At the end of the day at the induction center in LA they put all the guys from California on a bus to Sacramento. We were a Special Platoon requested by then, Governor of California, Ronald Reagan. We made a fast trip up, were in a Parade and then a bus down to MCRD San Diego. Off the bus, onto the Yellow Footprints and then the Hair Cut.
Category: Old Corps
Dear John
Selection letter for the 'Dear John of the Month' award.
Civil War Marine
I sent you this Ingersoll family information last year and would like to add a correction and addition per a recent VFW magazine dated May 2013.
The correction was made in the article that you printed – rank Capt was actually Cpl. Per VFW magazine article "Boys In Battle" – Medal of Honor.
Old Jarhead Rotorhead
Simply a visit from an old Jarhead Rotorhead. Active '68 – '74. Marble Mountain, I Corp, RVN Dec '69 – Dec '70. Flew with HML-367. Scarface. Off to show respect by visiting the RVN Wall. More next
week.
Marine Recruiting Ads
I found some Marine Recruiting ads in a program from the 1942 Annual College All-Stars vs the Chicago Bears. Thought you might be interested. You could tell it was war time. Lots of ads for the other branches also. Ads for War Bonds, scrap metal drives and such. Maybe some of our WWII Marines will relate to them.
Nice Piece
I was at the factory this past week and this tractor was there. Very nice piece.
SSgt DJ Huntsinger,
1968-76, Vietnam '69-'70,
11th Marines, Comm Plt.
Got A Surprise
Got a surprise in yesterday's mail. A fellow Marine, fellow member of AAPK and a knife mechanic put this together for me. It was originally a Camillus electrician's knife. New blades were swapped around along with Culpepper's amber staged bone handles, some file work on the back springs and an inlet Marine Corps emblem makes this a real beauty. I am tickled pink with it.
Big Stink
Your comment about Canadians serving in Vietnam:
"I know we have a lot of customers in Canada. This is just my own guess, but I imagine more Canadians crossed the border and enlisted in the Marine Corps during Vietnam, than cowardly Americans who escaped across the border the other way."
WWII Vets
With the Death of Senator Frank Lautenberg, the last WWII Veteran serving in the Senate and only two left serving in the Congress, and the so-called data that WWII Vets are dying at an average of 2,000 a day, I figured this old Hat is pushing calculations. When I retired in 1969 with 26 years, I figured the best days were ahead and they were until I turned 65 years of age… then I went on Medicare. I had to choose a Doctor and found one who immediately demanded I have a bunch of tests and shots. So I told him for too many years I had to put up with some of the most humiliating, undignified, and embarrassing medical examinations.
Discipline And Leadership
In last week's newsletter, SGT Dave Charbonneau left a remembrance to his Senior Drill Instructor, GYSGT C.D. Mortis. A real tribute to a Marine's Marine. But, if I could be so bold, since I did not know the GYSGT, but I do know the Marine to his left in the Platoon photo, Assistant Drill Instructor SGT J.C. Pleasants. Platoon 353 was Pleasants last at MCRD PI. Joe Pleasants passed on to me the 7 platoon books that he helped train at PI, to research the names of the new Marines for possible KIA's in Viet Nam. For the research I do, trying to find photos of Marine KIA's, this was a 'gold mine'.