UCLA NROTC

		UCLA NROTC
		We've skipped a few years to my senior year at UCLA. That's the NROTC Drill Team, probably in 1963. I had been given command of the drill team in my junior year, the year that I requested and was accepted into the Marine Option. During the summer between my junior and senior year, I joined the other Marine Option candidates from NROTC units around the country, as well as those from the Naval Academy, in training and screening at Quantico. After several weeks of the boot camp like program, those of us who lasted returned to our schools to continue on our way to become Marine officers. I felt very good about myself then and I decided to go ahead and purchase my officer's sword in anticipation of successful graduation and commissioning in 1963. That's me on the far left and, if you look very carefully, you should be able to see my sword - I was extremely proud of that and my progress toward becoming a Marine. For those of you who might be familiar with today's campus at UCLA, the area on which we are marching is a series of intramural basketball courts that used to lie at the Sunset Boulevard end (on the left, here) of the area between the main campus and the dormitories. I believe that Pauly Pavilion occupies must of this space today. A word about the drill team. It was very good. They were good men, they trained exceptionally hard, and they took a tremendous amount of pride in their appearance and the work that they did - on and of the drill field. They would all have made outstanding Marines.