As a child from the age of seven to 14 or so Grandpa Gene was bulletproof ,and as a kid we knew his handshake would crush your hand. I remember him telling me stories of World War 2 of the Japanese digging tunnels and pulling his buddies underground, but as a child my brain did not believe. He passed away in 1996 when I was 16 from cancer, and I never knew what he had been through. One day in the summer of 2010 I decided to watch Flags Of Our Father, and HBO’s “The Pacific” and it gave me a good kick in the pants. I have never felt like such a fool in my life, and was so oblivious to what he and all of you go through for me. How could my education not show this to me? WHY didn’t we cherish all of you more?
Author: Greg Burch
Duc Pho Good Friday of ” 67″
I’ve heard different stories about the hit on 3/7 on Good Friday of 67 at Duc Pho. My recollection we started taking incoming about o200hrs.I was w/H&S Co We were at the base of the hill and about the middle just above the J4 fuel dump.We were taking small arms, rockets and some 57 recoilless rifle. What hit the fuel dump I don’t know, but let me tell you that was a sight to behold. Best fireworks display I’ve ever seen. I talk to some Marines later at Chu Lai said they could see the flames from their. I was about 75 meters from the dump. Does any other Marine remember being their that night. Semper Fi , my friends
Salt water wash
Any old seagoing jarheads around that tied up their Utes onto a rope and tossed into the sea for a couple of days to make them look older that you were? Nothing looked better than a salty set of Utes. AJ squared away.
12th Marines, Camp Hague 1957-58.
EGA
Done by Marky Mark in Saugerties, NY. 12477
Full Circle
Soon it will be 50 years since I took the oath to become a Marine.10 Oct 1967 I walked down the sidewalk of my home,got into my Dads car and left for the Federal Building in downtown Pittsburgh and ,along with four other recruits was sworn in.That same afternoon we were on a plane headed south.The first stop was the airport in Charlotte NC. While there we met a Marine that just finished 0311 training and,was heading home on leave then on to WestPac.We went to a bar in the airport and had a few beers while listening to his stories and advice about bootcamp. Some of the stories turned out to be true some not so true.Our next stop was the airport at Charleston SC. We were sent to a kind of staging area of some sort. There we met up with a bus load of other recruits and headed for Parris Island.On the way,someone started passing around a couple bottles of Jack or Jim can’t recall which.By the time we reached “The Island” I had a pretty good buzz.When the,I think,the driver announced that we were approaching gate the bus became a little quieter.Everything after that is a little fuzzy I do remember getting off the bus and standing in some sort of formation,Were there the “Yellow Footprints” maybe I can’t really remember.
New recruit motivation 1966
One of my fathers favorite stories to share was about being a DI at MCRD in 1966. The story goes that the new recruits were brought to an assembly area close to the fence facing the San Diego Airport. All the new recruits had their ill-fitting utilities on and shaved heads so everybody looked the same on day one. Mixed in with the recruits was another DI wearing utilities. One of the DI’s was telling the new recruits that going AWOL would get them shot for desertion during a time of War (Viet Nam was going hot and heavy at the time). Well the fake recruit gets up, says he can’t take it anymore and runs for the airport fence. One of the DI’s happens to have an M14 locked and loaded (with blanks) during the desertion speech. The fake recruit starts climbing the fence. The DI with the M14 yells a warning and then Bang Bang, that was the end of that recruit because he falls to the ground and a life changing impression was made on all of these future Marines. S/Sgt Roger D. Marsh (Ret) is now guarding the gates of Heaven. God Bless America and the US Marine Corps.
Bushido Warrior Mentality
Sgt. Grit,
I was USMCR ’57 to ’63, a Cold War Marine, later I served as a Los Angeles Co. Sheriff’s Deputy with my last 24 years assigned to SEB/ESD, Special Weapons Team and Paramedic Air Rescue.
My youngest son, Mike, told me when he was 15 y/o, that he wanted what I had, the camaraderie and the brotherhood. (That’s pretty much what he grew up with, the Marine Corps and a SWAT Team). He joined the Marines right out of high school and made it into 3rd ANGLICO, spending six weeks with the SEALs in Coronado to get his MOS and then LASD when he was 19. He went to Iraq with 150 other deputies from the department in January 2003.
Amtracs and Ontos
I arrived in K-Bay in January 1961, and after a month on mess duty I reported to the “tractor park” for training in Amtracs. Across the main road from the tractor park was an area used for our driver training, the brush was around 15 feet high with roads running through it. Coming rapidly around a corner one day I was stopped short by a strange vehicle that also came to a sudden stop about 20 feet away facing me. I was looking down the muzzles of six giant (106mm) recoilless rifles.
Cease Fire, Cease Fire
I arrived in the RVN on July 24, 1965. I was assigned to work in the 3rd MAF Comm Center on the night watch, 1800 to 0600. After returning to the billeting area after noon chow, in the first week of August, I heard a hand cranked siren start wailing. This was followed by several gunshots. Then a voice came over the PA system and shouted “Cease Fire, Cease Fire”
Almost a Squat
Charley was from Oklahoma, and though he didn’t look it, had some American Indian ancestry, or so he claimed… sure didn’t have the high cheekbones of an Elizabeth Warren, for sure, but was rather round-faced. It had fallen his lot to spend 18 months with Marine Barracks, Naha (Okinawa… before we gave it back to Japan), where we were guarding special weapons for the Navy (or so they told us… never saw one of the things). This duty was terminally boring… I mean Boooring! Four on, eight off, day on, day off. Posts were manned by Pvts and PFCs, Lance Corporals and E-3 Corporals stood Corporal of the Guard, and Corporals were section leaders and stood Sgt of the Guard watches.