Great Reminder

Sgt Grit:

Several issues of the newsletter have mentioned swagger
sticks. I've enclosed a few shots of the kind that vendors
would come aboard the ships and sell while hitting the ports
in the Med while deployed for a Med Cruise. This one
indicates the ship, USS Rockbridge, APA 228. Note the
scrolls denote the ports hit on that cruise and the islands
for amphibious exercises and landings. A great reminder of
that cruise. Maybe others that have them can send photos. read more

Yet another strange MOS

I thought CID and weatherman were strange. Now I sit next to a jarhead that was in during the late 60's. We are both on kidney dialysis (Agent Orange), I asked him what he did when in the Corps. He was a language specialist, I asked him what language, thinking Vietnamese. I worked with one of them back when they set up camps at Pendleton for the thousands they brought back at the end of the war. read more

Gone by morning

While in BOOT CAMP In about Feb-March of 1966, we had a young boot from Chicago join us from the brig. He had been in boot camp for over one year, kept going over the hill and going back to Chicago where the MP's would just pick him up and ship him back cross country by chaser to San Diego where he would do a couple months in the stockcade and recycle him in with a new boot platoon. The day he joind ours, D.I. SSgt Richard Jones yelled at him, "Pvt Schultz are you going to give me any trouble ?"  Schultz said loudly, "NO SIR, I'LL BE GONE BY MORNING!"   read more

5th Battalion, 11th Marines

Sgt. Grit,

Here is a pic from the Ceremony Program where "Q" Battery,
5/11 was activated and the new Unit Insignia for the
Battalion was displayed for the first time (3 Oct. 12). The
change is basically that two crossed HIMARS rockets were
added to the right upper quarter of the shield. read more

Tanks

In response to an article in the newsletter of 21 Sept, by Larry Fleagle and tanks. Sorry Larry, there were no M-60's of any kind in Vietnam, but the tank retrievers were M-88's. Mentioned by you were three tanks on Hill-55 in 1965-66, here are a few pics of those tanks. One of a truck also, if you were there you would remember this truck and who died in it on the road to Hill-55. read more

Bodfish Forever

A special Thanks to Max Felser of the 1st Marine Division Association Bodfish Chapter! He has sent our Showroom Director/Reunions Coordinator a few gifts on behalf of the Bodfish Chapter and himself.

He sent hand selected, single barrel Jack Daniels Whiskey, a DVD copy of the 1st Marine Division Association Reunion this year in Portland, OR (in which she also attended) and a signed picture of Tim Matheson from Warner Bros. Studios. read more

Japanese Sniper Rifle

Sgt Grit,

I thought you might like to see a couple of old photos, one picture is of me holding a Japanese sniper rifle from WWII that my older brother brought home with him. He sure made me proud and as the second picture shows me as soon as I turned 18, I was in Korea in 1953 in 4/2 Mortars. read more