My fiance is currently in Boot Camp in San Diego, and in my last letter he said that he was allowed to print off a picture of me. I don’t know where he would have gotten a picture to print off, unless he was allowed on facebook or something. Do they have any Internet access whatsoever in Boot Camp? I didn’t think that they did, but it’s mind boggling me how he would be able to print off a picture of me and from where.
Thanks in advance!
Given its been 46 years since my MCRD experience, I can’t speak with any authority. That said, I’d be shocked if they let him anywhere near the Internet. Of course, boot camp is quite a bit different now. Hell, the DI’s can’t even hit a recruit anymore.
No. Its the United States Marine Corps not holiday camp in the Poconos. 
So cell phone signals somehow stop at the fenceline of Marine boot camps? Unlikely! And smartphones can access the internet, and could reach facebook, twitter, etc. And many can download a photo to a printer. So it seems possible to me.
I’m forced to assume you’re not ex military. Because smartphones would definitely not be allowed in basic, and while its certainly possible to smuggle one in, that’s a real quick way to get into serious trouble. And he would never have been given permission to connect it to the network to print anything on a network printer, that isn’t something he could bypass unless he has a LOT of help from a staff member, who would be risking their job.
The likelihood of a new recruit smuggling anything into MC boot camp is nil.
Is it possible he’s in AIT? There’s no reason he would lie about something this trivial, so I wonder what the deal is?
With the qualification that my experience dates back to 1969…Following boot camp, Basic Infantry Training was next (AIT next). Albeit limited, this was the first opportunity a Marine had to go off base. At this point, one could certainly bring items back to base.
And we are all better for it.
Cell phones in boot camp isn’t as crazy as it sounds…The Marines might noe allow it, but here are the Air Force boot camp rules:
They might have let all the recruits into an on-post computer lab that has printers. This may have been part of a motivational exercise to let every recruit print out a picture of their loved one. Then, the DIs would have probably made crude comments or made each recruit put the picture in their view while doing pushups, etc.
I cannot say for certain, except to say that when I was at AIT, on post computer labs were common, although my training program did not use them very much. I know there were some on the post where basic training was given - and this was 10 years ago.
NOT MARINE BOOT CAMP SPECIFIC
Generally speaking, there is some (very minimal) free time in basic training and there is wifi at a lot of the Messes. In our building there was a computer lab with “GP Net” which allowed us to access email and facebook. It wasn’t always open and we certainly didn’t have a lot of leisure time, but it’s possible.
I went to Boot Camp in 1990 and the DI’s had an area set up for people to put pics of their girlfriends up, I believe it was called a Hogs Wall or something similar.
USMC MCRD San Diego, 1974. The girlfriend photo board was called the Pig Board.
Ours was called the mot board (short for motivation board). And of course the DI’s would make all kinds of comments about the recruits’ girlfriends or wives, stuff about Marines sharing or about how they were going to see them first on graduation day.
I went to Boot Camp n 1995.
I can’t wait for the day a gay marine recruit posts a picture of his boyfriend on that board. Probably give some of those hidebound old Drill Instructors an absolute heart attack!
I’ve heard stories recently about a boot camp (Army one) where one new enlistee was an open & out gay man, has been out to family & friends since about age 12 (a third of his life), and doesn’t see it as any big thing. But it caused a problem for his boot camp Drill Sergeant, who was in the habit of using terms like “faggots” and “fairies” to ‘motivate’ his straight recruits when he felt they weren’t working hard enough. Like “only 27 push-ups is all you can do? What a faggot!” only to have the gay recruit pipe up with “no, sir – I’m the faggot, over here, sir.” Which is very disconcerting to an old Drill Sergeant who is used to recruits being upset and working hard to avoid being called those words. He needed to find some other terms to use to ‘motivate’ his recruits.
The world progresses, and some of these old guys find it hard to keep up.
While going through recruit training, it’s difficult for me to imagine using a cell phone as being anything other than a privilege that would be easily rescinded by the training cadre. I can’t imagine a recruit being allowed to always carry one around in their uniform. The phones would mostly reside in the recruit’s locker, or the DI/CC/whatever would collect them and give them out when outgoing phonecalls are permitted and then re-collect them.
That’s how we did it. What a huge pain in the ass!