Boot Camp Primary Side.

  Once we had gotten our checkups, haircuts, and uniforms. We had taken our GCT, and formed into a basic company.  And we had been introduced to our Company Commander, Commisaryman First Class, Pippen,  Company petty officers were chosen.  First Recruit Chief Petty Officer.  CS1 Pippen asked if anyone had had prior Naval service, and Recruit Lyons stepped forward, he had been a midshipman at the Naval Academy but failed academically and was dropped, because of this "prior service" Recruit Lyons became RCPO Lyons.  The RCPO was responsible for the entire company and right below the Company Commander in rank.  Lyons was a short chubby rosy cheeked young man, and took his position seriously. The next position was RPO1, 2nd in command, and a guy named Rice was chosen for this position.  Then the Guidon carrier  and company Yeoman (Secretary)  The only Black man in the company was chosen to be guidon bearer,  Herbert Andrews from Florida, he was a great choice, and a fine gentleman. He and I became good friends.  Steve  Harabedian was chosen Yeoman. Then the 6 squad leaders were chosen.  Steve was also a great guy and we became good friends during boot camp..
      I had not volunteered nor been asked to take a position and was fine to be just a member of the company. But that would change shortly.  We were moved to our barracks on the Primary Training side of the base, across the channel from the secondary and advanced training area. We started attending classes on Naval History, Rank and recognition, knot tying, and other aspects of Naval Life to prepare us for the Fleet.  We were issued or rifles, and each morning after breakfast we were taken to the grinder and given physical training and learned to march and workout with our rifles. We learned the 9 count and 16 count rifle drills, and basically trained for our graduation parade. Our company was not the greatest at marching and drill. Almost every morning as we passed in review in front of the grandstand we would hear the call "Company 341 bring 'em around again" which meant we hadn't done very well and needed more practice. I do not believe a day passed without hearing that at least once. 

      After being released from the grinder, we commenced the days classes. some classroom and some on the grinder learning basic marching orders, Right Turn, company mark time, half-step, double time, things of that nature.
      Maybe a week or so into primary training, my life would change. Our first squad leader had decided he wasn't cut out for the Navy and tried to desert. He snuck out of the barracks, and swam the channel to escape, but the other side of that channel was secondary training and the Shore Patrol was there waiting to arrest him when he crawled ashore.  He was taken to the Recruit Brig, Unit 4050, and eventually given a mental discharge.  We ran across him for a short time during his stay at 4050, as they were marched from place to place, they were forced to wear Pink sailor hats and had Prisoner stenciled on their shirts. They also had to stomp their left foot as they marched and were given hard labor chores to do. Unit 4050 will be mentioned again in the course of my boot camp story.
      At this point, CS1 Pippen came to me to discuss my GCT test scores and mention that he felt I would make a good replacement for the First squad leader.  I reluctantly agreed to assume the position, and their I was front left corner of the company, right behind Steve, and responsible for the training of of up to 9 other recruits.  Including the Weideman Twins.  It is with the greatest respect that I say The twins were great guys, I still love them to death, but to put it nicely they were not the brightest bulbs in the pack.  They were proud to be sailors, and wanted to do everything right but they had a few problems. LOL and I was to make sure they graduated with the rest of us. And they did!!!!!
       Primary companies were distinguished from secondary companies by the fact that we wore our blue utility ball caps, and they wore the Official "US Navy Dixie Cup" it was a mark of honor when we were issued our white hats, we had made it halfway to graduation.  And with primary companies you would hear them called "squirrels" quite often.  As they would still be learning to stand still in formation, and wiggling around a lot.
     We had many inspections, first at company level, then at muster where brigade would inspect us. It was during one of these inspections that I started losing respect for RCPO Lyons. I was being inspected and the inspector decided my ears were dirty, he called Lyons over and said look at that you could grow a potato in there. Lyons being the kiss ass he was replied "Yes Sir a good Irish Potato Sir. Lyons let his position go to his head, actually thought it made him better than the rest of us, which would cause him problems later. As squad leaders myself and 5 others were responsible for making sure our squads were prepared for inspection One day the entire company failed, CS1 Pippen was not happy and decided to punish the squad leaders for their failure.  I am sure he thought "piss the leaders off and they will get tough on their squads" Well the entire company was formed at the foot of our bunks, and the squad leaders asked to step forward. The rest of the company was then allowed to sit and rest while we were made to tie 2 rifles together butt to muzzle, this became an 18 pound workout tool.  We stood in the middle of the barracks doing our workout by the count, 1. Rifles across our chest, 2 straight out fully extending our arms and holding it until the count of 3  rifles back across the chest 4. 5 rifles above our heads arms straight , 6 back to chest, 7 arms extended to the right, 8 back to chest, 9 arms fully extended to the left, and start over . This went on for a good 30-45 minutes.  And his plan had worked for the moment we were not happy and were ready to chew butt on our squads.  But we all got to thinking and had a squad leaders only meeting.  We discussed the events of the day and came to the conclusion we were being "Brainwashed" lol We decided to take a different approach and just talk to our squads and explain to them we had to do good for 12 weeks and it would be better "In The Fleet"  Instead of getting pushy with those that would be our shipmates in the future, we talked them through it.  This worked and we were soon passing inspections regularly.  It turns out that our company was "different" than the others, ours mostly just wanted to get boot over with, while the others strived to be the "BEST" We strived to survive, not to gain ribbons, special flags, or streamers on our company flag. We graduated right along with the "meatball" companies but our guidon was bare except for the 2 silver diamonds that represented the entire company had bought US Savings Bonds. LOL We won no competitions, physical or mental, we just did our job and survived boot camp. And we had a great time doing it.

