It was called MCT (Marine Combat Training) when I was there in 1990. We called it Marine Custodial Training for all the shit job working parties we had to do. We did one ruck march (called a hump in Marine jargon) where somebody from all the platoons in our company fell out, except fourth platoon, mine. Our troop handler, this little sawed off hillbilly named Corporal Massey, gave me and another guy a length of chain taken off a HMMWV chock and put us at the back of our platoon. He said we were the towtruck, and no one in fourth platoon was to fall behind us, even if we had to wrap that chain around their neck and drag them.

We didn't end up using the chain, but it was sure fun to carry for 17 miles. The guys from the other platoons who fell out got snagged up by corpsmen and put in the back of the five ton that was following the formation. They were given the silver bullet treatment, a rectal thermometer to make sure their core body temperature hadn't risen to dangerous levels.

How's that for motivation?

The funniest moment at MCT was when we all got our school assignments and found out what our actual MOS was going to be. Imagine a Master Gunnery Sergeant from S-1 standing on a little outdoor stage in front of four or five hundred sweaty privates and PFCs.

He would call out our last name and last four of the SSN and we'd answer up, then he'd tell us the base we were going to for school, and the MOS we'd have when we finished. He went through alot of fairly familiar stuff: motor T, supply, comm, admin, avionics, etc. Then one guy answered up to his name and the Master Gunny said something like, "Camp Lejeune, MOS 1369, Hygiene equipment operator."

Just as he was about to go on to the next one, the kid hollers out, "Master Gunny, what's that?"

Without missing a beat, the Master Guns said, "You're gonna be the shitter-sucker man, son."

Oh my God, the whole formation laughed our asses off. Thank God it was like three days before graduation, because that poor guy got ragged pretty hard until we got out of there.

[}:D]The shitter-sucker man.[}:D]

(Actually, those guys run the ROWPU water purifiers and stuff like that.)

What did you do in MCT?  Was it at bootcamp ?

We had something called BWT near the end of bootcamp, sometime after rifle range.

BWT = Basic Warrior Training

Is MCT what they are calling it now ?

No, USMC_LB.

I did BWT at Parris Island too, in Third Phase.

Since you're a grunt, you went straight to SOI after boot. I was a comm pogue, so me and all the other baggage handlers and soup strainers went to four weeks of basic infantry 101 at Camp Geiger NC before they sent us to our MOS schools. A little bit of call for fire, a little bit of crew served weapons, that kind of thing.

I watched a really good film of Marines having a competition for the best platoon force march and then conduct a battle this was excellent I was very motivated by these Marines.Also firing shoulder weapons and grenade launchers really good stuff.

That was something they started about 90 (the extra training stuff). I missed it, but a bunch of the new guys after 90-91 went. They liked it.

MCT was an invention of Gen Al Grey, he felt that the Marines needed to get back to being warriors.  And the heart of that was every Marine was a riflemen. At one point all enlisted Marines, to include 03s, went to MCT.  Now 03s go to Infantry Training Battalion and non-infanty Marines go to Marine Combat Training Battalion either east or west, after recruit training.

Jarhead_22 - Regarding your MCT story - anyone who goes open contract deserves to be the shit sucker man. (hindsight is 20/20 [:)] )

Semper Fi.

Oh man, I can't imagine. I'm glad somebody does it, but I'm also glad it wasn't me, if you know what I mean. [%|]