A Little Humor: Navy Boot Camp Medical Condition

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy when I was 17 in 1970. 

I attended Naval Recruit Training at Great Lakes, Illinois which sailors call Boot Camp, back in February of 1970. 

I recall suffering through one particularly freezing and grueling day on the grinder, marching and doing strenuous exercises with a 12-pound rifle. 

I finally had enough and I told the drill instructor that I had a medical condition. He told me to report to sick bay. 

I saw a Navy corpsman in sick bay and I told him I had a back problem.

About a half hour later the corpsman ushered me into the Navy doctor's office. 

The doctor consulted a sheet and asked, "You have a back problem?" 

"Yes, Sir," I replied. "I wish I was back home in Philadelphia."