Tag Archives: US Military

UCLA Initiation

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Initiation/Ritual

  • Informant Info
    • Freshman year of UCLA (1983)
  • Type of Lore
    • Customary
  • Language
    • English
  • Country of Origin
    • United States
  • Social / Cultural Context
    • UCLA Fraternity
  • Informant’s Comments
    • Taken very seriously while light-hearted as the event could last up to 12-24 hours. The freshmen were painted, blindfolded, then driven 30 minutes from UCLA’s campus to USC’s and then duct-taped to the flag pole in the center of campus at midnight. During this time, USC students would say profanities and throw items at the freshmen until they were cut down.
  • Collector’s Comments
    • Anonymity in order to not reveal identity of fraternity and informant

Ghost Stories – Parris Island

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Title: Ghost Stories – Parris Island

Informant info: Graham “Ossie” Osborn. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Marine Corps Veteran. Informant was a member of the First Reconnaissance Battalion.

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal, Tradition, Ritual, Superstition, Myths

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about his ghost stories during training and overseas. He discussed his time on Parris Island training to be a Marine and some of the ghost stories related to that.  Parris Island is located in Port Royal, South Carolina.

Associated file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1us1frzhrn0u2t/IMG_7545.MOV?dl=0

Transcript: Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Funny enough, there was a ghost story at Parris Island. I was a first recruit training battalion and right out the battalion, you’d look over and it was just a marsh that looked like a coastal undeveloped area, a swampy marsh. There was a story back in the day where when recruits were allowed to smoke during training, someone claimed to be on a smoke break and actually tried to run away through the marshes, but didn’t make it back, but the people that were on fire watch had to wakeup the whole platoon so everyone that was on fire watch and one of the drill instructors marched them out to the marsh just trying to haze them a bit. But apparently six or seven of them drowned and this is right outside where our barracks were for those 3 months and there was always stories over looking over the marsh at night, especially when on fire watch, that you would see moonbeams, what we called flashlights, the same way we call pens, ink sticks, turning on in the middle of the march. I never saw it, but people did claim they did when they were on fire watch. It was kind of an intimidating thing, so I am sure it was just them seeing things.

 

Informant’s comments: Parris Island has a lot of history and folklore associated with it over the decades of people that have trained to be Marines there.

Collector’s comments:  Ossie didn’t seem to appear that the ghost stories phased him in the slightest.

Traditions – Cherry Pie

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Title: Traditions – Cherry Pie

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal Folklore, Tradition, Ritual, Prank

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about any traditions during their time in the military. Informant discussed the initiation ritual in which a paratrooper would have to fill their pockets on the first jump.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Transcript:

Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: I don’t know if this still goes on, but one of the traditions is usually since I was a paratrooper and one of the things they usually make you do is on your first jump in the division is they make you fill your cargo pockets full of cherry pies.

Informant’s comments: Informant smiled widely remembering this tradition.

Collector’s comments: Initiation rituals such as this one are very common throughout many different military units as well as groups of all kinds world wide. A common activity that is shared as a common experience by all members of the group.

Good Luck Charms

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Title: Good Luck Charms

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal Folklore, Superstition, Myth

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about good luck charms during their time in the military. Informant discussed how in their MRE (food rations) there were pieces of candy called “charms” that nobody ate because they were considered bad luck.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Transcript:

Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]:I wouldn’t say there are good luck charms; I would say that there are a lot more bad luck charms. I was a paratrooper so I used to jump out of airplanes all the time and something you never tell anyone when they are about to jump is good luck. It is just one of those things that whenever it is said somebody gets hurt. One of the other things is one of the pieces of candy that comes in your MRE or field rations are called “charms,” but you’re not supposed to eat those because it’s really bad luck. One of the other things is there is something called the rain turtle. So what you do is, because I was and infantryman and we were always outside, is the rain turtle is somebody draws a turtle on the ground and if you urinate on the turtle it’s supposed to summon the rain gods and have it torrentially downpour.

Informant’s comments: During the informants response he commented on MREs which is an abbreviation of meals ready to eat. Informant told me that the following is a common superstition across all branches of the military.

Collector’s comments: Another one of the veterans we interviewed from a different part of the military also followed the rule about not eating the “charms”

Ghost Stories

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Title: Ghost Stories

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal, Tradition, Ritual, Initiation

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about ghost stories while serving and in training. He could not come up with any ghost stories, but discussed some of the initiation rituals that he had to go through.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]:I think the one that what everybody gets usually when they are in basic combat training is that all of the privates conspire together and talk about their drill sergeant and kind of think that he is some kind of sadistic person that just always gets pleasure out of making us do push ups and things of that nature so that is one of the stories from training.

Informant’s comments: No specific stories came to mind

Collector’s comments:  Each person has a different version of what the definition of a “ghost story” became apparent.

Pre-Deployment Ceremonies

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Title: Pre-Deployment Ceremonies

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/ Verbal, Tradition, Ceremony, Recipe, Toasts

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about various ceremonies that they experienced during their time in the military. Informant took a minute to remember the different ceremonies. The informant discussed the pre-deployment ceremony and how they would make different mixes of drinks that were inspired by alcohol from different regions of the world in which they had military victories.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

 

Transcript: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: So the military in general has ceremonies for everything. Going from promotion ceremonies, award ceremonies and just kind of pre-deployment ceremonies. One of the things, one of the ceremonies in particular is the pre and post deployment ceremony, where we basically mix a bunch of different liquors together to be a grog that is supposed to signify all our units past combat contributions in the United States History. So for example, I remember one of them was Schnapps for defeating the Germans. Another one was, I think a bottle of wine for beating the Italians and something else for the French, but I can’t remember.

Informant’s comments: Spoke about how those ceremonies were always good times.

Collector’s comments: Although informant spoke light-heartedly about the pre-deployment ceremonies, the interviewer noted a very serious tone to the ceremonies as well.