2017 E-mails
NOTE: Click on the appropriate links for archives from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 and 1997.
7 November 2017
Don't know how I came across this website, but I really enjoy the pictures and stories about your family and childhood experiences. -Theresa
17 July 2017
Wesley,
I read your description of Marine Corps boot camp at San Diego MCRD. I was in training platoon 1129 which started in mid November 1974 so you started just a little before myself.
I was especially interested in your description of close combat training toward the end of boot camp when we were required to pair up and use strangulation (choke) holds on each other with a rubber hose and than our bare arms. As I recall the commands for this training were being given by a close combat instruction via PA system from the podium and even if our partner was rendered unconscious we still had to maintain the hold until the close combat instructor gave the command to "RELEASE".
Other than the strangulation holds I (along with the majority of my platoon members) didn't sustain any physical trauma during our 3 months of boot camp.
By the way, it probably won't come as a surprise that the strangulation hold training (as you and I were required to do it) has been discontinued. Every civilian health care professional that I have described this training to says that those holds have the capacity to cause serious injury or outright death.
Anyway, good write up. Pretty much how I remembered it.
Tim
Thanks!
Looking at the experience forty plus years on, I’m fairly astonished that we did that stuff. And I’m also astonished that it didn’t cause more serious injuries and death than it apparently did!
Wes
23 January 2017
The ID Channel program "A Crime to Remember" is airing this season's final episode on January 31 about the Cheryl Perveler murder in Burbank. The program uses archived film about the time and place of each show, and although the recreations are filmed in the Northeast (probably New York), it stills conveys an excellent depiction of the era they are filming. I live in Tucson, Arizona and the program they did last year about a Tucson murder was obviously not filmed in the Southwest, but was nonetheless interesting. I was born in Burbank in 1959 (Robert Avery lived two houses down), and except for my college years and a brief time (less than 1 year) in North Hollywood, lived in Burbank continuously until I moved to Tucson in 1990. I have enjoyed "Avocado Memories" and "Burbankia" for years - keep up the great work!
Best Wishes,
Greg