Seabee's loved the Marines they were sent to soak up bullets before they got to us.
We had a great working relationship with the Marines. The army would throw away everything they didn't want, I ran the garbage dump in Chu-Lai and would scavenge everything the Marines needed and couldn't get. M-16 Mags preloaded still wrapped in plastic, literally cases, HEAT rockets, C-rats, it was a long list. The Marines needed a pallet of plywood, we stole it from the army and the Marines swapped a stolen army jeep for it our Mechanic built a dune buggy out of it with bomb cart tires and a V-8 out of a firetruck.
We didn't mind being called "Needle Dicked Bug F--kers" by a Marine because we knew it was in jest. From a AF or army it was fighting words. A lot of the Seabees went to Camp Pendleton for weapons and tactics training. That was the only place in the world that is all uphill . You would leave the barracks in the morning with the Marine DI and you would march uphill. All morning you would be going up hill and when you returned to the barracks you were still going uphill and the DI never broke a sweat.
Good stuff, oskar. God...the people you meet, the fucked up places you go, and crazy shit you do in the military. Wouldnt trade those memories both happy and sad for anything.
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We were soldiers once...and young. Hal Moore
