15-119 Garand Picture of the Day - Platoon 339

[Mark in Rochester]

Parris Island July 1944

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[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Not a degrees diffrence in the rifles angles. That is one squared away group of Marines.

[browningautorifle]

What I always wondered about...there are two NCOs with the Pl. Were they responsible for the very greatest part of the training? Just two men? It would be hard, specially the way the training went at that time. Now too...

[Bob Seijas]

In the Army they were responsible for the purely local training like formations, drill and ceremonies, barracks, inspections, etc. They marched you to classes by specialists for other stuff.
I laugh every time I recall our Platoon Sergeant Stanfield teaching us to salute... the pinky finger on his right hand had been broken and was crooked down sharpy at the last joint. He demonstrated a good salute, then asked if anybody had questions. A dopey kid in the back said, "Sergeant, I can't bend my finger down lke that." Stanfield exploded... "THAT IS A DEFORMITY, YOU FOOL!"
After that, whenever we saw the kid we saluted with our pinkies crooked

[browningautorifle]

the pinky finger on his right hand had been broken and was crooked down sharpy at the last joint

My first company CO was like that. He's still with the regimental association and when I see him that's the first thing comes to mind...

In the Army they were responsible for the purely local training like formations, drill and ceremonies, barracks, inspections, etc. They marched you to classes by specialists for other stuff.

That makes more sense. We have our own squad and one man is almost solely responsible for their training. That's anywhere from 8-15 men...we have certain specialists for some classes, but you have your guys and are responsible...depends how long the recruit course, 4-6 months.