17 Photographs Captured Daily Life at US Marine Corps Boot Camp, Parris Island During Vietnam War

United States Marine Corps Recruit Training (commonly known as “boot camp”) is a 13-week program of initial training that each recruit must successfully complete in order to serve in the United States Marine Corps.

All enlisted individuals entering the Marine Corps, regardless of eventual active or reserve duty status, will undergo recruit training at one of the two Marine Corps Recruit Depots (MCRD): Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California. The training and standards are identical between the two bases, though the order of some training events differs from east coast to west coast.

United States Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test Physical Fitness Test that includes a run of 3 miles in less than 28 minutes, 70 or more crunches in 2 minutes, at least 7 pull-ups for males and flexed arm hang for more than 30 seconds for females (this is to achieve the minimum score). For a maximum score, male recruits must complete the run in 18 minutes, perform 115 crunches in 2 minutes and do 20 pull ups. All recruits must meet certain height and weight requirements. The Marine Corps utilizes a 500 yard rifle qualification, while the US Army utilizes a 300 yard qualification with a much smaller target.

During the Korean War, training was shortened from ten weeks to eight, but returned afterward to ten. The Ribbon Creek incident in 1956 led to considerable scrutiny and reform in recruit training, such as an additional layer of command oversight and the distinctive campaign cover. During the early 1960s, the training period was increased to 13 weeks, including three weeks of marksmanship training at the Rifle Range. The Vietnam War-era syllabus was shortened to nine weeks and again saw infantry recruits attend follow-on training at Lejeune and Pendleton.

These amazing photographs were taken by Thomas Hoepker in Parris Island, South Carolina from the series US Marine Corps Boot Camp, 1970.

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20 Beautiful Pics Show a Flowery Garden in South Carolina From the Early 1950s

A beautiful photo collection from Joel Gillespie that shows a beautiful garden of his grandmother Nanny in Columbia, South Carolina in the early 1950s.

“I found a small container old slides in the bottom of an old box of pictures. They are of my grandmother's garden, in the early 1950s.  

I was born after these pictures were taken, and grew up in a more matured version of Nanny's Garden, but I can say without hesitation that this was my favorite place in the whole world. I had the privilege of maintaining it for many years, and learned a lot about gardening from my grandmother. This was a special place.”

Nanny and Pop in Backyard Looking up Towards the Michael's House

Nanny and Pop in Flower Bed Between Second and Third Terrace Looking Towards Michaels

Nanny's Backyard - Bottom Terrace

Nanny's Backyard at Creek Looking Across Bridge

Nanny's Backyard from Second Terrace Looking to Houses on Trenholm

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In 1944, George Stinney Jr., 14, Became the Youngest American Executed in the 20th Century When He Was Sent to the Electric Chair

George Stinney Jr. became the youngest person to be executed in the U.S in the 20th century when he was sent to the electric chair in 1944, but more than 70 years after his death his conviction has been overturned.

George Stinney mugshot, 1944. (State of South Carolina)

On the afternoon of March 23, 1944, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, failed to return home. The next morning searchers, George Stinney Sr. among them, discovered the girls’ bodies lying in a water-filled ditch. Both girls’ skulls were crushed and one of the girl’s bicycles lay on top of their bodies.

According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy’s name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that “George Junius” had confessed and led officers to “a hidden piece of iron.” Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head.

Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames.

Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used. According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been “inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer.” Both girls’ skulls were punctured. The medical examiner reported no evidence of sexual assault to the younger girl, though the genitalia of the older girl were slightly bruised.

After a short investigation, police took George Stinney Jr. and his brother John into custody. They released John, but a few hours later, Stinney confessed to murdering the girls. The sawmill fired Stinney Sr. and the family had to move and rarely saw George Jr. again because his incarceration was 50 miles away.

Geroge Stinney Jr., third from left, is seen in this 1944 newspaper photo entering South Carolina’s death house at the state prison in Columbia. (Jimmy Price/Columbia Record)

A mere 10 days later, the State tried Stinney for the girls’ murders. Records indicate 1,000 people crammed the courthouse. Black people were not allowed inside.

The jury was all-white and the trial concluded that same day with Judge P.H. Stoll presiding. The court had appointed Charles Plowden as Stinney’s counsel. Plowden was a tax commissioner campaigning for a Statehouse seat.

Solicitor Frank McLeod represented the State. He presented evidence from law enforcement that Spinney confessed to the crime. While law enforcement testified that a confession occurred, no written confession exists in the record today. Nothing remains from documentary evidence indicating whether the court admitted a murder weapon, bloody clothes or other demonstrative evidence.

Plowden called no witnesses, did not cross examine, and never filed an appeal. No one challenged the sheriff’s recollection of the confession. The jury deliberated 10 minutes and found Stinney guilty.

The same day Judge P.H. Stoll sentenced Stinney to death by electrocution. The entire process had lasted two-hours. No appeals were filed and no stays of execution requested.

George Stinney Jr.’s fingerprints from 1944 are kept at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. (Michael Pronzato/Post and Courier)

People from across the country wrote letters to Governor Olin D. Johnston regarding George Stinney Jr.’s death sentence in 1944. Most of them sought mercy on the child’s behalf. Courtesy the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. (Michael Pronzato/Post and Courier)

The day before the scheduled execution, the NAACP protested to Governor Olin D Johnston. The execution proceeded.

On June 16, 1944, Stinney became the youngest person to die in the electric chair and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. Standing 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg), the straps don’t fit and an electrode was too big for his leg. His feet could not touch the floor.

According to writer Joy James, as the first 2,400-volt surge of electricity hit Stinney, the mask covering his face slipped off, “revealing his wide-open, tearful eyes and saliva coming from his mouth.”

His family buried his burned body in an unmarked grave hoping the anonymity would allow him to rest in peace.

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Civil Rights and Segregation: 21 Striking Color Photographs Capture Everyday Life in South Carolina in the 1950s

Segregation, the residential, political, and social isolation of African Americans, was accomplished in South Carolina by a long and varying effort in the aftermath of slavery. The de facto, or socially based, segregation of the races was channeled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries into a rigid legal, or de jure, system that effectively enforced the second-class citizenship of African Americans. As all-encompassing as the system of “Jim Crow” came to be in South Carolina, it was constructed through a slow and halting process, which black Carolinians contested at every turn.

In late 1956, over the course of several months, LIFE published what the magazine itself described as "a series of major articles on the background of the crisis brought about by the school segregation decision [Brown v. Board of Education] of the Supreme Court... Although the ground that is to be covered in the series is not wholly new to Americans, it is unfamiliar as a subject of moderate and unprejudiced consideration."

The series in question, ambitiously and simply titled The Background of Segregation, explored the emotionally and politically charged issue at a time when the Civil Rights movement was barely in its infancy. For one especially riveting (then, as now) segment of the monumental five-part series, "Voices of the White South," LIFE dispatched the legendary Margaret Bourke-White to Greenville, South Carolina, where she documented citizens from varying walks of life who wholeheartedly—and unapologetically—supported the legacy and the practice of open, legal segregation.

Here, in striking color photographs that, at times, convey an unsettling intimacy, Bourke-White's work opens a window on an era that, for better and for worse, helped define 20th-century America.

African-American maid prepares a white family's supper

Children play in a segregated neighborhood

Young girls listen attentively in a sewing class

Home inspection in a black neighborhood

Generations pass the time on a porch

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Amazing Found Photos Document Everyday Life of South Carolina in the Late 19th Century

These amazing found photo from John Van Noate show people and their life in South Carolina in the late 19th century.

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