Author: SgtGrit

RE: Operation STEEL PIKE – shipped out of Charleston, SC on board the APA Geiger with MACS-6 in 1963. First day out we hit one h&ll of a storm. First lesson learned – always be the 1st person along the rail and never downwind when launching your guts. Below decks we were gathered around a GI can looking like a bunch of toy birds bobbing up and down into a water glass except we were filling the can, not emptying it. read more

We all have something our DI’s said to us or made us do. Something that inspires and motivates us to this day. Send me your example.

Semper Fi
Sgt Grit

Sgt Grit wants to hear from you! Leave your comments below or Submit your own Story !

In early June, 1941 I had me tonsils nearly rupture and I had to have emergency surgery. Ten days later I was back at the hospital with paralytic polio (it was the wrong time of the year.) By 1942 I was totally paralyzed and the doctor told my mother I would more than likely die soon. read more

I served in Vietnam as a helicopter machine gunner and a proud member of HMM-262 (66/67). I received a purple heart for my efforts. When I returned from Vietnam, I had the feeling that as an air wing Marine, I hadn’t done as much as the grunts who walked through the jungles, slept in the rain, etc. I finally worked with a grunt who was in Vietnam at the same time I was there. We became good friends and I confided in him one day that I somehow felt like I should have done more because I didn’t have the combat experiences he had. He looked at me for a minute and then told me that he’d always felt the same way about me. He said that he felt lucky being on the ground and that his heroes were the guys who flew in the helicopters to bring in supplies, reinforcements or to carry wounded Marines out during firefights. He said he’d never be able to do my job. He’d been my “real Marine” and I’d been his. read more

RULE 1 The Gunny is always right.

RULE 2 In the impossible hypothesis that a subordinate or officer may be right, rule 1 becomes immediately effective.

RULE 3 The Gunny does not sleep; he rests.

RULE 4 The Gunny is never late; he is delayed elsewhere. read more

There is not many older Marines to remember serving aboard the Banana Fleet. I enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 1934 at the Milk St. Recruiting Office in Boston Ma. After being processed along with seven other from Maine, we were bussed to the docks and put aboard the ” Fall River Line “, a coastal Motor Ship. Picked up twenty more in New York and continued down coast to Savannah, Ga. where we were met by two DIs with a Parris Island bus. They were not too happy with us at that point and made it very evident. Soon we were on the cause-way to P I. Our senior D I was Sgt. Tarr and Cpl. Finke was # 2. Both were well tanned from serving in Haiti and Cuba. After 13 grueling weeks we had shaped up enough to pass in revue and graduate to receive the coveted EGA. Some wanted seagoing and we were sent Sea School in Norfolk. then to Gitmo assigned aboard a light Cruiser and 3 Destroyers. Our Mission to protect the interest of DOLE and UNITED FRUIT COs. This covered So. America, Cuba and Haiti. In 1939 I transferred to Combat Div. 3, Battleships, USS IDAHO, USS MISSISSIPPI and NEW MEXICO, I was Flag Orderly to Adm. TAUSSIG aboard the IDAHO, steaming to the Panama Canal when Pearl Harbor was attacked., otherwise we would have been tied up in Pearl on Dec 7th. at Ford Island. I shipped back to Norfolk aboard the USS NITRO. and sent to Washington, 8th & I sts. Marine Barracks awaiting discharge with duty at Arlington
Art York, Gysgt USMC/USMCR read more

After boot camp in ’84 I was sent to communications school in 29 Palms. Upon graduation a buddy of mine and I were assigned to HQ Btry. 5/11. At the time it was located on the other side of the base there and a mere walking distance from the school. Everyone from the class was sent to FMF units all over the globe and issued a check for transportation fee which made since for Marines relocating to the East coast or to Okinawa , but for my buddy and myself relocating three miles down the road from school our check was factored out to 53 cents .We laughed about it since it probably cost the government more to print that check than what it was worth. I ended up putting my check in a log book and forgot about it while my buddy actually put his into a frame. About eight months later a Lieutenant from the base finance came by or work shop looking for us and wanted to know why our checks had not been cashed. He pulled out a ledger with our name and check numbers in it. Can you believe he loaded us up into a jeep, drove us to the base PX and watched us cash the checks? Then again I wished I had that Marine officer in charge of my current bank accounts. read more