My Marine Corps Exchange Experience - Making Every Pogey Bait Run Count

There is nothing better than being a “Motor T” Marine. When you have wheels, everyone wants to be your friend. When you have a 5-ton truck, the M813 to be exact, you can haul just about anything up to 10,000 lbs over any terrain. During my deployment in the Persian Gulf our company logged over a million miles through the roads and deserts in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - every clime and place, oohrah! And Marines will let you know when they want something. Typically, that involves food in the form of snacks or better known by Marines as pogey bait.

After the war was over, there were many convoys to various locations. A longer convoy run would take us from outside Kuwait City to near the port of Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Outside of Al Jubail was Camp 15 where Marines were based to defend the industrial complexes surrounding the city. Camp 15 had a makeshift MCX where we stocked up on pogey bait - candy bars and Slim Jims were the favorites of many. While it wasn’t it wasn’t an official MCX and didn’t have a vast selection like the one in Camp Lejeune, they knew what Marines wanted. We stocked up and were back on the road to our little slice of desert back north – near a place the Marines referred to as Camp Rogers. There would be many happy Marines that evening enjoying some comfort food thanks to Marines taking care of Marines. That’s what we do. That’s who we are.

Semper Fidelis!

Mike Anthony (CPL/USMC)

PS – And for the record, once we got back to Camp Lejeune, the run on the MCX there was epic!