I trained at Camp Williams in 1993. I was a Radio Operator in the Marine Reserve and a small group of us comm guys were sent to help support a Marine Infantry unit training exercise. When I saw the mention of thanks to the Utah National Guard in the credits I went to IMDB and was excited to see Camp Williams listed in the filming locations. Besides the general terrain, however, nothing on the base in the movie looked familiar to me. When I was there they had some more modern facilities, brick barracks, etc but there were a few older wooden buildings that I was in, such as the Chow Hall, Chapel, and what we called the Comm Shack (where radios, field phones, etc were stored). There was a huge grass field we crossed to get from the barracks to the Comm Shack but again nothing I could reference to the movie (like the hand to hand combat training sequence, rats!).
It was July and it was HOT! Up to that point my role as a Radio Operator was more towards the rear area- so called Combat Service and Support. Long shifts at a desk radio or vehicle radio but generally not physically exhausting. Well...my Corporal needed to pick one of us to go out in the field with this particular Infantry unit to radio back to the Battalion HQ in the rear and he took me aside and picked me. He said don't take it wrong and he wanted to keep us all together for the exercise but they needed someone and it was between me and "Smith" (the other half dozen or so radio guys weren't even in the running) and while the other guy was at least as fit as me he was not as disciplined so that was why he chose me. He was a good Marine and I respected him.
Long story short- I got sick the morning we gathered in the Motor Pool to head out to the field. I puked my guts out during the Captain's(?) brief and the Grunts loading in the trucks were roaring and laughing and shaking their fists in the air. Eventually got hydrated and recovered which is hard when you are humping in the hills and heat. After our days in the field were coming to an end we started humping back to the base and trucks were coming out and picking up groups of Marines and shuttling them back to the base. Our ever shrinking group was still humping it in as truck after truck loaded with Marines drove by moo'ing etc. Finally an empty truck came for us and the officer gave him the signal to turn around- we were going to go the rest of the way in by foot. As we got closer to the large cluster of Marines who were milling around at the Motor Pool the officer leading us told us to straighten up but we were already marching in with pride and the guys who took the trucks and were laughing at us were the ones with their heads down. Ah, memories. I think we may have passed the big silver water tower that the troops marched by coming out of the field too but I'm not sure.
I was very impressed with the Marine Infantry I was privileged to train with. All levels- from officers, SNCO's, NCO's, and riflemen were sharp. And whether thin or bulky they were tough! And they were thinkers too, always adapting and knowing what to do if they had to take charge for the man over them. Best experience I ever had in the military.
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