But, I have to admit, being an infantry in the USMC in the early to mid '80s was a whole lot like being in a frat and partying out in town from sundown to very early morning. Every night. Except weekends where we just never came back to the barracks.
Spent most of my working hours learning how to manage a hangover.
Everyone's mileage varies don't it. I was in SAC in the 70s, worked on nuke missiles, never left CONUS. Worked a lot of hundred hour weeks but basically enjoyed the constant training and stuff.
We also had times where it was a technician job, like a civilian too except with uniforms and inspections and accountability and like that. Drinking wasn't a problem but it was expected, you had to attend sessions at the NCO club and buy a round when your turn showed up. Or be a pariah, some of us were pariahs but we were good on the Job so we were left alone.
My Shop Chief was a bartender on base, he sometimes gave us briefings there, we were subject to dispatch to missile sites. But he had to brief us on all after hours call-outs, so you'd stop by the club, he'd brief you while pouring beers and you'd go load your equipment and then head out to the missile site.
Dang. Glad I didn't have to hump that toy-set in my pack.
Most places I was stationed, CONUS and off-CONUS (Okinawa, mainland Japan,) or "floated" to (MEU deployments - Thailand, Philipines, Korea, Australia), the only real difference between the E-Club and drinking out of town was in how quickly the MPs (or cops) showed up once the brawl started.
Out in town was better because the cops weren't right there waiting at every club so you often had time to work on your E&E (escape and evasion) skills while making your way to the rally point (the next club) post-brawl.
My favorite First Shirt retired about 6 months before I Separated, we had a little shindig at the Barracks, which were located in the same quad with Headquarters. His son was a Marine at Pendleton and came out to Tucson for his retirement party, was drinking beer with us for a while then we lost him. The Shirt asked us a little later where he was and everyone said he was last seen lurking around the WAF barracks down the street crawling thru the bushes with a K-Bar in his teeth.
We were 60 miles from Mexico, that's where we went to party, crawl back to base any which way you needed to just get there. We avoided the bars in Tucson because back then everyone hated on Service members, in town you were gonna hafta fight. In Mexico you could drink cheap... and fight off the working girls.
Thank you for your service.
But, I have to admit, being an infantry in the USMC in the early to mid '80s was a whole lot like being in a frat and partying out in town from sundown to very early morning. Every night. Except weekends where we just never came back to the barracks.
Spent most of my working hours learning how to manage a hangover.
Everyone's mileage varies don't it. I was in SAC in the 70s, worked on nuke missiles, never left CONUS. Worked a lot of hundred hour weeks but basically enjoyed the constant training and stuff.
We also had times where it was a technician job, like a civilian too except with uniforms and inspections and accountability and like that. Drinking wasn't a problem but it was expected, you had to attend sessions at the NCO club and buy a round when your turn showed up. Or be a pariah, some of us were pariahs but we were good on the Job so we were left alone.
My Shop Chief was a bartender on base, he sometimes gave us briefings there, we were subject to dispatch to missile sites. But he had to brief us on all after hours call-outs, so you'd stop by the club, he'd brief you while pouring beers and you'd go load your equipment and then head out to the missile site.
Different times. This was my toy-set.
https://files.catbox.moe/y11221.jpg
Dang. Glad I didn't have to hump that toy-set in my pack.
Most places I was stationed, CONUS and off-CONUS (Okinawa, mainland Japan,) or "floated" to (MEU deployments - Thailand, Philipines, Korea, Australia), the only real difference between the E-Club and drinking out of town was in how quickly the MPs (or cops) showed up once the brawl started.
Out in town was better because the cops weren't right there waiting at every club so you often had time to work on your E&E (escape and evasion) skills while making your way to the rally point (the next club) post-brawl.
My favorite First Shirt retired about 6 months before I Separated, we had a little shindig at the Barracks, which were located in the same quad with Headquarters. His son was a Marine at Pendleton and came out to Tucson for his retirement party, was drinking beer with us for a while then we lost him. The Shirt asked us a little later where he was and everyone said he was last seen lurking around the WAF barracks down the street crawling thru the bushes with a K-Bar in his teeth.
We were 60 miles from Mexico, that's where we went to party, crawl back to base any which way you needed to just get there. We avoided the bars in Tucson because back then everyone hated on Service members, in town you were gonna hafta fight. In Mexico you could drink cheap... and fight off the working girls.