Last week it was reported a Marine “recruit” died at Camp Pendleton, ostensibly during a physical evaluation. When I went through boot camp in San Diego (1969) recruits left MCRD only once, and that for rifle/marksmanship training only. This was for a 2 week period. There was no other training at Camp Pendleton. If there are any more “recent” Hollywood Marines out there, did you do any training at CamPen other than marksmanship?
I’m not a Marine, but I spent a week at Camp Pendleton during CORTRAMID (Career Oriented Training for Midshipmen) in the ‘80s. It was our introduction to the other branches of the naval service. This was our Marine week, and it was a great experience. I came out with the utmost respect for the USMC.
Among other things, I learned how you clear a building in seconds in their mock-up of a village. We also did a mock assault from a CH-53E helo and separately from an Amtrack. We saw bombing runs from either a Harrier or an Intruder (can’t remember which), and a gunnery exercise with M-60 tanks. And I learned how to disassemble and reassemble an M-16A2 rifle.
For very large values of recent (1972), there was another 2 weeks after rifle range/mess duty for BITS (Basic Infantry Training School); still at Pendleton but a different training area. Then back to MCRD for a final week.
MCRD San Diego (1983) here. When I went to boot camp ‘second phase’ training was conducted at Pendleton and consisted of two components: rifle range and field training. Among other things, the field training involved some lengthy hikes through hilly/mountainous terrain. One such memorable hill with a particularly steep grade was affectionately referred to as “Mount M—er F—er”. I know at least a couple of recruits fell backwards down Mount MF on that particular climb. It’s possible an injury resulting in death occurred in such a manner (although it seems pretty unlikely). I believe the majority of fatalities during boot camp occur during swim training.
I would suspect poor reporting. Most everyone confuses MCRD with Pendleton. Even I did when I was in Navy boot camp in San Diego.