Were any of you folks ever in any para military group as kids?
I was in the Young Marines & graduated from boot camp when I was just a lad of about 11 or 12.
It was a grueling program run by inactive Marine Corps DI's that treated us just like real Marine Corp's recruits. It surley wasn't the boy scouts!

I was also in the real Marine Corps as an adult, but I was just wondering if anyone ealse had a similar experiance as a kid.

PS it was in the late 60's early 70's in Grand Rapids Michigan that I was in the Young Marines.

I didn't know the Young Marines went that far back.

I recall seeing those kids on base.  I'm pro military, but something about little kids playing military seemed a little creepy.

When I was in ITS on Pendleton, they had the Devil Dogs, a similar but much more watered down version. It's a much softer sweeter world all around these days thanks to all the pc bs. That sucks.

We didn't have cool stuff like that in Queens, we just played guns or war on our block, low crawling through neighbors yards and the like.  I actually got my first stitches playing it when I was like 7, tripped and hit my head on one of those old training rifles, you know the ones that looked like a 1903 or something.  Forget playing that shit now, you'll be thrown out of school for playing it on a Saturday afternoon.  

Quoted: Were any of you folks ever in any para military group as kids? I was in the Young Marines & graduated from boot camp when I was just a lad of about 11 or 12. It was a grueling program run by inactive Marine Corps DI's that treated us just like real Marine Corp's recruits. It surley wasn't the boy scouts! I was also in the real Marine Corps as an adult, but I was just wondering if anyone ealse had a similar experiance as a kid. PS it was in the late 60's early 70's in Grand Rapids Michigan that I was in the Young Marines.

I attended a two week course called 'Devil Pups' at Camp Pendleton when I was 14 in 1984.  It was pretty cool.

I had no prior experience, not even much time with firearms.
I did play organized team contact sports.

Shot expert, 300 PFT, graduated Platoon Honorman.