C.G. Morgan – Sgt Grit Newsletter 18 AUG 2011

One of many great stories from this week's Sgt Grit Newsletter…

In 1964 we were in Okinawa. Living in tents at the time there. I got a call to get a fire team and to go to the NCO club to clean it up. Well the Gunny was pretty please with the work we had done he asked if there was anything he could do for us. I replied we hadn't had any fresh eggs in a very long time and it would be great to have some instead of eggs from a can LOL. So the Gunny called down to the tent city mess hall and told them he was sending C.G. Morgan and his men down and to take care of him and his crew. When we arrived there cooks lined up with fresh eggs real plates and they were in dress uniforms instead of kahkies because they had mistaken the gunny thinking that I was a General because of the C.G. in my name. They had thought I was a Commanding General. I don't remember the Gunny's name but thanks Gunny. read more

Devil Dog – Saturn Sky-Redline

Sgt. Grit,

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Guenter (Gint) Reider of Ilion, NY and his “Devil Dog” 2007 Saturn Sky-Redline.  Gint became a Marine in 1965, served in Vietnam 1966/67 and was honorably discharged in 1968.  I’m not sure of the facts, but he said he lost (a street race?) to a girl in a Chevy Cobalt, and that second wasn’t going to cut it.  The idea for the car came with the purchase of a Devil Dog tee shirt, and the ball started rolling.  Gint’s Devil Dog has a number of Sgt. Grit accessories—some seen in the attached pictures.  He takes his pride and joy to several car shows each year and has won “Best In Show” twice and “People’s Choice” once. read more

My Burial Escort Duty

Following is a narrative  of the duty I performed prior to my 13 month tour in Vietnam with Charlie Co. 1st Recon Bn.

April 1966

For my first duty station, I was assigned to Philadelphia Marine Barracks for guard duty. I served as a gate guard and later as a brig guard. But during 1966, a burial escort section was formed out of personnel form Marine Barracks and I was chosen to be included in this newly needed detail.
Individual escorts were assigned the duty of traveling to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and there receiving custody of the remains from the graves registration of a Marine who had been killed in action back to his family for burial. The protocol at the time specified that the rank of the individual to whom you were assigned would be of your rank or lesser. Being a private first class at the time, this meant that the rank and age of what turned out to be a total of seven Marines was the same as mine in both categories. read more

Admiral Nimitz : Three Mistakes Japan Made At Pearl Harbor(as)

 

An interesting story about the insight Admiral Nimitz had into the “Mistakes” the Japanese made when they bombed Pearl Harbor.

Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, “Reflections on Pearl Harbor” by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941–Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat–you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. read more

A Little Biblical Help

My brother graduated from West Point back in 1971.  He never made it to Vietnam.  My son is a 10 year Marine veteran with a tour in Iraq for Uncle Sam and 1 tour in Iraq for Honeywell.  My brothers graduating class at West Point were given shirt pocket sized bibles to take with them to wherever they were to be assigned.  The nice thing about those bibles were that they had a steel front cover.  So by putting that bible in your fatigue shirt breast pocket you were reinforcing the power of the bible and helping to protects yourself at the same time.  Couldn't something similar be done for all our grunts who are sent into harms way? read more