will be like!” Well, reading between the lines, I figured I’d better go up sooner rather than later, and check in with the “old salt” from my younger days.
Hate leaving Trigger with anyone else, so since the Marine Corps hasn’t called me back to active duty, I’ll drive up to Maine and Trigger can ride shotgun. Packed our seabag full of Leatherneck Square gear, and wanted to bring a couple of items for my machinegunner friend .. so brought two Midweight Hoodie sweatshirts. The deep-green, heavy-duty combed cotton/poly fabric with the gold EGA embroidered logo looks and feels like a million bucks! The kangaroo pouch in front will keep your “paws” warm. One Jarhead told me he carries his sidearm in the pouch when roaming the boondocks, but we leave that up to you! Rolled up the gear to pack in the seabag, and then had a “flashback”! …
Before going to Korea in 1952, all the troops from every draft spent three or four days of cold weather training. The bus ride from Camp Pendleton seemed to take forever before we finally reached “Pickle Meadows”, which was near Bridgeport, CA. It’s well over 10,000 feet elevation, and carrying a full pack, weapon, etc., up to that elevation was no walk in the drill field.
We stayed in shelter halves in snow up to your cartridge belt, and sometimes higher. The below-zero temperatures forced the Marine Corps to have warming huts that the troops used at various intervals during the stay. To top that off, they had aggressors on snowshoes and skis screaming and yelling all night and firing blanks. The only thing missing was incoming, but we’d see that soon enough on the other side of the Pacific! Well, like all Marines, we lived through Pickle Meadows …but, it would have been a hell of a lot more comfortable with the Midweight Hoodie!
The Jarhead in Houlton knew all about Pickle Meadows, as he had been there, too. We laughed like hell about that adventure, and hundreds of other ones over our more than twenty years in The Corps. With each beer, our stories got better, and for three or four days we ate a lot, drank a lot, and talked a lot. Our stories have been worked over and embeliished on over the years, but we enjoy them now even more than we did in the old days.
I’m hoping I’ll be back in Houlton, Maine next year to continue our storytelling. There’s nothing quite like two old Marines getting together. It makes you understand once again that the Marine Corps is very special, .. and what an honor it is to have served!
Have some flashbacks of your own! You will when you wear Leatherneck Square gear!
Semper Fi …… The Gunny
