Yellow Footprints
Marines have always considered the yellow footprints as the starting point of the journey to becoming a Marine.
Whether at Parris Island or San Diego, new recruits find these yellow footprints stenciled on the ground outside the receiving barracks at each location. They are directed to stand on these iconic symbols once they arrive at boot camp. This is when the change begins, and it's the perfect name for the website.
Building YellowFootprints.com
I purchased the domain YellowFootprints.com in 2002 after discovering it was available for sale. I still needed a mission statement for the future site, one that stated its goals and its mission. Early on, I knew the site would have to be geared towards history – a Marine Corps history.
Although we Marines are part of the U.S. military, we've always considered ourselves the elite branch or, as we call it, The Breed. The individual historical value of each Marine begins with their boot camp graduation book, which reflects their daily experience of becoming a Marine, from their first days in boot camp to graduation day. Many would find their pictures in these books reflecting a different aspect of their training. Boot camp graduation books show the true value of a Marine, who each experienced becoming one of the world's best fighters.
The mission of returning history started with gathering these historical books in any way I could. I began by purchasing books from eBay. As years went by and word got out about the coming website and its mission, book donations started flying in. One such donation even came from a non-Marine supporter of our mission, who donated some 1,200 platoon books, personally driving 18 boxes of platoon books from the East Coast to our California location.
Now that's support!
Next, I had to create some kind of database where these books could be shared by all. Little did I know at the time what I was about to get myself into. From 2002 until 2004, word spread across the Corps as to what I was building with the new website. Not only did I receive calls to help administer the site, but free server offers came in as well.
The Boot Camp Database
I decided the database should be broken up into two groups: Parris Island and San Diego. Each boot camp location would start with years of graduation, months, and, finally, platoon numbers. Now that the database had some kind of format, it was time to populate it.
As I sat with all the boxes of books I had received over the prior two years, I knew the real mission was about to start. From 2004 until 2006, I spent hundreds of hours and used more scanning equipment than any one person can imagine, scanning recruit pages from each book. I would then upload these pages to the YellowFootprints.com database. At this point, the website was still not online or active for others to see, but I continued my diligent work.
On July 16, 2006, after two years building and populating the database, the website finally went live. So much anticipation was built up by then that our guest list went crazy within days. Marines and non-Marines alike signed up as members, and within a month, I was experiencing more than 200,000 hits. I found site traffic was coming in from all over the world, including from places like China, Russia, and all over Europe. Even the Pentagon, of all places, was coming to see our history.
As of this writing, it has been more than 20 years since I bought the website and began my mission of returning history.
Continuing the Mission
The goal from the beginning was never to keep these books in my collection but rather return them to those Marines who earned them. In my more than 20 years of documenting this history, I have never sold a single book. The objective of the collection was always to return said books to those Marines who found their book in our collection, free of charge.
Over the years, requests for books would come in from family members whose Marine was being assigned to her final duty station or were under hospice care. In the cases where I found we had their book, we would send it out, along with a video of the book where the family members could share it via a computer or television.
There are so many to thank who have supported this mission, from administrative support of the forums to system engineers who have worked tirelessly in keeping our servers up and running 24-7.
As I approach the Autumn of my life, I've started wondering what happens to this collection of history after I'm gone. I needed to see the mission to the end, so I posted a note on Facebook, looking for someone or an organization that would take over guardianship of the collection.
Fortunately, one of my fellow collectors, William Pilgrim, reached out to TogetherWeServed to see if a permanent home could be found for the collection. Through a joint effort by TWS, Ancestry.com, and the Marine Corps University, my passion project has found a home.
As I sit here, reminiscing about the years I've been on this mission of returning history via YellowFootprints to my fellow Marines, I have to think about how all this started. I signed up to join the Marine Corps at the young age of 16 and soon found myself on a troop ship heading to Vietnam when I was only 17.
Many have asked me over the years why I would join the Corps at such a young age, and my response was always the same: to pay a debt I owed the Marines.
To all who have been part of this journey, thank you.
Semper Fi
Cpl Gary Miller
USMC 1964-1970