Customer Reviews

Parris Island Daze: My Drill Instructor Was Tougher Than Yours

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This book is both hilarious and haunting. Bob Shirley brings the boot camp experience back to our minds in a very real way. I could almost see my drill instructor in my face after 48 years. He explains his experience as a Pvt. Joyce. He was in Parris Island the same year as I was, 1958. He was in the 2nd batallion and I was in the 1st but the training was almost identical. In fact some of the words and phrases he used are the same as my drill instructors used. I know we can all look back and laugh at some of our experiences there but yet remember the fear and confusion we felt at the time. As we look back on it , as he has done, we can see a very definite reason for the training we received there. I'm sure it saved many lives in Vietnam and elsewhere. It also taught us about life and the challenges we would face. After I read it I wanted to try to locate my drill instructors. Unfortunately, my 2 main instructors had already passed away. The widow of one of them said she was sure her husband would like to have heard from me. If you read this book, try to locate your drill instructors and tell them that you appreciate what they did for you. I would rate this book to be at least 95% accurate.

"Parris Island Daze is the best book I've ever read on boot camp at Parris Island. I've read every word in the book and even read some aloud to my wife. It's a wonderful, wonderful book that I hope all Marines will read and enjoy. It's great." Former Governor of Georgia and U.S. Senator Zell Miller, author of Corps Values: Everything You Need To Know I Learned In The Marines.

Some authors take a roundabout course to their first book. Bob Shirley was no different. His journey as an author just happened to begin by having a man named Snake scream at him.
The year was 1958. It was boot camp. Marine Corps boot camp. And Trainee Under Rapid Development (TURD) Joyce (Shirley's alter ego) is in over his head.
He undergoes various indignities and trials by fire, all with the express purpose of turning him into a Marine. Shirley puts all these experiences into words in a way that not only has the reader laughing alongside as he silently mocks a drill instructor, but allows a look at what deadly serious business training new Marines can be. What impressed me the most was how Shirley managed to paint full pictures of his drill instructors. Of course, they neatly filled out the Hollywood-generated caricature we civilians have in our minds, but Shirley's take on the drill instructors of Parris Island also allowed them to retain their humanity on every level. Even when they were screaming at the recruits, giving them an "Adam's apple massage" or having them drop down for 20 pushups.
But Private Joyce perseveres. Between the paranoia induced by never knowing when the drill instructor were going to find a reason to administer punishment to the frustration of trying to hold back from strangling the DI as his confidence grew, Joyce uses humor to to keep going. He also survives Marine Corps food, the mysterious warbling of his drill instructor during marching training and the bloodthirsty sand gnats to reach what every private strives for, graduation day. Shirley said that marching onto the parade ground in front of the reviewing stand, the Marine Corps hymn playing, is still the proudest moment of his life.
And being a Marine has meant everything to Shirley. He said that after completing boot camp, he felt there was nothing he could not do. Shirley said it gave him the confidence to see things through to the end, a character trait that allowed him to earn three college degrees and succeed in several fields of business, from engineer to stockbroker.
It also helped him complete his first book, Parris Island Daze: My Drill Instructor Was Tougher Than Yours. Shirley said he'd been writing on and off for 10 years, but had only completed a handful of episodes that ended up in the book. However, when he retired in July 2005, he found his inspiration and some days, wrote for 18 hours at a stretch. Some parts were rewritten many times, but the end result is a smooth and often hilarious read.
"My original purpose in writing this book was to entertain Marines," Shirley said. Based on the comments he's received from his peers, including from former Parris Island drill instructors, he has succeeded.

This text took me back to 1953/1955 when I underwent recruit training at PISC and then entered Drill Instructor's School. My time preceeded the book's description by 5 years but memories described flooded back and I laughed until tears flowed. Any/All Marines (past /present) will thoroughly enjoy this trip. Bob Shirley's accounts of his trials/tribulations are a mirror of the little green handbook that we received as a part of our
bucket issue..."LEATHERHEAD"...mine became my diary as I inserted dates when each event occurred.
This book is a must for all Marines.
Paul T. Kirsch
Recruit Platoon 164 "H" Co., 2nd Bn PISC 1953
SSgt James M Scarboro, PFC Donald Dumont, PFC Frank Knopf Drill Instructors

As a former Marine I enjoyed many memories of my days at Parris Island in 1957. These days most of the book had me smiling if not outright laughing. We will always remember our D.I.'s and the influence they had on our characters. I'm sure any former Marine will get a little lump in his throat when reading the D.I.'s talk at graduation. He said they were now part of the brotherhood and they would always be Marines. Great memories!

Written by Marine Corps Association member and Parris Island graduate Bob Shirley, Parris Island Daze: My Drill Instructor Was Tougher Than Yours is a tell-it-like-it-is account of what Parris Island (or any other American military boot camp) is really like. Recounting the experience of grueling yet invigorating training, and illustrated with twenty-eight black-and-white boot camp photographs, Parris Island Daze reminisces the forging experience without pulling any punches as to its severity. Parris Island Daze is especially recommended for anyone preparing to join the military, the better to inform them of the hurdle they are about to encounter, as well as the character and manhood-building rewards they can achieve!

I started laughing on the first page of Chapter 1. He's describing arriving at the train depot and the MP's coming on board and immediately starting to scream at him. It was 1958. Step forward five years and it was me that they were screaming at. Just like with him, it was in the early hours of the morning, I was tired, sleepy, and wondering what I was getting into. I didn't realize that it was their intent for us to arrive in the dark to have you dazed, confused, and disoriented. Oh Yeah! For me, just like for him, it was also raining and cold. I wonder if that was part of the plan as well. How did they do that?

To be sure, I was Army rather than Marine, but it differed only in detail. It was terrifying at the time, funny now.

The basic rules of how to do basic training, how to take a civilian and turn him into a soldier were first developed a couple of thousand years ago by the Greeks training young men to fight in the phalanx. It worked then, and it works now. It's a carefully graduated psychological program to develop mental and physical fitness of the type the military wants.

A delightful book, especially recommended for the parents of people going into the service.

If you have been there and done that, Parris Island Daze will keep your attention from cover to cover. Bob Shirley has captured the sights, sounds and smells that can only be Marine Corps Boot Camp. You will revisit and relive the experience, this time smiling or laughing out loud without fear of an Adam's apple massage or drop down for twenty.
-Chuck Taliano, Sgt. T, Rose Garden DI (drill instructor of front cover of this book).

Harsh but true stories from the Old basic training marines went through. I only hope new Marines get the training we went through. Only complaint is too much TURDS as our drill instructor thought of us as men in training and did his best not to demean to the point of the instructor in this book. How can you build men today by acting like a power-hungry maniac

I entered the class just after the one described in this book, as a former Marine I enjoyed this book, it brought back many memories and a lot of laughs. A joyful read.