Down Memory Lane at Camp Pendleton, circa early 1944.

Don Knight at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. 2014. (Photo by John Metelsky)

By Don Knight

Don Knight fresh from boot camp in 1943.

My platoon-sized, MAG 32 ground defense and guard unit stationed at MAS El Taro got the word: get our tails down to Pendleton for five weeks of combat training. Bring our rifles, helmets and extra clothing.

To begin: long hikes at night, including a seven mile climb over “old rocky”, part of the terrain on this vast hunk of southern California. Then two mock invasions of the California coast. From a training vessel we pushed off in rubber rafts, five or six per raft, into the Pacific Ocean. The challenge: keep rifle and self dry while rowing for the dim shoreline. All went well until we hit the breakers. Two guys on the bow fell overboard but managed to wade ashore.

Another encounter with a rubber raft came during a night exercise on Lake O’Neil, somewhere in Pendleton. Then came the infiltration course, a crawl with rifle and full pack across live-fire terrain, hugging the dirt and mud real tight. Later, firing a carbine from the hip, on the run. Then bayonet work, knife and club fighting, drill and more drill.

Our reward: attendance at a network radio broadcast from Pendleton by Bob Hope and his crew of Ginger Rogers, Frances Langford and Jerry Colona.

Then the final word: get our tails to San Diego. Colonel Hanley, former football coach at Northwestern U. and head of the combat training school, gave the farewell pep talk. We boarded the new aircraft carrier (USS Hornet). Destination: Pearl Harbor. Later: five island landings in the Solomons, The Admiralties, and the Philippines via an LST and a Liberty ship. Thanks to Parris Island and Pendleton, we were ready for whatever might be waiting.

Will I find my footprints on the beach near Oceanside? Maybe.