Tom Lucas & John Marinko hooked up at Myrtle Beach, S.C. in Sept. 2013 after searching the "Together We Served" website for military, and veterans.
Tom was in platoon 329, and John was in platoon 328 at Parris Island in 1963, and later both were stationed at the Parris Island Field Music School. Tom was a drummer, and John was a bugler. After school, both were stationed at Camp Lejeune Force Troops. They made many trips together back to Johns home in Sumter, S.C., and Tom and John remember one time Tom didn't have any clean civies, and John's mom washed his clothes for him.
John ended up going to 8th & I as a bugler, and Tom ended up going to Vietnam with a different MOS (Admin), and was with the H&S III MAF G-3 section, where he spent a lot of time filling sandbags, building a bunker, and walking sentry duties in the back part of the Danang Air Base dogpatch area. He also stood security duty for the Vietnamese workers building a water treatment plant in the same general area.
Tom ended his active duty in 1967 at the Navy Annex Henderson Hall G-3 as an E-4. John mustered out at 8th & I as an E-4 also. John went on in the electrical field, and Tom has his own locksmithing business in Silver Spring, Maryland in the suburbs of D.C.
Both Tom & John vowed that they would meet again real soon. It was a truly great occasion to see a Marine buddy, and their spouse, after 50 + years.
Semper Fi
Tom Lucas