Sgt Grit is a place where Marines can come and meet other Marines, share tattoos and stories, keep up with Marine Corps news, or shop for USMC gear.
Sgt Grit,
Saw an article several months ago about a certificate given to members of 2/2 called the bearded bum certificate. Enclosed please find the attachment with the certificate in it. It was signed by Lt.Colonel David A. Brewster. I don't know if all Marines got one but we who were at the jet airfield side of Guantanamo, opposite mainside did receive one. The Cubans had the beards so the Colonel thought it a good idea for us to grow a mustache "To confuse the beards across the fence"!
Sgt Grit,
Here are some scans of a couple more Propaganda leaflets (front and back) that I picked up while out on an operations south of Chu Lai in the Summer of 1966 – maybe on Operation Texas or Utah (?).
Operation Utah seems to have been forgotten by most USMC Historians. I have often wondered if it is because of the high number of casualties that resulted – 98 to 104 Marines Killed and 278 wounded – on an operation that started with limited enemy information that resulted in only a couple companies being sent against an entrenched enemy battalion.
To read an excellent description of this battle, entitled "They're not supermen," Meeting the NVA in Operation Utah, March 1966 — Author unknown by me, Google the title.
Thanks Sgt. Grit. I'm the Marine who's wife is doing the bathroom. I'm sending pictures. Also, I make rifle and pistol targets, I'm making one for you and will be standing by it with my 338 Lapua and my 308 and 716 sniper rifles along on my hip. My 5.7 shoots 246 feet per second. Thank you for all you do. I'm going to try and break the world record held by a Britt 1702. I'm going for 1720 with my Lapua.
Not sure where I found the first photo but I picked the second one up in Monroe, LA. Maybe someone would like to see these.
Jim Grimes
USMC 1969-72 SGT
Here is a short timer's stick from 1957, Camp Hague, Oki. 12th Marines, H&S battery.
Jacobs Lang – 56/62
Jim Everson's posting reminded me of leaflets that we also encountered from the National Front for Liberation.
I served in RVN from 1967 to '68 with 3rd Amtracs. Our CP was at Marble Mountain.
When on patrol south of Marble Mountain we often encountered propaganda left by the National Front for Liberation. A bamboo stake split at the top and driven in the ground would hold the leaflet. Often, the portion of bamboo driven into the ground would be holding the spoon of a grenade in place. If you pulled the stake out of the ground… BOOM. To my knowledge, nobody got hurt by this particular booby trap because we were familiar with it.
Sgt Grit,
I've been reading your great newsletter (and ordering items from you) for quite a few years. I'm putting my two cents in on the Yellow Footprints. When I went to MCRDSD in Sept. of 59 (Plt 273) there was definitely no Yellow Foot Prints. I still have my Recruit Book and saw no photos or reference to them.
Dear Sgt. Grit,
RE: J. Womack's question about "the utilities used in the late 60's to early 70's that had the concealed buttons on the pocket flaps and the front of the jacket…"
They were first issued sometime around the end of the Korean War ( the first handful in "herringbone…") I believe that all stocks had been exhausted sometime around the start of the Vietnam War. Our "yearbooks" in August of 1968 at graduation from MCRD San Diego had two sections… a generic section and a later one specific to our platoon. The first section was assembled years before and the "hidden button" shirts were all that you saw… By our time we had the same contract issue as the Army and the other services with the visible (and much thicker) buttons in the same general fabric as the hidden button variety.
The "Gomer Pyle" shirts as he refers to them had a far better appearance and were greatly admired and desired. After graduation I spent 3 months at 3rd Bn, HQ in Graduate Casual waiting for orders before being sent up to ITR… While there I discovered that you could buy entire uniforms at the base laundry (that had been abandoned) for the cost of the cleaning (65 cents as I recall…) I purchased several sets of utilities including one set of the "hidden button" type (see photo of my set) For the rest of my enlistment I was offered serious money by lads who lusted after a set…
The large map pouch inside the left side of the shirt made it unsuitable for seriously hot climates. As to the trousers that went with it, after 44 years, I can't remember about the back buttons… but I do remember that there were no pocket flaps on the back.
James F. Owings
Here are some photos at the finish of the Pikes Peak Challenge. This was are 27th hike up the Peak that is put on by the Brain Injury awareness of Colorado and my 14th year for vonlunteering. I'm a survivor of a traumatic head injury, in a coma for 30 days and 9 months as they put me back together.
Dear Sgt Grit,
As a reader of your outstanding newsletter for the last few years I have read a few articles that reference Gillette blue blade razors, sometimes used dry under a bucket while double timing or other such motivating activity. Being a young devil dog (only seeing those yellow footprints in 1983) I did not have the pleasure of using these razors, just the newfangled disposable ones (shave once down, once up). While on business in Nanjing, China, recently I ran out of juice on my electric razor and had to go to the local convenience store to buy a razor. Imagine my surprise when I saw a brand new Gillette Blue Blade razor for sale for about $1.50. I bought it, but also bought a Mach 3 and shaving cream as I had no intention of disfiguring myself with the blue blade. It is indeed a small world. (Also went to Shanghai and visited Soochow Creek while there). Best regards, Mike Winnie Corporal of Marines 1983-1988 USMCR B/1/24
