Yesterday I posted some quotes about a combat training exercise undertaken by Marine recruits in 1941. Today I am going to share with my readers more about what those recruits endurred, during their combat training:
“After pitching tents and eating field rations carried in 50 pound havesack rolls, the four companies moved out into the attack problem. A rain storn came with zero hour and the advancing waves of youths in forest green dungarees slashed and splashed over mud and running water against a foe entrenched on a ridge of hills…It rained so hard that men got lost from their platoon leaders and it was all a man could do to keep a squad of men close to him.
” Back at the bivouac area some of the tents were down and many of the extra clothes damp and wet. Hot fires and chow pepped up the men before they went into a tired sleep. During the night a cold wind blew up and numbed many who couldn’t make their one blanket serve both as mattress and cover. Men welcomed middle of the night sentry shifts because they could stir their frozen stumps.”
The recruits got a reward for their misery. It was the same reward given to each recruit who completes the first 12 weeks of Marine training. I will post more about that reward tomorrow.
