Recruit Death at Parris Island Under Investigation

SSgt James Howerton - Hot in the summer and freezing in the winter! Remember that rattling sound of that metal fan at each end. I think some of us got used to that sound as a kind of white noise, and after a while the rattling of those metal fans at each end helped you get to sleep!

Sir, when I went to 29 Palms the first time in 1977, we slept in hard-floored tents. There was no chow hall yet (at least where we were) and no heads. We were truly in the field, using slit-trenches and showered and shaved out of our helmets. The second time in I think 1979, they put us in Quonset huts. There were no fans in them yet. But I can't believe they would have made much difference since both times I was there was between June and August. Those huts got so hot a friend got a minor burn on one of his hands touching the outside on a Sunday (there was alcohol involved). The last time I was there was in the mid '80s and I couldn't believe the changes at the area they billeted us at. Heads with toilets and showers! Tents again this time but it was winter and they had a heating stove at each end (I think they ran on kerosene or some such liquid fuel) and they were really pretty toasty when it got cold at night. They also had a large chow hall with all my favorites: SOS, omelets, pancakes for morning chow and things like spaghetti for evening chow. It was hard to believe we were in the same place. I had always thought the first time I was there that "29 Stumps" or "The Stumps" was a brand new base but I found out later the Corps has owned that land for many years and a long time prior to my first trip. I remember on Saturday nights (during my first 2 deployments) they'd set a projector, and, using a white-sided tent as a screen we'd watch movies. They'd start out with something like a Tom and Jerry cartoon and all the Marines would be cracking up like little kids. Of course, most of them (us) were just kids, mostly 17 - young twenties. And they even supplied beer, which may have been 3.2 but nobody cared. You have to remember when I went through boot they actually included 2 or 3 cigarettes in each serving of C-Rats. My, how times have changed.

SSgt James Howerton - Awesome stories. The Marine Corps has always (kind of Sick when you think about it) valued "living hard." I think with the AVF, creature comforts, when in garrison have become the norm rather than the exception. Most Marines then and now, expect to "suffer" in the field, with some exceptions. I dated a Crypto-Tech Female Warrant Officer for a short time (along time ago), and she used to love telling me how Crypto Tech Marines went to the field with air conditioned trailer, AC/DC and all the comforts of home (microwaves, portable TC, DVD Players, small refrigerators, the occasional six pack of beer), whatever ran off of Juice and was portable. I could not believe it. Most Marines today have air conditioned two man dorm rooms in Garrison as far as I know.

I was at 29 Palms in 98 for a CAX. The Quonset huts were still there. It was not to terrible, but the shower drain was clogged so there was about 6 inches of dirty water that a few 100 dirty Marines had used to wash their asses with. Good times!

Great comments - thank you.

When I was at MCT in Oct of 97 (ha, 21 years this month) there was a Marine walking around with a bandages on his head and ass.....yes his ass. When he was on the live grenade range he failed to clear the wall of the dugout it bounced off it and came back down landed in the pit, he and the instructor took some flying debris. He was lucky to be alive.