School of Infantry - West — Local services in Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

I came here for MCT in summer 2013 and I was immediately hit with the impression that none of the staff wanted to be there and that they either were unable or simply did not care to hide how miserable they were. The instructors did not seem to care about their jobs, especially teaching practical skills to students, and many were desperately trying to act like drill instructors while lacking the professionalism and competence to do so.

We ate MREs for the entire month-long cycle and then found out there was a Chow Hall there the entire time that we were just never taken to until one of the last days.

I somehow lost my job contract during training and was pulled into a Master Guns’ office to get re-assigned to a different MOS. They wanted to put me in a field that required a drivers license and I didn’t have mine on me, so I, and 18 year-old private, got chewed out by a Master Guns for over an hour because I didn’t have my drivers license on me in the field at MCT.

Overall it was a very disorganized and demoralizing experience, especially for a fresh and eager Marine straight out of MCRD. We did not learn any practical knowledge or skills, we did not fire any weapons because of various issues with the ranges, all we really did was hiking and sitting around a lot. Despite that, the tasks we spent the most time doing were either digging foxholes and filling sandbags or just waiting for half the day to be told that an event is cancelled or we don’t have enough time to do it anymore. It was my first sour taste of the Marine Corps.

After reflecting upon my experience at MCT after serving for ten years on active duty, I sincerely hope that MCT has improved because it was truly a pointless waste of time that showed the worst parts of the military to the very people who were the most eager to...

MAN them chow hall workers ARE LOVELY. They really are the best, serving up each meal with a SMILE. The orange juice, immaculate I love the purity and the pulp. I love how clean the place is and how greatly maintained it is! They MUST get appraised for how well they handle the food. The workers act like the monsters inc receptionist if she was a lunch...

Service is terrible, chow hall workers think they DIs or something place is unclean, boots keep coming in with improper civilian attire. Food is terrible. They make it known that they don’t wanna be there. Like why are you complaining about food service when all you gotta do is put the fries in...