Recently I got re-connected with an old college and Marine Corps buddy after a 28 year break in comm’s.  He was one of my best friends at The Citadel and in the Marine Corps afterwards.  I was delighted to hear that his son is a recently promoted (meritoriously) 0341 (Mortarman) Corporal of Marines on active duty.  As an old 0302, I got to reflecting on that marvelous weapon, the mortar.

Back in the fall of 1973 I was serving at Camp Pendleton’s Infantry Training School (ITS), more recently named the School of Infantry (SOI) at Camp San Onofre.  I was a platoon commander, company XO, and sometimes instructor working there temporarily while awaiting PCS from the mighty 1^st MarDiv in SoCal to the equally mighty 3d MarDiv on Okinawa in WestPac.  It was actually a great experience, for we of the training cadre at ITS got beaucoup trigger time and almost unlimited ammo for every infantry weapon in the Marine Corps, while in those dark early-post-RVN days, the allocation of everything in the FMF from ammo to asswipe was very strictly rationed.  We also participated regularly in leading live fire assaults, which is a whole magnitude of responsibility and concern greater than the usual “BFA’s in the attack” of mock training exercises in the Fleet.  And participating in the making of basic Marine infantrymen was in and of itself a gratifying experience.  It was a great mini-tour.

One nice SoCal autumn afternoon I was teaching an orientation class on mortars to the 0311 Riflemen trainees in our company, augmenting the weapons instructor cadre.  We were teaching basic call for fire techniques.  I had just explained the use of the word “Repeat”, which is exclusively reserved to mean for an artillery or mortar unit firing in support of the grunts to repeat the exact same fire mission, with no additional corrections for deviations in range or deflection.  Hopefully this will eventually lead to the ultimate request from the supported rifle-toting infantry to the fire supporting infantry mortarmen or cannon-cockers of the field artillery to “Fire For Effect”, thus ruining the enemy’s day overall and bringing the action to a favorable (for us, the good guys) conclusion.

I had just explained the meaning and utilization of the word “Repeat” in this context when off in the distance and by sheer unhappy coincidence, a tragedy occurred: a Marine A-4 jet flew into the ground.  It exploded in a mushroom of flame that was graphically visible to us several miles away, even in daylight – like on TV.  This detonation was literally much more colorful than the rather visually drab explosions of 60 mm mortar rounds that the neophyte grunts-in-the-making were observing in this block of instruction.  They erroneously thought it was a part of the class.  So to demonstrate their absorption of the knowledge I had just imparted to them, I had about 120 young Marines all yelling, “Repeat, Repeat!!!”  (“That was cool, LT., let’s see it again, sir!”)  This tragic contingency was not contained in the lesson plan, of course.  I was obliged to explain to them that they had just seen a Marine fighter jet crash, and probably observed from afar the death of a Marine pilot (unless he had the good fortune to eject).  I never learned the fate of the pilot or the cause of that terrible accident.  Maybe not surprisingly, this new information did not phase them in the least.  They just kind of collectively shrugged and looked at me to continue with the class, which I dutifully did.  I just hoped that the above circumstances were ones I would not have to “repeat”.                       

I loved teaching those classes and training those grunts-in-the-making at ITS. 

Semper Fi!