Page 168 - Echo 127

questions whenever they occurred—mostly they wanted to know ‘what it was like’? I did my best to present an honest and forthright answer to those questions —I wanted them to know what they would be facing —and get ready for it!
I explained to them that no matter how wet—how tired—how miserable they were during our training—they would not come close to being as miserable as they would soon find themselves to be in actual combat. During our night time exercises in the wooded, hilly terrain around the training area of Quantico, we would do our best to replicate the situations they would find themselves in. We had ambushes staged—patrols conducted, defensive positions occupied and we had sounds of small arms fire, explosives. We also let them experience absolute silence—where they knew ‘something’ might happen but didn’t know what—or when. We trained them hard—expected everything they had to give —we lost three or four along the way as these candidates found they couldn’t meet the standards we had for them to receive a Marine Officer’s Commission.
Finally, in Dec. 1966 my second class ( the first class was a PLC Platoon Leader’s Class that were finishing their final six weeks of training ) of Officer Candidates graduated and would move on to Basic School in Jan. 1967.
168