Clearing the decks

Some items and observations …

– Josh’s platoon was among the first to use the Marine Corps’ new service rifle, the M-16A4 (shown above in a photo from the Chevron). Recruits started firing the weapons during training at Camp Pendleton’s Edison Range on July 19, the same day Josh arrived at MCRD San Diego.

– Besides recruit training, MCRD has been home to a lot of activity this summer. Two new “H-style” barracks, a recruit rehabilitation facility and several independent restrooms are under construction. Also, upgrades are being made to other buildings, some of which date to the early 1920s. The work is expected to be finished within the next 18 months.

– Civilians got a taste of what recruits endure by running an MCRD obstacle course during the Boot Camp Challenge on Sept. 26. The course’s first set of waist-high logs proved to be a true challenge for one woman, who went over them and promptly did a face-plant in a pit filled with rubber chips next to Union-Tribune reporter Jeanette Steele. “It scared me. I was already predisposed to crawling gingerly over the logs,” Steele observed in her story. “But the depot’s drill instructors didn’t seem to care about my height, my old knees or my concern for keeping my front teeth. About 60 guys with campaign hats and loud voices were stationed along the course, offering ‘encouragement.’”

– Boot camp graduations have something in common with Lakers games: attracting celebrities. Dyan Cannon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Andy Garcia, Penny Marshall, Denzel Washington and, of course, Jack Nicholson are regulars at Staples. But the Sept. 3 graduation at MCRD for Company K drew some star wattage as well. It was attended by Caressa Cameron, Miss America 2010 – minus her tiara.

– Dozens of survivors of the Chosin Reservoir battle during the Korean War were on hand Sept. 15 when a memorial for the “Chosin Few” was unveiled at Camp Pendleton. In the battle, Nov. 27 to Dec. 13, 1950, vastly outnumbered soldiers and Marines were up against 100,000 Chinese troops. More than 900 Americans were killed, and thousands more were wounded. The 6-by-8 foot, 3,000-pound granite monument is on an overcrop with a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean near Pendleton’s main gate. After three weeks of Phase II training at the camp, Josh’s platoon was already back at MCRD the day it was unveiled. Josh’s grandfather, Jerome Jess Rice, an Army sergeant, served in Korea during the war.