https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...34_large-1.jpg
Members of the US Marine Raider Battalion learning about rubber boats while being trained in landing maneuvers.
Location: San Diego, CA, US
Date taken: 1943
Photographer: John Florea
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https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...34_large-1.jpg
Members of the US Marine Raider Battalion learning about rubber boats while being trained in landing maneuvers.
Location: San Diego, CA, US
Date taken: 1943
Photographer: John Florea
I took my first IBS training in the very same area...30 years later mind...
"Honest Gunny, I was just sitting here minding my own beeswax and it went flat all by itself!"
"So, start doing pushups and maybe it will re-inflate it's self."
"Maybe I should jump into the inflated one on my left!"
When I was at Coronado I got a bald spot rubbed into the back of my head from carrying the inflatables back and forth to the beach. Normally carried on the shoulder most of the guys in my crew were taller than me, so my head fit under the boat while we carried it. All that sand grinding into my skull and I still have the bald spot.
Thanks, another thing I'd forgotten about until now. Carried them all the way down the the area they filmed "Sands of Iwo Jima"... Specifically the night scene where John offers to shoot the marine if he goes forward of their lines... During the scene cutting back and forth, you see ocean behind both men.
I also remember our survival swim. My whole platoon was supposed to jump into the water, link arm to arm in a line with our heads toward the shore. I noticed armed sailors on the circling LARCs, so I asked the Gunny what they were for.
"Oh nothing, just a precaution." he said.
"From what?" I asked.
"Look" he continued "When you join the line get in the middle .... you may get to the beach before the sharks get to you!"
Then he shoved me off the ramp into the water.
"Noooooooooooooooooooo!"
BEAR
Sharks love SEALS LOL