I joined the Coast Guard in January of 1965 and was sent to Cape May, NJ for
13 weeks of Basic Training. We lived in a three story barracks and our group
of inductees lived on the top floor.

If my memory is correct, we were paid $78.00 a month during Basic. Every day we got up before daylight and ran, ran, ran to every different training. When we got there, we always had to wait. It was extremely cold in Cape May in January thru March. One trainee could not take the training and tried to swim the bay to escape. The base was surrounded by water on three sides. He did not make the escape and was caught and returned to base. I am not sure what happened to him, but I never saw him again.

After our training every day, we would return to the barracks and climb the
steps to our third floor living quarters. At the top of the stairs, there
was a stand that had a container on top of it, with a money slot. In big
letters it read, 'GMD FUND'. Our Company Commander who was in charge of
training us, was usually at the top of the stairs, especially around payday,
standing by the donation container. I believe he was a 1st Class Petty Officer (E-6).

We were all a little intimidated by him standing by the GMD donation container, so we usually dropped some money in it. Usually a dollar bill or so. This went on for the entire length of our 13 week training. We did not get any liberty to leave the base until our 10th week. After the 10th week, we got a 12 hours pass. After our 11th week, we got a 24 hour pass and after 12 week, we got 36 hours of liberty. I went to New York City with some of my buddies. After our 13th week, we got our assignments and transferred out.
Just at the end our 13 week training, we found out that the "GMD FUND" that
we had been donating to was not what we thought. We all thought it was some
kind of charitable organization, but we found out that it stood for,
GET ME DRUNK. It was a drinking fund for our Company Commander. He duped
us good on this one.

Tom Woodfin, EX: Radioman First Class, US Coast Guard 1965-1969