How hot was it?

Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” often would make the weather a punchline: “It was so hot …”

Yesterday in downtown Los Angeles, it was so hot – and this is no joke – that the National Weather Service’s thermometer broke after it reached an all-time high of 113 degrees. The record is based on temperature recordings that date back to 1877.

Camp Pendleton, where Josh was for Phase II of boot camp training and where he returns next week for the Crucible, hit 109 on Monday. In San Diego, at MCRD, it was a relatively balmy 95.

Today’s predicted high for San Diego: 82.

A way with words

Of all the jobs that I've had over the years, working as a freelance copy editor and writer at Variety have been among my favorites.

I’ve always been impressed by the talent level of the entertainment trade publication’s staff, which has included one of the best writers of this past century: Art Buchwald, the Pulitzer-winning columnist and humorist. He started as Variety’s Paris correspondent.

One of the reasons Variety is an entertaining read is that it literally has a language all its own. “Ankle,” for example, means to leave or get dismissed from a job; a Western film is an “oater,” referring to what horses eat; and a “zitcom” is a TV comedy aimed at teenagers.

The wordsmiths at Variety have used the paper’s “slanguage” to create some “boffo” headlines. Perhaps the most famous was this gem from 1935: Sticks Nix Hick Pix. It meant that rural audiences were not watching movies about rural life.

On Variety’s website (www.variety.com), there’s a “Slanguage Dictionary,” so if a reader can’t determine the definition of a word they can go there to find out what it means.

The Marine Corps also has its own “slanguage.” Below are 12 common items, followed by the word Josh is now using to describe each one in boot camp:

Pants: Trousers
Bed: Rack
Floor: Deck
Door: Hatch
Window: Port
Glasses: Portholes
Pen: Ink stick
Flashlight: Moonbeam
Shoes: Go-fasters
Duffel bag: Sea bag
Restroom: Head
Food: Chow

More testing as the days dwindle

As Josh and the other recruits in his platoon prepare for the second week of Phase III, their graduation certainly must be coming into view – if it hasn’t already. They had a uniform fitting this past week, and will have another one in the days ahead.

But they won’t have a lot of time to dream about that big day because there still is plenty on tap to keep them focused on training. Scheduled this week is another physical fitness test, a combat fitness evaluation, one more round with pugil sticks, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program test and a sustainment hike.

For the PFT, each recruit will have to perform crunches (two minutes to complete as many as possible), pull-ups (to measure upper-body strength and endurance) and run for three miles.

Josh did a number of PFTs while he was in the Delayed Entry Program. Each time the running part was his weakest link, but he still managed to perform well. When Josh and his fellow poolies at the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Temecula went for their mile-and-a-half runs, Josh would finish in about 11 minutes – 30 seconds faster than the cut-off for that RS.

For the MCMAP (shown above), he will be tested on a range of techniques: punches, upper- and lower-body strikes, chokes and holds, unarmed restraints, knife and bayonet thrusts among them. To pass, students must score 70 percent, failing no more than 15 techniques.

When Josh and the other recruits hit their bunks tonight, only three training weeks will remain. The Crucible, arguably the biggest hurdle left between the platoon and graduation day, is scheduled to begin Oct. 5.

In the meantime, congratulations go out to the new Marines of Fox Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, at MCRD San Diego.

At home on the range

Gen. John Pershing, the US Army commander of American forces during World War I, was quoted as saying, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle."

I'm not ready to think of Josh in those terms, but at Camp Pendleton he has shown himself to be adept at shooting his service weapon – particularly for a novice. (Above is the score sheet from his first time shooting a gun.)

He qualified Sept. 2 as “expert” – achieving a pre-boot camp goal.

In a recent letter, he wrote about his training leading up to that qualification day: “This past week has been primarily spent in small groups (4-8 people), with coaches going over techniques, or on the range. We’ve been so busy we wake up at 0400, and I’m on the range ready to go before the sun comes up.”

Of course many times in civilian life he was going to bed when the sun came up after a night of playing video games online with his buddies, but I digress…

Anyway, on Thursday and Friday, it was time for Table II, which involved shooting moving targets at a closer range (less than 50 yards). For Josh to maintain his “expert” ranking, he needed to score 80 out of 100 points. At least 60 was required to qualify on this round, which would have made Josh a “sharpshooter” overall. As of this writing, I’m not sure how he scored.

Tonight, Josh is back in his rack at MCRD. Phase III – the home stretch toward graduation day – starts bright and early Monday morning.

Firing line

Regardless of Josh’s ultimate Military Occupational Specialty – saxophonist with the 1st Marine Division Band at Camp Pendleton – the Corps expects him to be first and foremost a rifleman.

While Josh has shot thousands of rounds, perhaps even tens of thousands, before he went to boot camp, I don’t believe he has ever picked up a weapon that could do serious damage. Not counting his air gun, every shot he took before July 19 was with a video game controller.

So while “Call of Duty,” “Ghost Recon” and “Socom” may have given him a taste of battlefield strategy, the last several training days in the field at Pendleton have developed his skills with a real M16 service rifle. On Friday, Training Day 34, Josh and the other recruits in his platoon will put their skills to the test.

Up to this point, they’ve learned four shooting positions (standing, kneeling, sitting and prone), and have been taught how to take weather conditions and other variables into account when shooting. They have been aiming and firing targets that are 200, 300 and 500 yards away. Now they’ll be scored on how well they’ve developed as riflemen.

There are three levels: marksman, sharpshooter and expert. I’m not sure of the latest numbers on how each level is scored, but I do know that Josh’s pre-boot camp goal was to be considered “expert.”

Regardless of whether he achieves that or not, Josh will have the opportunity to re-qualify every year and can wear the corresponding rifle marksmanship badge. Of the three, the expert badge really is the coolest looking, so says Josh.

There’s no telling how far he wants to take this training, but I think it’s interesting to note that six soldiers with the US Army Marksmanship Unit were on the US Olympic Team two years ago in Beijing. One of them, Maj. Michael E. Anti, was competing in his fourth Olympics. He won a silver medal in the men’s three position rifle event at the Athens Games in 2004.

From this corner, an Olympic medal looks pretty cool, too.