My Life in the Marines

By Almon Collins

Most of the names are fiction. There is only a very few names that I remember. However, I do remember all of the events but not when the events happened. There are many small events that I remember but left out of the story. I could have added a few spicy events, but I wanted the stories to be accurate. I want my children to know a little of my life.
Also I want the world, if the any of the world reads this book, to know how and why the Marines disassembles some of the mans character and reassembles the character to be combat ready to function for protecting this country. At that time of my life, a Marine always had a rifle in a protected rack ready to be issued ammunition for functioning as directed.
After I was discharged, I wandered through life without direction for many years until I earned a degree with two Majors Mathematics and Physics. I was lucky and got a job with a company that manufactured missiles for submarines. It became a beautiful and a needed life. My life as a Marine and as a Mechanical Engineer has always been great.
In 1952, the Marine Corps was very harsh, but I felt the Drill Instructors were not overly mean or really disrespectful. Their treatment was to have a Marine immediately responding to an order rather than cause many others to lose their lives. Marines are to protect this country and that is why I wanted to enlist in this outfit.
When I reported to the aircraft flight line, I thought that the Boot Camp Instructor was a liar when he said that after boot camp we would be treated as a respectable man. A Staff Sergeant was sitting in a chair leaning back against the Quonset building. He was giving marching orders to a man with a back pack filled with sand and holding a rifle over his head. Oh hell, I am in more trouble. It is worth reading!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469110431

Almon Collins

In 1952, the Marine Corps was very harsh, but I felt the Drill Instructors were not overly mean or really disrespectful. Their treatment was to have a Marine immediately responding to an order rather than cause many others to lose their lives. Marines are to protect this country and that is why I wanted to enlist in this outfit. When I reported to the aircraft flight line, I thought that the Boot Camp Instructor was a liar when he said that after boot camp we would be treated as a respectable man. A Staff Sergeant was sitting in a chair leaning back against the Quonset building. He was giving marching orders to a man with a back pack filled with sand and holding a rifle over his head. Oh hell, I am in more trouble. It is worth reading!

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Copyright © 2012 by Almon Collins.

ISBN          Softcover                               978-1-4691-8326-8

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-1043-1

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Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

PREFACE

I was, perhaps, fifteen when I became very interested in the Korean War. I had a brother that had been re-drafted into the Army after WWII. After the second time in the Army, he had volunteered to become a paratrooper-Airborne. He came home on a leave and talked about the tough training that he had just received. For a young skinny boy, it sounded so good. It could make a man of a small skinny boy that was never good for any type of sports. For me, a very poor boy without any close friends and with only one pair of khaki pants for school, life was on a path without any future.

I day dreamed of becoming something. The Airborne seemed the right way to go. But, my brother had to eat two or three pounds of bananas to make the minimum to become a trooper. That just left me out. I could not eat enough bananas to gain weight up to the minimum. Besides, I was still too young. So, I went back to school and would grab the afternoon newspaper to devour the news and the map that showed the lines of our troops against the enemy’s position.

During this uninterested period of my life, I got enough money to see a great movie, SANDS OF IWO JIMA. John Wayne brought out the best of the Marines. What acting of a Hero! But even at that time, I did not know much of the Marines.

Oh well, I went back to school in the eleventh grade. For the first time in my life, I failed a course. I did not fail the grade, only the subject. I made poor grades in that grade. My life was just drifting. Who needed the higher education anyway?

Then it was the end of August and my last school year was approaching. Then something weird happened to me. A student of the high class status approached me. He asked me if we should go in the Marines. He was no larger than me, but he was brainy-very smart. We were just seventeen. Not old enough to make a decision without our parents. He had only a Mother and that was my position also. Maybe that is why he approached me and no one else. He said that he would call the recruiter and get the information. The next day or so, he told me that we would need our Mothers’ signature. He would talk with me the next day. Mom and I had a very hot argument. She finally gave in but she told me that when the training got too hard, Don’t call and want me to try to get you out.

I said, I won’t. AND I DIDN’T.

I will never forget her words. She said, You have made your bed, now lay in it.

CHAPTER 1

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

BOOT CAMP

The summer of ’52 was hot and humid. I was working in a grocery store for long and boring hours. School was to begin the next week. I dreaded that time when it started. Eddie Davis, a school student with a very high class status, had approached me about joining the Marine Corps. I knew of the Marines but that was about all. Later, I had said that Eddie talked me into joining the Marines. That was just a lie. He did not have to talk me into something that would take me away from this town. Eddie had moved up from Florida two or three years ago to Ashburn, and I had moved from the rural country at Arabi, Georgia which was about ten miles away. I had a dislike of the town from the beginning. That is another big story. I think Eddie disliked the town as much as I did. My feelings at that time, any place would be better than there, or so I thought.

Eddie Davis, a natural leader, talked with a Marine Corps recruiter about enlisting in the Marine Corps. A recruiter came over from Albany, Georgia. He got Eddie Davis’ Mother to sign for him. Then he came over to my house and got Mom’s signature. He went back by Eddie’s house and gave him bus tickets from Ashburn to Macon, Georgia. We were told to bring only a change of underwear, comb, tooth brush and paste. Also, we would need enough money for two days of food. Tomorrow we will catch the bus.

The next day I packed an extra pair of home made under wear and the other things as ordered in a suitcase (brown bag). I met Eddie Davis at the drug store where the grey bus stopped and we dutifully boarded the bus. Yesterday, my life had approached a sharp corner and today I made the turn.

Eddie and I arrived in Macon. We went immediately to the Marine Corps office. There we met three black boys about our age. I don’t remember just what procedure we went through but soon we were sworn in. I now look back and think of us as just five young boys. The recruiter shook our hands and congratulated us as Marines. Also, I asked the recruiter to fill out the paper work for an allotment to send money to my Mother as promised by the recruiter in Albany, Ga. The recruiter in Macon said that he could not fill in the papers there, but they would to do that at Parris Island.

The recruiter then gave Eddie all the paper work for all us. He was put in charge of us. Then he instructed all of us to get on a bus for Parris Island, SC. We did as we were told, and later that day we were at a bus stop in SC on highway 17. A community called Yemassee where the bus stopped. There, a Marine bus picked us up and carried us to Parris Island. We were taken to a very nice barracks and given supper in an adjacent building. Everything was nice and cordial. Afterwards, we were given bed things for a bunk bed. I thought this was neat. This was not going to be bad. I don’t remember what day this was, but