16-056 Garand Picture of the Day - Not politically correct History

[Mark in Rochester]

Camp Calvin B. Matthews or Marine Corps Rifle Range Camp Matthews or Marine Corps Rifle Range, La Jolla (prior to World War II) or more simply Camp Matthews was a United States Marine Corps military base from 1917 until 1964, when the base was decommissioned and transferred to the University of California to be part of the new University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus. Over a million Marine recruits as well as other shooters (such as Marines stationed at Miramar) received their marksmanship training at this military base.

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[RT Ellis]

Camp Matthews was within hearing distance of where we lived and I recall listening to the difference in sustained fire courses of fire when the rifle M1 or rifle M14 was in use. With the M1 there would be a brief period of firing the first two rounds, a short lull then the firing would pick up after the 8-round clip was loaded. With the M14 the initial firing was longer then the lull as the magazine was changed and then the firing picked up again during the second 5-round magazine. Besides recruit training and weapons qualification, Matthews was used for annual re-qualification for all Marines in the area, so was a pretty busy place. These annual re-qualifiers were issued score books, that they hardly used, and I recovered quite a few from the dumpsters in the ranges.

I first started shooting with the Astro Rifleers Junior Rifle Club which was organized by employees of the company (Convair General-Dynamics) that as I recall was building the Atlas missile. For those of us that didn't have rifles the Marines loaned out Reising, Harrington & Richardson semi-automatic rifles caliber-.22. There was a 1000 inch range at Camp Matthews and I assume the rifles were intended to provide an introduction to marksmanship to people that had little experience with firearms. I had no shooting equipment, but did obtain a military cloth shooting jacket, which was similar to a utility jacket except collarless and had pads at the elbows and shoulder. I recall the Marines at Camp Matthews wearing identical padded shooting jackets. Once in awhile the Marine marksmanship instructors would come by while we were shooting and provide instruction. One time Staff Sergeant Boyd loaned me his 10-X shooting glove and told me to keep it when I tried to return it - I still have that shooting glove with his name marked on the inside cuff. As I acquired more equipment and shot rifle matches, including the National Matches in 1965, I always used the shooting glove.

I took up high power rifle shooting and fired several of the monthly matches at Camp Matthews, and at Camp Pendtleton. One day I drove onto the base and immediately heard the sort of vocal litany associated with a drill instructor marching troops. I slowed down but didn't see any troop formation, then I noticed off to the side a chain link cage with a bull dog that I swear was growling in a way that sounded exactly like a drill instructor. After the base was closed I drove around and looted a stop sign, with bullet holes, that was at the entrance to Echo Range, which I recall was the only 1000 yard range on Matthews, and where the high power rifle matches I participated in were fired.

One time a group of us high school ROTC students were at Camp Matthews for small arms familiarization, wearing a variety of civilian clothes and military hats and jackets. We were standing behind a Marine recruit platoon watching the DI doing his thing, when the DI had the platoon about face and said "Look at the doggies." Well, it was obvious we weren't Marines but being taken for rather badly turned out soldiers was a hoot.

I heard a story that a Camp Matthews range NCO parked his car in an exposed place and that a recruit put a bullet into the engine, which destroyed the engine. I always thought this story as urban legend intended to impress the recruits with the power of small arms bullets. There was sometimes basis in fact in these stories, so maybe something similar really happened, and got exaggerated over time.

I recall reading in the news media that the company that had the contract to remove the millions of bullets from the berms and impact areas, behind and in front of the targets, made a very healthy profit on the sale of the scrap metal. I vaguely recall the building in the image with the politically incorrect sign painted on it, but of course the sign had been painted over, probably a couple hundred times, by the time I was there. "If it moves salute it, if it doesn't move paint it."