Civilians arriving at Parris Island, South Carolina to become Marines are struck by a sense of apprehension and confusion. In September 1954, this was certainly the case for the members of newly-formed Platoon 418. Arriving from all points east of the Mississippi, we didn’t know each other and, in short order, we didn’t even recognize ourselves: we had to send our civilian cloths back home; our heads were shaved; and, we were dressed in uniforms that didn’t fit. Our drill instructors said we were recruits not Marines; but, we were told to call ourselves privates and the drill instructors called us “boots,” “skin heads,” “herd,” etc. As we were driven about in “herd formation,” other platoons passed by marching with precision and ease: they looked like the Marines we had hoped to become. On the evening of that first day, we were each left with the questions: “What am I? Do I belong here?”   

The next morning, we were roused out before sunrise and herded down streets to the mess hall for breakfast. We had made the trip the day before, but the early morning darkness seemed to give this new world an even more inhospitable cast. Approaching the mess hall, this mood was aggravated by the appearance of platoons of ghost-like bodies forming up outside the entrance. 

Our senior drill instructor, S/SGT. Petronzio, halted us at the back of the massed recruit platoons; then, he and his junior drill instructor, Sgt. White, disappeared into them. We stood there, in the dark, feeling alone and ill-at-ease among all these indistinguishable recruits. Suddenly, from the area of the platoon nearest the mess hall door came a drill instructors voice: “SHIT BIRD! SOUND OFF!”

A recruit then responded:

                      

                       I’m a Shit Bird big ‘n’ tall.
                       I won’t git outta here ‘til fall.
                       If you’re a Shit Bird not quit so tall.
                       You might not git outta here at all!

              

As if one, the other recruits shouted: “Welcome, Shit Birds!”

Semper Belonging,

Anthony F. Milavic

Major USMC(Ret)