August 4, 1997 - The Target Factory

970805 - Yesterday was a very bad day. In the morning I worked in the target factory making targets and in the afternoon I shot. Right after shooting we came back tot he squad bay. I had done OK on the range. Not too bad for my first day. Apparently, though, no one else had because we were all crushed upon return to the squad bay. Then, later that night, I was quarterdecked for about 30 minutes and given 2 hours of firewatch. Needless to say, I was a bit discouraged...

During the week we spent on the rifle range, we actually only spent half of the day on the range.The rest of the time, we were assigned either to work in the target factory or to "pull butts." I was assigned to work in the target factory. Each morning, we would make large canvas frames and glue targets to them. That's pretty much it. It was pretty low-key, as there weren't usually Drill Instructors around. They'd come by periodically though, so we had to be working and not goofing off. This was also the only time throughout boot camp that we were actually in the same area as female recruits and were sort of allowed to talk to them. Well, technically we weren't supposed to talk to anyone, so I guess we weren't allowed to be talking to them either, but some recruits still did. I steered clear, though. I could think of many other reasons to be put in the pit or quarterdeck (and did, often) rather than talking to a girl.

Pulling butts was the term for working the targets for the recruits who were shooting. I did this some once I was in the Marines, but not in boot camp. From what I heard, it was much more work than my job. I've included a video that will provide a clearer picture of what it involved.

I'm intentionally leaving out any explanation of the hell that rained down on us at the squad bay, because tomorrow's post will go into that. As you'll see tomorrow, what we experienced today was nothing.