Boot Camp Memories #2

 I think it was 04:00 when the lights in the barracks snapped on and a sound, loud beyond description, filled my ears. Stop! Stop! I was awake! And far too early. Who was doing that? Oh, no…it was our recruit commander, and he was serious about waking us up. 

Then we were told that we had work to do. Beds had to be made. Floors to be swept, mopped and buffed. Bathrooms to clean with all the porcelain and chrome to be polished, all trash removed and our seabags to be stowed away. We all needed to wash & shave as we were going to be inspected after breakfast. The duty list was already posted and all we had to do was look at it to see what our fate was to be that week. As none of us really knew what we were doing, the immediate results after that proclamation would have been pure comedy if we were in any mood to laugh. We weren’t.

Eventually, we pulled ourselves together and made an attempt to accomplish all that had been asked of us. We attempted to put on our ‘leggings’ correct and straight, tight and aligned with the folded seam of our dungaree paints. Leggings were straight out of World War l and made from heavy duty olive drab canvas with steel jawed clasps to hold them in place.

The morning before Chow (breakfast) went by in a flash and then we were all lined up in marching order, hungry and ready for breakfast. The chow hall at Camp Nimitz was smaller than the one we would use once we were removed from quarantine and moved to the main training center. It might have been a smaller building but the Nimitz chow hall put out a huge breakfast for us. At home we might have a bowl of Wheaties before going down to the beach for a volleyball game, some body surfing and laying on the warm sand while we perfected our tans. But we were in the Navy now and we were served up bacon and eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, toast, fruit, milk and coffee. Calories and more calories. We soon found out that all meals were going to be like that. A different menu but lots of food. 

We soon began using those calories as we marched everywhere. I don’t remember all of the things we did that first week. But it had started out with an inspection of our uniforms and ourselves. Our Company Commander, a Chief Petty Officer, with over twenty years of experience, had us lined up while he walked along that line looking at the quality of our shaves, the straightness of our leggings and he even inspected the inner neckline of our t-shirts.

I can safely say that everyone that evening, was tired, worn out and wondering, why did we decide to do this? 

More later