Boot Camp Memories - 1963

I enlisted in the Navy in Seattle, where I was sworn-in together with five other new recruits on 18 Sep 1963. We flew to Los Angeles, then San Diego, then by taxi to the Naval Training Center, arriving there in the early evening, in the rain. We all were assigned to Company 63-422.

Ironically, though we'd come from "rainy" Seattle to "sunny" San Diego, it rained on both our first and last day in boot camp. But it wasn't always cool and wet. One day during our second week (26 Sep), we sweltered in 115-degree heat, an all-time record high for San Diego that apparently still stands. My letter home that day reads: "After getting up at 0430 this morning, we spent most of the morning marching. Two guys had to go to the dispensary for heat prostration. It was so hot that the tar between the cement on the streets was running. When we were marching my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. To top off the heat, the wind was blowing at 15-25 mph. The breeze was worse than still air. It felt as if you were standing in front of an open oven. Also, sand was blowing across our marching area from the Marines training compound just across the fence."

Most other guys in the company were from the east or the south. Some said they were surprised to be in San Diego because they'd been told they were going to Great Lakes NTC, near Chicago, but apparently an outbreak of spinal meningitis there caused them to be diverted to San Diego. When it came to selecting company officers, our company commander, Calvin Fowler, BM1, favored guys with prior military and/or college experience. Since I'd had both, i.e., a few months of ROTC training during a couple years of college, I was "lucky" enough to be designated as company yeoman, meaning, as I wrote home, "I have to keep charge of watch guard rosters, check out sheets, walking permits, daily schedule sheets, morning strength reports, and permits for inspections, drills, mess, and numerous other activities. I must also keep the Commanding Officer’s office clean, and keep him supplied with coffee from the Battalion Office." There was one benefit, though: I didn't have to stand barracks watch, or mess cook during service week.

One memory of Fowler: After I was designated yeoman, he ordered me to stay in his office until I learned to forge his signature well enough to sign watch rosters, muster reports, walking chits, etc. Once, when he was gone for the weekend, I signed his name to a walking chit for a couple of guys who were supposedly going somewhere on official business, but they were caught buying candy at the battalion gedunk stand. Under questioning, they admitted that I'd signed the chit and were sent back to the barracks with orders for me to report to the battalion office, where I expected to be in deep doo-doo. But when I told the duty CPO there that I was signing chits under orders of my company commander, he just told me to "get the #*$%^&* hell out of here."

One scarce item in boot camp was news of the outside world. The nearest TV was in the battalion office. We did get a radio in our barracks about week 4 or 5 but the hours were very limited and then it was usually tuned to all-music stations. But we were allowed to buy copies of the local Sunday papers, so could catch up on major news and Saturday's college football results. The one big news event, though, was the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 Nov. What was I doing when I heard the news? As I wrote home, "Ironically, I was taking the 'JFK Physical Fitness Test' at the very moment that Pres. Kennedy was assassinated. We had just finished a 300 yd. Run when I overheard some other boys discussing the shooting. At first it seemed almost impossible to believe." That was on a Friday morning. That afternoon, we were scheduled to march in graduation ceremonies for several other companies (we had two more weeks until our own graduation) but the ceremonies were cancelled and eventually rescheduled to the following week.

I do recall "escaping" three times from boot camp (each time, on a closely supervised bus trip, along with the rest of the company), to: 1) Camp Elliot for rifle training, 2) a picnic at a remote park, as a reward for winning the weekly competion for best company in the battalion, and 3) the "Leatherneck Bowl" football game, played at Balboa Stadium between the San Diego Marines and the Pensacola Navy Goshawks. I don't remember who won.

After boot camp, I spent another three months in San Diego, attending Torpedoman's Mate class "A" school at the Fleet ASW School, immediately west of NTC. Reminders of boot camp weren't far away. I often went with buddies to movies at the NTC theater and, even on our own separate base, were sometimes enveloped in oily smoke from the boot camp firefighting school, which was right over the fence, next door.

From San Diego, I went on to submarine school in Connecticut, missile launcher school in Virginia, then served on two submarines, USS George Washington (SSBN598) and USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN657), before leaving active duty as a TM2(SS) in Sep 1967.

Thanks for your efforts to preserve some of NTC's history.

Charlie Burrow
Indianola, Washington & Placencia, Belize
homepage: http://pw1.netcom.com/~cburrow/index.htm

<<Back to Your Stories