Category: Old Corps

Flaming Rats

Here is another rat story. While my platoon was in Hoi An, we had squad tents to sleep in. Due to the fact there wer so many pallets laying around ,we started to put them in the tents to keep our gear and cots out of the mud. This was a perfect place for the rats. They got so bad we started having a weekly rat round up. Due to the fact we were Amtrackers, sometimes known as tractor rats, we had access to gas and oil, not to mention oil cans that could squirt a nice stream of oil. One fireteam of men would drive the rats out of the tent and an ambush team would burn them as they ran out. We had good ole Zippos. We would strike the lighters and squirt a stream of gas and oil accross the flame. A really great small flame thrower. One way to have some fun and get rid of rats. read more

Sgt. “what-cadence?”

Being a boot, 1st/squad leader in Plt. 320/Lima Co./3rd RTB/MCRD in
Jan. of '68, my vivid recollections are of Plt. Cmdr. (now called
SDIs) GySgt. R.D. Gallihugh. NOBODY EVER sang cadence like him! One
of our assistant DIs (JDI) was so pathetic in his cadence that we
sqd. leaders requested the Gunny take us out on the grinder rather
trying to keep step with Sgt. "what-cadence?". read more

Christmas Eve An Hoa VietNam 1968

I had been in An Hoa since Sept., I was with 1st Dental Co. We had old French buildings for our clinic and quarters. The local Vietnamies wall builders had just finished a real nice sand bag wall behind our building that protected us and seperated us from two large gas bags and one large LZ. Christmas eve around 10 or 11 pm flares of all sizes started to light up the night, there were so many it was almost like day time. I was standing on top of the wall taping on my recorder the events as the happend. It was a site to see. My luck, no snipers were out, he would not have had a hard time seeing me. Next day, I was told the Gen. had a fit , some 5,000 lbs worth of flares went up in smoke, not to mention how easy a target we made of our selves. It was said that heads rolled. Also I could have gotten killed by the flare casing falling all around me… what a night. read more

In Regards to SgtMaj Charles “Rigor” Mortis

SSgt. Charles "Rigor" Mortis was my senior DI at PISC in 1964. He
retired as a Sgt. Maj. with 35 years of service and received the
Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He passed away Feb. 21, 2011. He was
a good man and a good Marine.

Kemp  read more

Operation Kingfisher

Don,

This is the first story I ever wrote. I was mad at what the
Marine Corps had written about Kingfisher and I wanted the first
hand truth told. I sent it to a Col. Summers, who used to be the
editor of Vietnam Magazine and he accepted it first shot. He told
me I needed about 200 more words so I e-mailed my BN CO. and he
helped me with things that a L/Cpl Machine-gunner was not privy
to. They published it in the Spring of 2001. I tell it like it
was! Semper Fi! read more

Senior Class Trip

Plt. 103, MCRD 1967, Honor Platoon. The amazing thing is, our
platoon was made up of reservists and a group of Marines from
Peru. All the drill instructors were Spanish speaking, so most of
our commands were in Spanish. I went on to spend my senior class
trip in Viet Nam (18 months) with 1st Marine Div., 7th. Com.
Support Co. read more

Camp Fuji McNair, Japan

Your newsletter is GREAT!

I was at Camp Fuji McNair Japan in 1954 to 1955. My outfit was
K-4-12, 3rd Marine Division and I drove a 2-1/2 ton truck. We
conducted maneuvers all over that area. At that time, McNair was
all tents except for the quonset huts which were the head and
showers. All roads leading to Camp McNair was dirt, and we
supplied fuel to Fuji View Hotel in 50 gallon drums. read more