| The five-day war with the failed water discipline was just one of many facets to the close combat training
which the Marines received at Camp Pendleton in their final days stateside. Two mornings a week, they were taught
very basic judo. They learned how to use the K-bar (similar to a large Bowie knife) as an effective back-up to
replace a rifle. "A Marine always has his weapon and his K-bar," explained Sarno. "The K-bar is the last line of
defense if your weapon goes out of commission." The Marines also spent an afternoon at the base pool, but not to
swim and bask in the California sun. "We thought we were going swimming," recalled Sarno. "But instead, they
taught us how to use our poncho to transport our weapons across a river stream without getting them wet. In the
shallow end of the pool, we learned how to fold the poncho to turn it into a makeshift raft so that we could carry
our pack and rifle into the water and not get them wet. They showed us how to use the bottom of our dungarees as
flotation." Troubles were not yet over for the Marine who had foamed at the mouth from heat exhaustion during
the five day war. Another training requirement at the base pool was to listen to a lecture at the side of the
pool. He fell fast asleep in the middle of it. An angry swimming instructor woke him, and pointed to a thick
manila rope that was strung from the shallow part of the beginning of the pool up to a high 50 foot diving board.
Sarno said that the instructor ordered him to get up on the high platform with his pack and rifle, and then shimmy
down the rope. Sarno noted that this was the same rich kid who was hated by the older guys in the platoon. "They
were screaming, ‘Fall, fall, fall. Don’t make it. Don’t make it.’ He didn’t have far to go, and I’m sure he wanted
to show them up. This was his moment. He’d finally come through for himself. But then he fell, and everybody
cheered. He went right to the bottom of the pool. That’s the last we saw of him." Another weak link was gone from
the chain of Marine strength. |
