"Grunts" and "cannon cockers," tankers and reconnaissance men—the entire spectrum of ground force skills is represented among the thousands of Marines in training at Camp Pendleton, California, the Corps' largest West Coast base. All Marines en route to Vietnam receive two or more weeks of training at Pendleton, developing the skills and conditioning required for Vietnam's harsh environment. During 1967 alone, more than 80,000 Marines underwent training on the reservation, with some 18,000 Navy men also receiving orientation there in preparation for duty in Vietnam.
Upon completion of boot camp at San Diego, all Marines from the Western states undergo two to six weeks of additional training at Camp Pendleton's Infantry Training Regiment. In a 126,000-acre "classroom," they get their postgraduate work in Leatherneck fundamentals. Map reading, weapons orientation, and other basic military subjects are supplemented with special environmental training in, for example, how to function in a gas-filled cave, or stay alive in the water for hours through the use of "drownproofing" techniques. Later phases of the course concentrate on fire team and squad tactics in a wide variety of combat situations.
To a degree perhaps equalled by no other military man, the Marine and his weapon are an integral team. At the Infantry Training Regiment the previous weeks of boot camp instruction in the M-14 rifle and .45-caliber pistol are extended to mastery of the M-16 rifle and M-60 machine gun, with equally intensive training provided in the handling of grenades, light assault weapons, mortars, rocket launchers, anti-tank ordnance, mines, and booby traps. Motivation is high—with Vietnam ahead, there are few dropouts and no slackers.
Camp Pendleton's classroom facilities, which include closed circuit television and Link trainer-type tank and vehicle simulators, are matched in the field by a firing range environment that is electronically controlled to simulate with safety the battlefield the troops will soon occupy. The basic importance of controlled firepower still remains paramount, however, and most of the learning is by doing— a fact well attested to by the daily expenditure of more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition.
Duplicating the peculiarities of Vietnam's unusual battleground are specially constructed trails and villages where overseas-bound Marines learn to detect and avoid the dangers of trip wires, deadfalls, spider traps, and punji stakes. Other "quick reaction" courses, with radioactuated pop-up targets and simulated enemy gunfire, await the Marine and his M-16 rifle, to develop and test the combat wariness that will be the measure of his survival on other trails, in other places.
A training facility for the Corps for 25 years, Camp Pendleton's 17 miles of Pacific Coast beaches, rugged mountain, river, and lake terrain, and extensive buildings and ranges provide a near-perfect training ground for Marine operations. Yet the dominant feature of this huge installation is the figure of the veteran Marine instructor—the individual who, for three wars, has provided at Pendleton a unique learning catalyst for combat training. For Leathernecks on their way to Vietnam, whether 18-year-old youngsters on their first cruise, or old-line sergeants just off recruiting duty, the traditional zeal and professional pride of the instructor remain the most valuable elements in the process of adapting, mentally and physically, to the tasks ahead.