Thresher01,
You are right about the tin cans. The Guam rode like a Cadillac and the flat bottom amphib LST's were always rocking and rolling. No one on our ship got seasick.
Regarding our equipment, yes, pretty old school. I didn't realize it until I was in a WWII museum and I saw the packs, shelter half's, canteens, and helmets were what we had. I had an M-14 at two of my duty stations too. We even had M-1919 LMG while in infantry training but did have M60's in the Rifle Companies. After the first Gulf War, the Marines were pretty much upgraded to the same equipment the Army had.
Looking back, I'm amazed about how little knowledge we had about Russian weapons and equipment in Europe and mid-east. We never had any training or familiarization. It was still VN going on. I had always read Jane's Defense books and was aware and had fired an AK and familiar with an SKS. I would tell guys how screwed we are going to be if we go up against T-72's which had started being deployed. Their response was "What's a T-72?" Even the M-48A3 we had used the same 90mm gun as WWII and wasn't much better than a Pershing. The .50cal cupola gun was worthless because it jammed too much. At that time the Marines had never been in a conventional tank-tank engagement other than at the airfield on Peleliu and that was a joke.
I knew how ineffective the LAW was after reading about the NVA armor attack at Lang Vei. Fortunately, I had gotten some recon training and knew how to call in naval gunfire, airstrikes, and medivacs. I'm not really sure what the higher-ups expected of us.
When on the Med Cruise twice we were awakened in the middle of the night to get our gear and go topside. The Indy was launching Phantoms (awesome afterburners at night), the choppers were warming up and they were passing out live ammo. We had no briefing, nothing. Told to 
if you asked a question. I had no idea where we were. After a few hours, they shut everything down. I think we were near Libya because we had been in Naples less than a week before that.
In high school, we used to play a game called "Commandos" where we'd get hundreds of eggs (ammo) and go into the Everglades at night during the dry season, split up in teams, and hunt down each other. In the end, you could tell who got hit the most. Being in the boonies was not a problem for me.
I was amazed at how many guys in my unit had no type of field experience before enlisting. I had a squad leader that actually admitted to being afraid of the dark. He thought I had some type of supernatural ability because I could navigate at night without a compass. He refused to believe you could tell north by looking at the stars. That's why I was the real squad leader.
We had this one super to the max FUBAR in our platoon. One night in the CP the LT (a really great guy, officer and leader as was our CO) was saying how concerned he was about this guy because we were getting ready to deploy. I told him not to worry because if we ever had to hit the beach I'd make sure he got a broken leg and medivacked. The LT smiled and nodded his head in agreement.
I used to hang out at my son's unit at Pendleton (1st Radio Bn) and have a few beers with them. I was amazed at how sharp and knowledgable these guys were as compared to when I was in. However, there was this macabre undertone and sense of humor. Much of the time they were watching videos of bad guys getting "swacked" and all kinds of blood and gore stuff and having a fun time too.
This is when I found out how the enlisted guys were getting screwed by not getting awards they deserved. Half of the guys that had been WIA didn't receive a Purple Heart, including my son. Some had been recommended for Bronze and Silver Stars when attached to other units but their CO would not put through the paperwork. The excuse was always, "Sorry, we can't document that". When I was in if we saw an enlisted guy with a Bronze Star we knew that an officer would have received a Silver Star for the same thing. The Marines have always been like that.
My son's room looked like a college dorm. He had empty beer bottles laying around, video game equipment, flat-screen TV, posters on the wall of the Punisher and Freddy Kruger, small refer, personal shower. They also had a rec room in a separate building with a pool table, outside BBQ pit and movie equipment. He said as long as the team got their work done the officers let them slide. That was better accommodations that LT's had when I was in.
All I ever had was a wall locker and footlocker and lived in an open squad bay, bunk beds, with no privacy like boot camp and took group showers like in high school phys ed class. We weren't allowed to have a car either. That was the "Grunt Life" back in the last Millenium.
Looks like I got carried away again.
Wolfhag
...
