I came home from college on Christmas break in 1965. My Dad met me at the door, and was really glad to see me. I immediately announced to him that I had joined the Marine Corps. His beaming face turned to surprise and disbelief. “You did what !?… I thought you were smart!?”, he growled.
Category: Main
See If The Cockroaches
Hello Sgt Grit!
Back again with another true story from the land of milk and honey!
Vietnam – Liberty Bridge – 1969… Well There we were. Fox Company, 1st Plt, 2/5 Security Detail, and it was a beautiful sun-shiny-day! We were just-a-strollin’ back and forth across the bridge makin’ sure the local Jack-A-Muffins weren’t getting into mischief when we spotted a jeep zipping down the road our way with a giant searchlight mounted on it… Is there a U.S.O. show coming to an HOA? We wondered…
Hill 488
Hill 488 was just another landmark in the jungles of Vietnam. For the 18 men of Charlie Company, it was a last stand. This is the stirring combat memoir written by Ray Hildreth, one of the unit’s survivors.
On June 13, 1966, men of the 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division were stationed on Hill 488. Before the week was over, they would fight the battle that would make them the most highly decorated small unit in the entire history of the U.S. military, winning a Congressional Medal of Honor, four Navy Crosses, thirteen Silver Stars, and eighteen Purple Hearts – some of them posthumously.
Circuitous Travel Leave
This is not a Viet Nam sea story, but rather a “leaving Viet Nam” sea story, but it really happened, and it’s pretty incredible. Time frame is 1965-1966.
I was a 1st Lt helicopter pilot flying for HMM-163 out of Hue- Phu Bai.
I had heard about a thing called circuitous travel leave. As I understood, it meant that you could take leave on the way to your next duty station and travel, via government transportation, on a space available basis, to a few other places enroute. Since there was a reasonable chance I wouldn’t survive, I thought I’d try to take advantage of this deal, just in case I did make it through my tour. With my squadron mate, 1stLt Joe Weiss, we got out an atlas, and put in for circuitous travel leave, requesting permission from HQ Marine Corps, to travel to EVERY FREE WORLD country on the map!
A Co. School of Infantry
My EGA during SOI, by Master Tattoo in San Diego, CA
John Glenn, American space-race hero, dead at age 95
Over the long arc of John Glenn’s life, it proved impossible to ever ask him to do something for his country. No matter the mission, no matter the risk, he had already stepped forward, his hand raised, his jaw set, ready to go.
Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, and later a four-term U.S. senator from Ohio, died Thursday at the Ohio State Cancer Center. He was 95.
Khe Sanh Rats
This story is for all the Marines that served at the Seige of Khe Sanh. As you can remember there was a lot of boredom, if you weren’t filling sand bags with that nice red clay or going on water runs and moving the ammo dumps around so the NVA could not just fire and knock them out. I’m sure you all remember the rat problem we had.
Wimp to Whack!
I was the typical high school nerd! I minded my own business, was not very social, and dreaded confrontations from bullies. One particular bully—let’s call him Harry—enjoyed exercising his rather assertive and tough nature against me on several occasions during my senior year (1966). In September of that year, I received my induction orders from Uncle Sam (the mandatory draft was in effect due to the Vietnam War) and I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. I was sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, on January 2, 1967 (Happy New Year!). Suffice it to say that during my training I was remolded from a wimp to a man in short order.
Remebering MCRDSD
Just like our fellow recruit that attended MCRDSD, it was a privilege to have gone through boot camp to become a Marine. Having been the only Japanese American in the siries Battalions in 1959, it was sure strange. Many of the senior DI’s were WW11 and Korean War veterans. Yes, I was “thumped” a few times for doing the wrong things at the wrong time.. What recruits go through today is too simple and easy. The only rough part was a junior DI that lost his older brother on Iwo Jima, and boy did I get his hatred as a Japanese recruit in the Marine Corps. The funniest part of bootcamp was when I spilled a pitcher of water all over a DI from the 2nd Battalion. My DI’s laughed about it until graduation. Boot camp toughen me up for what was to come from 1959-1968, Lastly, my grandson fought in iraq and Afganistan and I currently have a greatgrandson deployed. Semper Fi to all Marines from the past, now and into the Corps future!!!!
Christmas Stories
In December of 1992, I picked up LCpl after 9 months in the Corps. I was ten feet tall, and very proud. I remember calling my dad and telling him. (He was a swabbie) My unit 3d LAR Bn was on alert for “immediate deployment” and our gear was packed. I was only 18 years old, and had never been so far away from home. I was about to be even farther from home than I would imagine. It was about 1300 and the advance team was in a meeting at Bn CP. (Along with my newly found promotion, my head couldn’t have been any larger since I was also part of the advance team. Boy, wasn’t I salty?) All of a sudden, Lt Col Neller slammed open the door and told us to get our gear, our rifles, and report to the grinder in front of the chow hall. (Lt Col Neller had been rooting for a chance to go and deploy his unit ever since I got there in August, so it was small wonder he delivered the news himself).