Training at Camp Geiger

Our train­ing at Geiger was divid­ed into two phas­es (some­thing I nev­er under­stood), with ITR being the first and AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) com­ing after. I can’t remem­ber exact­ly when the tran­si­tion took place, although it was prob­a­bly after our return from Christmas break.

We had arrived at Geiger before Thanksgiving and were fet­ed there with Thanksgiving fare, a day off train­ing and all the typ­i­cal Thanksgiving goodies.

We were also issued “long johns” and field jack­ets since our remain­ing train­ing would be tak­ing place dur­ing win­ter and North Carolina is more tem­per­ate than South Carolina.

The field jack­et (prob­a­bly left over from Korea) was a pret­ty decent piece of appar­el.  It came with an inner remov­able lin­er, which added to its abil­i­ty to keep one warm.  We were also issued hel­mets, the old-style “steel pots.” Most peo­ple don’t real­ize that the hel­mets that they see in all the old World War II movies con­sist­ed of two sep­a­rate pieces, an inner formed fiber sec­tion to which a web head­lin­er was attached.  This allowed the wear­er to make adjust­ments to fit.  The out­er lay­er was the steel por­tion, which pro­tect­ed the head.

Marine hel­mets were dis­tin­guished from those of the oth­er ser­vices by the cam­ou­flage cov­er which came into use short­ly after the begin­ning of World War II.  It was our trademark.

Training took place five days a week. 

On week­ends we were per­mit­ted off base with pass­es and many of us would spend the day in near­by Jacksonville.  There was not much enter­tain­ment there, not the bawdy towns so often por­trayed in war pic­tures, but we could get a rea­son­ably priced meal at sev­er­al loca­tions. We were not per­mit­ted off base in our util­i­ties, our work clothes. We could either go into town in Greens or in civil­ian wear.

Whenever I went to Jacksonville, I would usu­al­ly spend most of my time at the USO where I could get a burg­er and soft drink, find some­thing to read or watch a movie. On $78 a month, enter­tain­ment had to come cheap and most of us would return to base at night (for free lodging).

Sundays were pret­ty laid back.  We could rise when­ev­er we chose and get a good brunch at the mess hall with choic­es of how we want­ed our eggs, sausage or bacon, bis­cuits or toast and plen­ty of cof­fee.  Some of us went to chapel after brunch but since we were also not allowed in chapel in util­i­ties, the prospect of get­ting into Greens just to go to church kept many of us away. I don’t recall if we were allowed in chapel in civil­ian clothes.

It’s also strange to me now that I can’t remem­ber how we began each train­ing day, as far as how we mus­tered, how we knew what to put in our packs for the day, whether or not rations were issued before we went to the field or whether we got them there. I just remem­ber that every trip to the field was accom­pa­nied by our field pack, hel­met, weapon and ammo belt.

There were a few occa­sions, while in the field, that we were treat­ed to a hot meal from a mobile kitchen. 

At those times we would use our “mess kits” which we always packed with us.  The kit con­sist­ed of a met­al seg­ment­ed pan with a hinged top that was held closed with a met­al strap that served as a han­dle when the kit was opened.  The kit also had a met­al knife, fork and spoon, all of which could be seat­ed togeth­er and con­tained with­in the met­al tin.

The field kitchen had met­al garbage cans full of water that was heat­ed by some sort of burn­er beneath.  I think there must have been one can with soapy water in which we scrubbed down the mess kit with a large fiber brush, although I don’t specif­i­cal­ly recall this.  After scrub­bing, the kits would be immersed briefly into the can with clear hot water.  I don’t recall what fare we were offered from the mobile kitchens but, in my opin­ion, any­thing would have been bet­ter than a can of ham and lima beans.