Boot Camp, Recieving and Outftting.

The first morning of boot camp was something out of an old movie, a cross between a war movie and a horror movie LOL... It began around 4 AM, people came rushing in with night sticks, pounding on trash cans and screaming get your AZZEZ out of bed, let's go NOW. we all came flying out of bed, and dressed and assembled outside, all the time people yelling and rushing us.. Man what had I done? They formed us into an assemlance of ranks, and started barking commands. Left Face!! Your other left Squirrel!! Stand Straight!!! Now you bunch of Squirrels we are going to Take you to Breakfast, see if you can keep up!!!!! FORWARD MARCH!! we crossed the base and were placed on the blacktop parking lot in front of the chow hall. Excuse me the "MESS HALL" in Navy talk.. and the blacktop was the “Grinder” a proper name for the practice parade grounds to be sure. Many of use were afraid to move and made the mistake of locking our legs and started to feel faint. They took us and sit us down with our heads between our knees, I was wondering if I should kiss my butt goodbye while I had the chance. After Chow, we were taken to what they called Receiving and Outfitting! "R&O". Here we were given our first haircuts, and yes they took it all off. They particularly liked getting the long haired guys in there. LOL I had been warned so I had a regular haircut when I reported. In R&O They also gave us our first shots and did check ups and issued us our first uniforms. And we took our General Classification Tests. These were our utilities or "Dungarees" Blue chambray shirts, and Blue denim pants, and our military issue underwear..

Our civilian clothes were packed and shipped home and we became official US Navy Seaman Recruits. Between checkups and clothes issues we began our indoctrination into Naval Service.

I do not remember how many days we were in R&O, but it was a few. I do remember we had started to make friends before our first haircut which I think was day 3, and after with our shaven heads we had to re introduce ourselves, we all looked so different. We were now Recruit Training Company 67-341, and there beside me in the ranks were the Weideman Twins, Richard and Robert. They were great guys, although a bit different, and we became good friends through boot camp. After R&O, we were formed up and taken to Primary Training, across the bridge. By this time we had the basic formation down and could look like something of a company while marching. But we were still called squirrels constantly because we still moved around in ranks, chatting and looking around!! This is where we had our Recruit Chief Petty Officer, Assistant Company Petty Officer ,Squad Leaders Yeoman, Guidon Bearer, and other company leaders assigned. I felt I was lucky because I was just another recruit.

I had no desire to be a company leader. I wanted to get Boot over with and get to the Fleet, board a ship and see the world!! Exotic places called my name, and most of all I wanted to do my service and return to my little corner of the world. I had never given a career in the Navy much thought, just wanted to serve my time and return to being a civilian.